Day and Night in Tucson... continued

You’d never know it though, if you just focused in on the verdant trees, the yellow columbine, Indian paintbrush and other wildflowers that grew along the trail. Dave found a cool hawk feather, we spotted an Allen’s hummingbird, and we also saw some butterflies (for which the trail was named) flying around above our heads. At one point, we’d lost the feather and were on a hunt to find it. I found a large dandelion puff, which we were about to blow out over the cliff’s edge to ask for some wishful help, when suddenly, we all spotted the elusive hawk feather right as we turned around! Very serendipitous and cool… so the wishes were made for other, mysterious things….

                It started to rain some very large drops, so we headed back down the trail and back into the steaming town. Tucson was like a sauna… leaving the relatively cooler climate of Sky Island wasn’t the easiest thing to do. But our tummies were rumbling, and we wanted to get back so we could get Uppie and go get some delicious shrimp fajitas at Dave & Uppie’s favorite restaurant, El Sur. The food there was as delicious as described, and cheap!! We made room for the delicious flan, though… and actually ordered a second one because four people sharing one flan is just silliness! Also, it was the best damn flan we’d ever had! (Tummy grumbles now…) Service was friendly and awesome. One word of advice: if you ever go, and choose to eat one of their roasted jalapeno peppers, beware! They are sometimes VERY hot/spicy! A few of us veteran spicy-food-eaters were surprised by the heat from one of these little guys! And that was WITHOUT the seeds!  Whew! Hot stuff!

 

                After dinner, we all walked along Fourth Street, and stopped into a couple of bars. At the first - Sky Bar, we ordered an El Chavito signature drink: Banderas! We explained to the bartender how to make them, and I was surprised at the amount of tequila and tomato juice/hot sauce that he poured into the glasses. However, we all did our best to down those glasses and they tasted as good as ever! The bar itself was really loud, though, with an experimental band playing, so we headed down to Plush, Dave & Uppie’s favorite evening hangout. It was funky and velvety and had a normal decibel sound level, so we stayed there and talked into the night. It was really wonderful, and just what the doctor ordered!