AZ IV: The Last of the Reunion

Tuesday 27 April was the final day of the Hansen cousins' reunion. We started the day with breakfast on the hotel terrace with Stephen and Ann, soon joined by others. Afterwards we piled in the Pilot with Hank and Colette and headed south again (by way of Costco) to see some historic bits. We visited San Xavier del Bac, the "White Dove of the Desert," a beautiful 1783 Spanish Baroque mission church still in use today by the Native Americans on the Tohono O'odham reservation.

The next stop was Tubac, a small village near the Mexican border established in 1752 as a presidio, the first Spanish colonial garrison in what is now Arizona. Tubac was one of the stops on the Camino Real (the "Royal Road") from Mexico to the Spanish settlements in California. Today it is filled with tourist stuff, the best of which is Talavera pottery from Mexico.

Our final stop was the mission San Jose de Tumacaori about three miles south of Tubac. The mission, like San Xavier, was founded by Jesuit Padre, Eusebio Kino in the late 1600s, and the present church was built by Franciscans in the early 1700s. It is in partial ruin, but still most interesting. Tumacacori is a National Park, so entrance was, once again, courtesy of the taxpayers with my National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Pass for seniors. Don't you just love socialism?

To finish the evening, we were dragged kicking and screaming to the Gaslight Dinner Theater in Tucson. I say "kicking and screaming," because, in general, I haven't enjoyed dinner theater. This, however, was a blast: total farce, well done, and most enjoyable. I am most pleased that we went. Even an unnamed curmudgeon we know and love was laughing his head off!

On Wednesday, we checked out and headed back to Mesa where we found Grandmother in dire straits.

Breakfast on the terrace at the hotel

Joined by others

The troops in front of San Xavier

The Paloma in Tubac: the best darned
Talavera shop north of Puebla, Mexico

The colors and patterns are wonderful

Uncle Hank "reading"

Hank, Colette, Kris, and pottery

Parts of Tubac are still undisturbed by fame

San Jose de Tumacaori

The round mortuary chapel behind the church --
that's Kris in the distance

That's the end of the reunion pics, but there will be more posts about our time in the Valley of the Sun as well as Disneyland to follow. This, however, is all for now.

OXO

D.

P.S. For those who are concerned, Grandmother is doing MUCH better -- not back where she started, but certainly better.