The adventure continues

Last Sunday, we headed to Tucson to visit the Arizona State Museum, which is located on the University of Arizona campus. Our thinking went like this: (1) We avoid crowds whenever possible, (2) The UA has about 37,000 students on any given day and (3) Sunday might be a day there wouldn't be that many people around and thus a good bet for a state museum visit.

Our first inkling of the utter falsehood of our reasoning came when we arrived at the campus parkade to find it open and apparently unstaffed. As in you don't have to pay for parking on Sundays. Bonus, we thought, and never dreaming what the real message was we headed into the sunshine towards the Tourist Information Centre to obtain a campus map.

Inkling #2: TIC looked dark and unwelcoming as we approached. Also, there was a padlocked gate in the entrance. Its hours, posted boldly on the front door: 9-5, Monday to Friday. What TIC is only open business hours?

Inkling #3: The State Museum looked dark and unwelcoming as we approached. No padlocked gate, but posted hours were on the order of 9-5, Monday to Saturday.

Oh. Maybe Tucson isn't open 24/7 as we had supposed. In fact, most of the shops and restaurants we walked by were closed too. Clearly, Plan B was in order. So, we walked around the campus, took some pictures, soaked up the unseasonable warmth and did manage to find an open art gallery to browse.

Strolling along the main drag

There are orange trees scattered around the campus and oranges scattered on the ground around each of them. We couldn't figure out why they weren't being gathered and eaten. Until we gathered one and (started to) eat it. Urk! More sour than lemons, if you can imagine that.

Old Main, one of the original buildings. Note the mutant cactus in the middle of the photo.

And finally, the ubiquitous neutral zone sign. They're everywhere and, sadly, we hardly notice them any more.

Oh, and the art gallery was ok.

The adventure continues............