Part one of a series...Fun things to do in towns you may not know about

Of course, we have all been to big cities when we fly, and we have done all of the big city things.
I am going to have an ongoing series for air travelers about fun things to do in smaller cities in the world, and some of the interesting things to see in the air and on the road. 


Going into Tucson? Well, if you are renting a car, there are a good deal of things that you can see just a couple hours away. 
Tombstone, yes the one that the movie is based on, is a very tiny city, but it is still worth a look. There are a lot of things to see and do, and the town is very well preserved. There is the gunfight at the OK Corral, the Crystal Palace, and the Oriental, all still standing. Of course, you can still go to Boot Hill Cemetery, the place where many of Tombstone's famous and infamous are buried. 
In the same area, there are many true ghost towns, look at a map, but be safe, and no trespassing, please.


Down the road from Tombstone is Bisbee. Truly a jewel in the middle of the desert. Where most of Tombstone's buildings were made of wood and did not survive the fires that swept through, Bisbee decided to make theirs stand of stone after fires came through. The result is a town in the middle of mountains that  showcases the beautiful styles and architecture of a time gone by. 
Bisbee is mainly an artists colony now. Hand crafted glass beads are displayed in windows next to restaurants serving some of the finest Mexican food this side of the Mexican border. A dinner recently with my boyfriend found me enjoying diablo shrimp in the most wonderfully flavored sauce. I drank a favorite of mine, horchata, and it was so smooth and creamy, I just know that it had to be homemade. 
The salsa that came with our chips is better than most I have had. When we return, I will ask if they sell a bottled version of it. 


For me, Bisbee is a place that a great grandfather also worked. He worked in the Queen Mine, a copper mine right there. It was really awesome to discover that I have been eating, drinking and going to places that someone in my family went to way before I was even here. It also leads to fun speculation of "Maybe my great grandfather ate here" , which has turned out to be a fun pastime. 



Also in this area of the world are places to play golf, rent horses, and there is even a lake in the Coronado mountains.  Parker Canyon Lake is a beautiful small lake nestled right into the mountains. You would never even suspect that it is there. It is a reservoir lake, so I am pretty certain that swimming is not allowed.  
Parker Canyon Lake was created in 1966, and I cannot express what a wonderful job that was done. It is very pretty. 
The Coronado National Forest is really stunning all on its' own. Perhaps I will write a separate article on how awesome it is.
If you are going to be going into the Coronado National forest, make sure that your car is in good repair, that you have a full tank of gas, drinking water, sturdy shoes, and a working cell phone. Also make sure that someone knows that you are going out there. 


The areas south of Tucson offer many activities and adventurers for travelers in the Tucson area. There are plenty of things to do, the people are generally friendly, and there is a general attitude of being self reliant and that is nice to find. 

Wonderful HOT summer in Arizona!

It has been a wonderful, but HOT summer for my nieces and I, who came to see me while I was in Arizona, which is why I did not get a lot of posting done while they were here. 

We went to Tombstone, where one of the things that we did was to have our fortunes told by Pappy, the animatronic fortune teller, who, told a little joke and dispensed a fortune card at the end of his fortune telling.


The reason I mention this is that both of my nieces loved this machine. I told them about the movie "Big", starring Tom Hanks, and about some of the other fortune telling machines that are out there.  


Pappy only cost us $1.00 per fortune, so, for $3.00, we all had fortunes told. It was fun, it was cheap, and the girls talked about Pappy for days after we were gone from him, elaborating on their fortunes, and how they were coming true. 


If you are traveling with children, sometimes, it is the BIG things that will garner their time and attention. Other times, it is the unexpected and simple that will bring some calm and happiness into your and their day. 


During the time that we were in Arizona, my nieces and I did a lot of things that I was really happy to take them to see. We went to Tombstone, saw some ghost towns, made a really good time happen. Pappy was not part of the plans, as I did not know that he even existed.  For a head start on their homework, I had them interview a lot of the characters in Tombstone who portray people from Tombstones' boom days. We talked about it on the night before, they did a lot of research, and they were happy to finally get there and meet the people that they had read about, seen in movies, and that their aunt (me) talked about. 


An interview by my younger niece with one of the stage coach drivers got her some great knowledge about the town, but he also gave her a silver nail used for driving the horseshoes into the hoofs of those big beasts. 


At the Rose Garden in Tombstone, where the Worlds' Biggest Rose resides, the owners kindly let us have pears, crab apples and pomegranates when they learned that we were making jelly.  


A reminder to the kids that we were not going to rush through anything, and making them find things in each room of places and ask them about things was a great deal of fun, because it made them still themselves and enjoy where we were, not where we were headed to. The girls would ask me about things as well. 


Well behaved children who were very hot got a treat of ice cream in the morning. They really liked it, and it was a perfect stop to cool down. 


Tombstone, if done right, without running from one end of the town to the other is assuredly a place that would take 2-3 days to see, especially if you ventured off the main streets, like we did. 
We saw the Good Enough mine tour, took a US Mail stage coach around town, saw the Bird Cage theater, went to many gunfights, and we had a really good time. In fact, we had a good enough time that we went to Tombstone 4 times! 


I write this to tell you that with children, sometimes it is not the video games, the computer games, the fastest rides, but instead, spending time with those you cherish in a casual and relaxed setting. 


Have a great time on your travels!