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July 2000

Arizona - Phoenix and Tucson

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 19:35:37

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Our first stop in Arizona was naturally, downtown Phoenix. Why naturally? Well, mostly because the airport is practically in the middle of downtown. And also because we had to stop and take a picture of the capitol building (1,2).

Which incidentally, is not easy to take a picture of. Someone seems to have planted a bunch of palm trees in front of it. That combined with its lack of stature and the large office buildings surrounding it lead to this sort of image. You'll just have to extrapolate the rest.

'But if I ever meet with a Boojum, that day, In a moment (of this I am sure), I shall softly and suddenly vanish away -- and the notion I cannot endure! '. So says the 'Hunting of the Snark', but Melanie at least seems to have overcome that, for this is a Boojum she stands next to (3). A rare tree found mostly in ridiculously inhospitable and remote areas like the desert in northern Mexico, it actually was named from the poem by an intrepid (and well-read) botanist. You can also find this one at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix where on this particular day it was a balmy 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 C). Incidentally those people back there vanished softly and suddenly away just after this picture was taken.

Here we see David elsewhere in the gardens (4). He has not vanished away because he has not chosen to tempt the Boojum. Instead he has found some cholla cacti and a very odd looking mountain in the background. Informational signs persist on calling it a 'butte' which we feel very uffish about indeed.

Saguaros at a distance, how many can you find? We drove from Phoenix to Tucson which we avoided for the time being in favor of the mountains just west of town. There you can find Saguaros, Saguaros, and more Saguaros. We may have been under the impression that Saguaros were rare. Actually, they only grow in a small section of Arizona and Sonora, ...