Tucson to Venice,FL to Benson to Organ Pipe Cactus NM to Tucson (Dec 24 to Jan 9)

On Christmas Eve I flew from Tucson to Sarasota, FL to visit my mom and dad in Venice, Fl. My flights (surprisingly) went smoothly - I even got in to Sarasota 15 minutes early!

Aah, Christmas in Florida, gotta have the snowman in the pool:


That's my Mom and Dad at Christmas lunch. I had a nice visit with them. The weather was wonderful there, sunny and in the 80s, so we had some nice afternoons at the beach:


There was a really pretty sunset one evening:

Mainly we just hung out, did some shopping, went to the beach. On Jan 2 I flew back to Tucson and spent a couple more nights in Benson with Polly and Lee (my neighbors/landlords in Corvallis). Then Friday I headed southwest to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I'd been there in early December for a couple days and just loved it. I could only spend a couple days then because I needed to meet my friend Amy in Tucson, so I wanted to go back and spend a little more time there. It's just a beautiful spot. I did a neat hike up Alamo Canyon on Saturday.


When I got back to my campsite, the sunset was amazing:


But then I woke up and said "Who moved my patch of cactus to Oregon?" It was raining, cool and the hills had disappeared in low clouds.


I went on a short morning hike anyway. With the rain in the last few weeks, some of the Ocotillos have actually sprouted leaves. Ocotillos are the thin spiky looking plants - I'd only seen them as bare spikes before this, it was cool to see them covered in little green leaves.

There were lots of Teddy Bear Chollas, which I just love, they're so cute.


In the afternoon it cleared up and I went on a longer hike to Victoria Mine and the Senita Basin. Amazing cacti in the Senita Basin:



Back at my campsite there was another nice sunset:

On Monday I headed back in to Tucson. It was threatening rain so I headed to a campsite I stayed at in December in Tucson Mountain Park. The site has a large ramada with room between the two picnic tables to put my tent out of the rain:


On Tuesday I met my friend Nancy from the Corvallis Peace Vigil at the Westward Look Resort in north Tucson. She's here for a conference here this week. It's been fun to visit with her. Tomorrow she's off back to Oregon and I'm off to Picacho Peak State Park.