I woke (at six again) to find an email from Ralph agreeing, very nicely, to dinner tonight. He had composed it last night but forgot to send it! Sue started her day with a swim at 7:30 while I got coffee and read by the pool. The highlight of the morning was a critter sighting: Sue saw a Gila Monster right by the path from hotel to pool! These are shy creatures, and Sue has now seen two of them on three visits!
We staked out a table and read and relaxed until lunch, at which point Sue had a glass of wine and I had a frozen pina colada. We repeated the tacos of the day before and they were just as good.
Around two we headed out for some shopping. The only disadvantage of the resort is its distance even from northern Tucson: 35 minutes to Patti and David‘s on Skyline Drive. But Sue found some nice pants at the ritzy mall, La Encantada, at Campbell and Skyline, and then we took a drive down memory lane, driving by our house on Via Alcalde and by the site of the old Adobe casita on River Road next to Saint Phillips in the Hills.
We then bought wine and mezcal for the weekend in Mexico and headed home by way of my high school, Canyon del Oro. What a shock! I was in the first graduating class, 152 strong; they now graduate 2000 per class!
After some more relaxation, we drove into town for dinner with Ralph at a lovely restaurant, the Agustin Kitchen in the old Mercado near downtown. The tables spill out into the center of the old open-air market. And, in April, even a hot day gets pleasantly cool by early evening.
It was great to see Ralph; he‘s as cycle obsessed as ever and mercifully fully recovered from his last serious run-in with a pickup truck (he‘s had no less than three life-threatening accidents). We had a lovely meal (striped bass for Sue; cioppino for me; steak for Ralph; and we shared some delicious red Chile calamari to start). The wine list had some gems at unbelievable prices: a Bruno Giacosa Barbera for 45 bucks.
