Saturday we were planning an evening outing so we spent the early part of the day relaxing and enjoying the house and its views of the mountains and sky.
The house has a pool that’s heated, though early on the heater wasn’t working. The air temps have ranged from 29 to 74 degrees with most days being in the upper 50’s to mid 60’s. That day it was about 68 degrees and intermittently cloudy and the pool was still pretty chilly. But we decided to channel the brave Russian women of Brighton Beach and go in anyway. Bracing, definitely invigorating. We didn’t stay in long, but we did get in.
That evening we went out for dinner to La Hacienda Family Restaurant over by Catalina State Park. Popular spot - at 5:15pm we had to wait 25 minutes for a table. While we waited, we were treated to an ever-changing sky scape and light patterns on the desert and mountains.
After the line outside, we anticipated a crush inside, but the dining room was spacious, especially to our NYC sensibilities, and our waiter Jason was lovely. The walls are decorated with portraits of early Mexican film stars - and John Wayne (Jason could tell us a lot about the other actors, but couldn’t explain why John Wayne was included). .
I decided to try the cochinita pibil - a Yucatec Mayan slow-roasted pork dish. Turned out to be a really good choice.
Marg and Linda enjoyed the generously sized margaritas
After dinner came the main attraction of the evening - a Star Party at the nearby Catalina State Park, hosted by the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association. I’d never been to an event like this. As you might imagine, most of it was in the dark so we didn’t really get any pictures. But I’ve cribbed a couple from a website to give you the feeling of the evening. Since the park is pretty far from downtown Tucson, it’s easy to see a lot more stars than these city dwellers usually can appreciate. Even just gazing upwards was pretty great - Orion, Jupiter, and Venus were easy to see. But the Association had set up viewing stations, designated with red lights. You basically get on a line and then see what’s on view from each scope.
We got to see Jupiter with its bands and moons, the Orion Nebula, and the Green Comet. Again, this is a cribbed shot, but it’s pretty close to the view of the comet that what we saw.
I had hoped to realize a goal for 2023 of seeing the Milky Way, but they said it was still too bright - you could see the glow of Tucson in the distance. We may yet be able to go to a more distant, darker site at Oracle Mountain, but the weather hasn’t been so cooperative so far - a lot of clouds. Still the night was pretty magical.