From White Sands, it was about a 5 hour straight shot across I-10 to get to Tucson, Arizona. While Tucson has natural beauty and is an RV snowbird mecca, we came here to visit Matt’s longtime friend Ian from high school. For about the next week, we made the KOA our home base. Not only was it close to Ian’s house but it offered an awesome playground, game room, two pools, and citrus trees at each site from which we enjoyed delicious oranges, lemons and grapefruits.
We setup camp and quickly synced up with Ian for a trip to the local playground and to start catching up. Dr. Houghton as he’s more officially referred to from his tremendous talent and earned credentials (D.M.A. in Piano Performance) is a piano teacher which gives him a really flexible schedule. So we were able to easily meet up for adventures throughout the week. Ian was full of great ideas for ways the kids could fully enjoy the area. Adventures included the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (amazing!), hiking Douglas Springs Trail as it winds through larger-than-life Saguaro cactus, a visit to the farmer’s market for fresh foods and to check out the booth where his dad sells the most beautiful, fresh salmon brought in from Alaska.
The kids were smitten with Ian and both jockeyed for who would be holding his hand at all times. It was such a great visit and Tucson was a gem of a stop.
With the weather warming by the day it was time to head a bit north. Next Stop: Grand Canyon!
