Friday

Friday 17th November - the Desert Museum Day

Today was to be our last full day in Arizona, so we decided to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum just outside Tucson.  This is a combined zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in the one site.

We arrived fairly early in an attempt to beat the desert heat, and were in the grounds at 8:30.  This was a good move, as some of the animals were more active early in the day, particularly the 3 Mexican wolves.  The "geriatric black bears" were resting, as apparently they always do, but the mountain lions were nowhere to be seen.  We wandered around the rest of the site, watched the free flight barn owls, had a bite of lunch, admired the geological exhibits and finally the mountain lions deigned to make an appearance.

This was a really good zoo / museum - an excellent mix of fun and education, and probably the best that we have ever been to in terms of environments that cater both for the animals and for photographers!

After this finale, we headed up I-10 to Phoenix and checked in to a hotel near the airport, ready for the early flight tomorrow to Honolulu.