Friday – Saguaro National Park
Named for the magestic Saguaro Cactus, this national park had a wonderful 8 mile loop drive that took us through the beautiful desert.
I must confess there is just something about those Saguaro cactus that make them irrestible to my camera.

Around every corner, another beautiful vista.

Farther down the road – yep, more to see….

See the youngun’ (no arms, probably under 75 years old!) and then an oldster close by. I just loved those mixed neighborhoods.

Even in their prickly best, they still provide a spot for a nest –

LOTS more pictures of our drive that day HERE! Enjoy!
On our way home (before the massive laundramat event) we stopped at
San Xavier Del Bac Mission – the “White Dove of the Desert”.
Even with the scaffolding, it’s quite a beautiful building –

More Mission pictures – HERE!

Good News – no laundry pictures! 🙂

Saturday – Drive to Nogales, AZ to help serve Thanksgiving Dinner to about 500 people. It turned out that instead of helping with serving the dinner we helped put together bags of vegetables that each diner got to take home.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning!
And then on the way back to Sahuarita, we stopped at another National Park –
Tumacaori National History Park – The ruins of a mission had a big part in the development of that area.

Quite a change from the active San Xavior Mission up in Tucson!

Tumacorsci…………………………………………………….San Xavior

It’s interesting to learn how the culture of this area (and so much of the southwest) has been impacted by the early missionary work of the Catholic Church.

OK – enough for today! I’ll try to get Sunday’s and Monday’s pictures and adventures (including a “run-in” with the border patrol!) put together tomorrow. But I also have to bake a pie and get ready to move again. So here’s a little sneak peak…..

PS – a couple more Crossroads Mission (veggies!) pictures here, and some additional Tumacacori shots here.

Thanks for stoppin’ by!