That cactus is a total prick.

Hi everyone. Another week down in hot and sunny Tucson. And I do mean hot. It has exceeded 100 degrees every day this week. But, we haven't let that stop us. We've managed to find all sorts of cool things to get into.

The highlight of the week was definitely our journey out to the Saguaro National Park West and the fantastic Sonoran Desert Museum. It's about a half hour drive from town, and the route is very scenic. Especially Grants Pass - this wicked windy road up one side of a mountain and down another. A picture of it is on the right.

We went hiking first. We figured we'd get that part over with before it got too hot. Too late, unfortunately. When we showed up at the visitor center to buy our pass, the ranger said, "I don't really recommend too much walking out there today. It's already 97 degrees in the shade." It was only 9:30. But we had a ton of water with us, so we hit the trails. I had a run-in with a chain fruit cholla. I was just walking through the desert, minding my own business, when I looked at my hand, and a GD cactus was attached to it. Apparently, this particular cactus latches itself onto you even if you just slightly brush it. And it does not want to let go. It imbedded itself deep into my skin, and I had to use pliers to get it out. Ouch!!! Click the picture to the left to see a little series of images documenting this painful ordeal.

After that, we continued our hiking trip, taking pics of all sorts of desert life. I've discovered a new species of cactus, and I just can't stop taking their pictures. Click the image to the right to check out my new photo series - Sonoran Desert Dongs. Also on our hike, we saw saw a bunch of Hohokum petroglyphs. The Hohokum were the prehistoric inhabitants of the Sonoran desert.

Next, we ventured on to the Sonoran Desert Museum, which is the absolute coolest museum we've ever been to. It's actually a combination of a museum, garden, and zoo. The exhibits are very cool. We saw over 10 types of rattle snakes, a variety of tarantulas and other spiders, scorpions, lizards, frogs, and a lot more. And we learned a ton, too. Like, did you know that a saguaro grows only one foot in it's first 15 years, and it doesn't grow its arms for 75 years? And nobody really knows their age, but they estimate the tallest saguaro are around 200. Isn't that amazing? Science is cool!!!

Bergie starts school next week. She had orientation for her Teaching Assistanship all last week. She's quickly finding that the U of A doesn't run their French program quite like she did when she was French coordinator at the U of MN, and that's been a little difficult to get used to. She's looking forward to being a student again. She's taking three courses - so that load with the 2 classes she's teaching will keep her pretty booked up.

For me, working from home is going well, but it is pretty quiet. I'm thinking about taking some classes at the local community college - not sure what just yet, but I need to get out so we can actually meet people. We did go to a little party with some of Bergie's classmates. It was deece - perhaps some potential friends in that bunch, but as of yet, we've met nobody that even resembles our great group of friends back home. We miss you guys.

Big Hugs,
The Godfrey

P.S. Arizona is a state of mind.