Here is an update to my travels throughout Tucson with my parents:

Day 5-6:

These days were pretty slow. Dad was really starting to come down with a cold and really was in no condition to do much, so we took it pretty easy. I ended up going to dinner with Luca before he headed out to Miami and ultimately back to Italy.

The weather ended up getting pretty cool Thursday as well. Tucson recorded pretty decent amounts of rain, and the mountains actually got some snow. I believe Mount Lemmon recorded around two feet of snow. I already got my "snow" shots at the White Sands so it really was not worth the effort to drive up there.

Day 7:

With Dad feeling a tad bit better, we ventured over to the Pima Air and Space Museum. The weather was cool, but sunny. It is always amazing to see that many planes, but after a while, there is just too much and all just sort of blurs together. By the end, Dad was pretty tired and we realized that this may have been a bit too much for him as he ended up feeling pretty bad on Saturday, when we were off to Kartchner Caverns.

Day 8:

Like I said in the previous paragraph, today we went to Kartchner Caverns. We probably would have waited, except that we already had reservations and they are to come by this time of year, so we may not have gotten another opportunity (not to mention the reservations are non-refundable ). Thus while my dad was sleeping, I drove down to Benson to go check out the caves. While we were unable to take any pictures, it was pretty apparent that pictures would not have been able to properly capture the magnificence of the cave. The first thing that we noticed was how warm and humid the caves are. While it was a brisk 50 degrees at the entrance with around 10% humidity, the caves remain a fairly constant 70 degrees with 99% humidity. The formations were amazing.

I particularly liked our guide; he was particularly gregarious and full of little tidbits of information. Tour guides, I imagine, must have a difficult time to try to inspire awe in the tourists. On the tour, one of the workers who had helped make the cave tour accessible was with us. She gave us a lot of information about the conditions they worked in. It was fantastic.

After the caves, we drove around the park and took a couple of photographs around. With Dad feeling ill, Mom and I did not want to walk too far since he was waiting in the van. I could see the trail winding up the mountain which had some snow up on top. It was definitely calling to be climbed, but alas it will have to wait until the next time I get a chance to go up.

Unfortunately, the rest of the day seemed to be a bit disappointing. We had planned to go to Fort Huachuca to check out the museum, but I accidentally took out the registration, thus we could not get inside the base. Then after driving from there, we were planning on checking out some art galleries that I had heard about. In my not so infinite wisdom, I thought Benson was the town whereas it was Bisbee. Stupid "B's". In any case, we ended up driving back to Tucson pretty tired, but at least knowing that we saw some awesome caves.

Days 9-10

Haven't done to much but do a little reading and relaxation while Dad is recovering from bronchitis.

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That has caught everyone up to date with the vacation so far, hopefully it was fairly entertaining. I will post again when we go out.

-Trevor