The desert really is deserted...

After a fine, fine night's rest at Jake's house, Billy and I took drove around the Tempe area. We checked out Arizona State University and their cool little strip downtown, which is like a High Street for you OSU-ers or an upscale Court Street for you OU-ers. We then went to the Tempe Lake area where we were going to rent a kayak, but remembered it was noon in Arizona, which means the temperature was 2 degrees away from the sun. So we skipped any outdoor activity.

After that, we had a fabulous lunch with Jake at a Mexican restaurant at Tia Rosa's. They had great lunch combinations and an even better cheese crisp (good suggestion, Jake!). It had a great atmosphere - you should check it out if you're in the area.

We then left Jake and Phoenix behind, and made our way to Casa Grande National Monument. This was a fantastic park that has an amazing four-story Native American ruin from a civilization that has been around since the birth of Christ. Who knew? Anyway, this civilization built this amazing ruin and most of it is preserved. It's between Phoenix and Tucson.

A travel tip: Buy a National Parks pass. For $80 a year, you and your family can have free admission to any national park or national monument or forest. This is a real bargain, when you consider the admission to most of the large parks is around $25.

Anyway, we made our way to Tucson, where we were going to camp for the night. We ended up staying in Saguaro National Park. It's not far from downtown Tucson, but we rounded the corner of this mountain and BANG! It was the most beautiful landscape I've ever seen. It was like something out of a movie. These huge saguaro cacti dotted the landscape and the mountains provided the backdrop.
Our campsite was in this park and when we got there, it was pretty much completely empty. There were about 100 sites and we saw maybe 2 occupied other than us and there was no one manning the ranger station (it's off-season in Arizona right now). Now, the forest is pretty deserted. And now the campgound is really deserted. And that makes me really scared. The whole campground was beautiful, but I had visions of a) a serial killer getting us in the middle of the night or b) a wild animal (i.e. coyote, rattlesnake) getting us in the middle of the night. No one would ever find our bodies. I'm sure of it. Did I mention there were no lights and it was completely dark. Yeah.

Anyway, Billy loves that sort of remoteness so I sucked it up and stayed awake pretty much all night waiting for something to creep up and get us.

I forgot to mention that after setting up camp, we drove back into downtown Tucson and had a really fabulous meal at El Charro. El Charro has gotten great reviews in USA Today and other national publications. And the food was fantastic. They're known for their carne seca, which was so tender and flavorful. It was a really funky little restaurant. I believe it's the longest running family restaraunt in Tuscon.

Great day! Great scenery and great food!

I also forgot an excursion from yesterday so I'll just tell you about it now. In between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff is Wupatki National Monument. It is a ruins of the largest ruins from 800 years ago. By the time we got there, the visitors center was closed and no one was there. But you can still access the ruins so we walked over to it. As we were walking, it was windy and raining, and completely desolate. It was really eerie out there, with the rain and these really old ruins. The wind was whipping around and there was even thunder crashing. Unbelievable. Even more eerie, when we got into the car, the radio was playing Native American chants. Creepy. But very cool.

Click here for today's fantastic photos.