Fake Thanksgiving

Before the real Thanksgiving, Greg and I had a fake one!

turkey hats!!!

Aren't these great hats?!

I found them at Sprout's after last Thanksgiving - for 97 cents on clearance!

We went to Green Valley (south of Tucson) to visit Greg's Mom and Step-Dad, Dan.

I made apple raisin cake - yum!

After it baked, I put on some icing.  This cake did not last long!

It was a gorgeous day for driving.

The Arizona sky in the winter is clear and blue, and the air smells crisp and dry and clean. 

We found a Panera Bread near our house!!!

Mom & Dad, we can't wait to go have lunch there with you!

On the way down, we saw this truck with three back ends. 

No, four!

We drove by Pichacho Peak.

The pointiest part on the left hand side is the peak.

I climbed it once (click here to see that post)!

We drove by the Ostrich Farm!

Passers-by can stop, feed the ostriches (and other animals), and buy ostrich eggs!

There was a lot of cotton being harvested.

They bale it up until squares and cover it up in plastic.

We drove by the airplane "graveyard".

Oh yeah, it's the "Pinal Air Park".

And there was a special event: The Tour de Tucson!

It's a bicycle ride all the way from the Phoenix Metro area to Tucson - 

that's a looooong way!

 Tucson has an "A" mountain near the University of Arizona.

Tempe (in the Phoenix metro area) has an "A" mountain, too, but it stands for Arizona State University (where I earned two Masters Degrees).  When their sports teams play each other, the out of town team will sneak up on the mountain and paint the A their team colors.  

Somewhere slightly south of Tucson, the signs suddenly change to kilometers!

The freeway walls are well-designed.

Do you think that the little blue guy inside the yellow leaping deer is a baby fetus deer?

We also drove by the San Xavier Mission.

It looks like a refreshing spa.

This is what their neighborhood looks like - such a pretty view!

Greg's Mom had made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with the traditional fixin's.  

Dan carved the turkey!

Then I had to take some silly photos.

'Cause otherwise, what would we remember?!

On the way home, we drove across the Santa Cruz "river". . . 

yep, that's it.  Dry as a bone.  

Tucson has the Lowell Observatory (seen here in the freeway art).

You can also see the San Xavier Mission, an agave, and a horned toad!

Here is downtown Tucson, pretty against the mountains.

And when we stopped for a loo break, hundreds of birds were sitting on the wires, tweeting up a storm.  It was wonderful!

The sun went down and left pink and purple streaks behind it.

We hope your Thanksgiving was blessed and tasty!