Road Trip - April-May 2026 - #7 - Tucson history and food
April 25, 2026
This afternoon is the wedding.
Yesterday, Cori, Randy, and I went on a food tour I found through TripAdviser.com. I have found that site to be very helpful. It was called “Taste of the Southwest: Chef-Led Tucson Food Tour.” The chef who led it was named Carolyn. She mentioned she graduated from college the same year I did (1978). She’s fitter than I am! I think we tasted food in five different places, some Hispanic that Tucson is known for (chimichangas, Sonoran hot dog), and other local food. Super fun, but equally as good as the food were the stories Carolyn told about the history of Tucson and many well-known inhabitants or visitors to Tucson. It was a great tour.
Afterward, we visited for just a little while with Joel and family. Great to see Joel & Tricia, and also Mattie, his girlfriend Hilary, the bride Rachel, Sarah, and others of Tricia’s family. Looking foward to the wedding at 4 pm today!
For all our photos of this part of our trip, click here.
For all our photos of the whole trip, click here.
As we walked to the historic courtyard in downtown Tucson to meet our tour guide, I snapped a picture of this enormous cactus mural. On the tour, Carolyn told us it was one of many painted last year in honor of Tucson’s 250th “birthday.” To give us an idea of the scale, she said the hummingbirds in the picture measure 10 feet across.
The historic courthouse we met for the tour. (Cori in the foreground.)
There were two of these low walls surrounding the pool. It is a memorial to those who were killed when Gabby Giffords was shot. The little circles on the wall have symbols of what was important to each victim, to honor their lives. Carolyn noted that now these kinds of shootings are so common, they don’t make memorials any more. So true, and so sad.
Part of another “birthday mural.” It was a whole parade of animals Tucson is known for on bicycles. I liked the turtle. I got a turtle “stuffy” for Violet. (Shh, don’t tell.)
The Tucson settlement started as a fort, and indigenous people lived outside it. They used these prickly cactus sticks to make fences.
The indigenous people lived in what was called “hut houses,” a sample of which was here. A teacher and kids were on a field trip in it.
Our tour guide, a wealth of knowledge and stories.
And us, in front of another birthday mural.