Fun and somewhat bizarre day! Our plan, for after the regular oatmeal breakfast, was to head to the mission for green chile burritos. It was a quick 10 munute drive from our hotel, and when we arrived they were already cooking the food near the parking area. Everything smelled delicious! We poked around near the mission for a wile, checking out the cacts gardens and photographing a roadrunner, and then bought our burritos from the same stand as last time. We got one green and one red and split them. They didn’t disappoint! R had been looking forward to them for 2 years. They were so juicy and delicious! We shared the table with two Indians who were also enjoying a red chile burrito. We savored every bite, then spent some time in the little shop where they sell traditional crafts/ Bought a shirt for R, hat for dad and charm for me.
Our next stop was at Tubac Presidio, an historical state park that was worth a short vist. IT would have been longer but the museum is closed temporarily for some reason. WE still enjoyed viewig the exhibits and archaeological iformation. Then we headed out on the northern end of the hike we didn’t complete last time (the one where we had to find the adobe structure)! It was a really beautiful hike through exceptionally lush areas, wildfloewrs blooming, black chinned hummingbirds everywhere, vermilion flycatchrs and even a gray backed hawk. We went 1.5 miles, as far as the chairs where we turned around last time; we took a break there this time too before heading back. Such a beautifl and relaxing spot! We had our water, licorice and chessmen again. :)
We were right there, so after finishing up the hike we decided to drive through the Tubac “artist community” to see what they had to offer and if there was a restaurant that sounded interesting. There was one listed on the kiosk map, a pizza place called Figgy’s Thirsty Pie, but it was nowhere to be found! We checked out two Mexican restaurants, but I realized I was’t really in the mood for Mexican again, and the second place was really weird because we saw people eating in back, went inside to see if we could find a menu and a woman inside said they wer closed. Really bizarre!
After going back and forth about whether we should try to find something closer or just go back to the city, we decided to stick with our original idea and just try the Reilly pizza place. It was a good move. That section of town was deserted when we arrived around 4:15 and we found a parking spot easily - the restaurant was mostly deserted too, with just one other table occupied and a couple people at the bar. Perfect! We got two pizzas, which ended up being too much, but we took the remainder home with us. We got a margherita (very good but next time, ask for more basil) and a meatball/ricotta/basil. R had a hefeweisen and I got the Dragoon Seasonal which was a pale ale. We both liked the toppings and especially the crust, which was nicely charred but didn’t have any bitter, charred taste, and had lots of nice bubbles along the edge of the crust.
Our post-supper adventure was a short walk toward the courthouse/city hall buildings, just a few blocks over through a city park, to find two benchmarks we had somehow never looked for before. The first was an easy find set into the concrete base of a former light pole. The second was about a tenth of a mile west. We were interested in that mark because of its designation, TUCSON, but I was already aware that it might be a challenging find because a geocacher had mentioned that it was hidden beneath some landscaping stones. It was covered over when we found it, but there was a depression in the rocks that guided me to check that spot. It was very fortunate that the depression was there, otherwise it would have been nearly impossible to find! The mark was buried about 3 inches down. It is in good condition overall, although the designation is difficult to read. We walked back to the car through a very deserted downtown!