Judging from Newark Airport and two flights on United, more people think the pandemic is over than can possibly have been vaccinated. The passengers are overwhelmingly youngish, often young families. We flew from Newark to Denver and then on to Tucson, and both flights were totally full. As flights on United go, though, they were OK.
What a change when we arrived in Tucson. Sleepy little airport (for a metro region of half a million); Sue was immediately reminded of the airport in Yangon. The weather is glorious: bright sunshine, high 80‘s (dry heat, natch). We were „upgraded“ to a Jeep Compass…what a piece of crap even though it was brand new…but we were soon rolling north. I was struck this time by just how mountainous the whole region really is. Not just the four major ranges around Tucson itself, but other ranges fading off into the distance in every direction.
Tucson has spilled out toward the northwest…massively! Our hotel is in the formerly sleepy cow station of Marana, but there is no break in the development until you enter the huge reserve around Dove Mountain Resort. The hotel itself is lovely—very nice common spaces with a bit of southwestern flair and very comfortable rooms—but it is above all sited brilliantly in a bowl between the arms of the Tortalita Mountains. We look out from our balcony over an especially beautiful stretch of Sonoran desert toward the far northern reaches of the Tucson Mountains.
It will come as a surprise to no one that it took Sue about a nanosecond to head for the pool area with its three pools. This is the family pool with a waterslide that starts about 70 yards up the mountainside (report to come). The photo gives a good sense of how the resort uses the surrounding mountain scenery.
The long infinity pool isn‘t bad either; it sits as the bottom level of a large terraced patio with a bar at the top.
The resort had the good sense to do as little landscaping as possible; it sits in a particularly verdant piece of desert with spectacular stands of Saguaro cactus.
We didn‘t have long to relax—just long enough for a margarita—before we headed for the home of our good friends Patti and David B….where we found our old friends Michelle and Tom L.! Patti had brought in tacos from a tacoria near the site of my old house, and we had a wonderful southwestern dinner with dear friends. Before we settled in for some serious reminiscing, though, we were given a tour of the really remarkable place that both couples live, the Catalina Foothills Condominiums.
It turns out that the place has a story in which I am tangentially involved. My mother worked for John W. Murphey, a Tucsonan who developed the entire northern end of Tucson, the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, an area that soon became the wealthiest part of town. In the 1950‘s, Murphey discovered a young Mexican architect whose work combined Spanish Colonial and modernist aspects in a stunningly eccentric way. Juan Worner Baz was commissioned to design the Murphey‘s home on the highest hill in the foothills, a remarkable structure that I came to know well since we often stayed there when the Murpheys were away.
What I didn‘t know was that the Murpheys also commissioned Worner Baz to build a condominium complex high in the foothills. The Catalina Foothills Condominiums are just 18 units built around a large interior area that can only be described as a park. The landscaping was done by a Japanese landscape architect and is absolutely stunning, with cacti and desert shrubbery spilling over a rolling landscape that is made to seem much larger than it is. The condos are not large, but they are incredibly beautiful and designed for total privacy. Tom and Michelle started the trend; David and Patti followed; and now David‘s brother Kim and his wife Lou have purchased a unit. As David says, they are well on the way to forming the commune we talked about for decades…now I only have to talk Sue into the deal.