Tuesday, April 14 — second day in Tucson

We began today with breakfast at a restaurant called "The Crying Onion" — huge, plate-size pancakes with pecans and butter.  Mmmm. Alas, I forgot to take a photo of those pancakes. Use your imagination.

From the restaurant, we drove to Catalina State Park, where Marie Therese and Anne Marie took a short walk at the base of the mountains.

In the photo below, you can see the dry river bed of Cañada del Oro.  When there is a heavy rain, (not often,) this river fills with water.

On this walk, Marie Therese and Anne Marie encountered a small reptile they had never seen before. We think it is called a horned lizard.  Here is a photo of a similar reptile on the internet:

http://www.reptilesofaz.org/Graphics/Lizards/PHRMOD-2005b.jpg

From Catalina State Park, north of Tucson, we drove to the suburb of Sahuarita, south of Tucson, to have lunch with Susie, the sister of my friend, Sara.

Marie Therese and Anne Marie enjoyed speaking French with Susie in her beautiful home.

In the photo above, you can see a pitcher of lemonade flavored with the fruit of the prickly pear cactus, also known as nopal in Spanish. The fruit of the nopal is red and is called tuna in Spanish. The lemonade was delicious and refreshing!

Susie prepared a wonderful lunch of tamales from the Tucson Tamale company where her grandson works. We also enjoyed jícama, a vegetable MT and AM had never seen before. Here is some information about jícama:   https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=jicama

Our lunch ended with a wonderful fruit salad. Did I remember to take photos of any of this meal? No. Ach.

Anne Marie, Susie, Marie Therese

Anne Marie, Phyllis, Marie Therese

 We said goodbye to Susie and drove south to Tumacacori National Historical State Park.

Tumacacori contains the ruins of an old Spanish mission first established in 1691 by a Jesuit priest, Padre Eusebio Kino, S.J.  The Jesuits were expelled from Arizona by the king of Spain in 1767 and were replaced by Franciscans a year later. I'd like to know why the Jesuits were kicked out!

The church building was constructed with the labor of the Tohono O'odham people, who mixed the mud and straw with their feet to form the adobe for the bricks.

The circular structure in the photo below was used as a funeral chapel.

Inside the Tumacacori compound, a Mexican-American woman was demonstrating the making of tortillas. She was very friendly. She explained that these tortillas were of the Mexican culture, not Tohono O'odham.

As we left Tumacacori, it began to rain!  Rain in the desert!  It was beautiful and refreshing!

We drove back up Highway 19 to another mission — San Xavier. Unlike Tumacacori, this mission is an active Catholic church, not a museum. Like Tumacacori, the San Xavier mission was founded by Fr. Kino. The current building was constructed from 1783 to 1797.  

Inside, there are several alcoves with statues of saints and candles. 

Marie Therese convinced me to light a candle in order to have a miraculous cure of my left leg. Oui!

In order to do this, it was necessary to go to the gift shop to purchase a candle in a glass jar for $3, and then return to the church to place the candle in front of a statue and light it. I did this. I am waiting for the results.

Outside the church of San Xavier, several Tohono O'odham people were selling cold sodas and fry bread. I purchased a large piece of fry bread from the woman in the photo below.

At the end of the day, we ate at a Chinese-American restaurant and then returned to Betsy's beautiful house.