What a Crazy Day!!

I am sure you were waiting for Brian or Nina to blog, but this is Dawn, Brian's sister. My husband Sean and I have been here a little over a week, and have had a great time so far. We have been to the Grand Canyon and Sedona withouth Nina and Brian, and with them we have been to Lake Pleasant, Scottsdale, Tempe, and Phoenix (of course). But what I would like to tell you about is our trip to Tucson. Yesterday we got up early to head to Tucson, with a stop at Biosphere 2 on the way. The trip to Biosphere 2 was on a two lane road in the middle of nowhere, and I mean nowhere.

Along the way, all of a sudden there was a cop car blocking the road, telling us to stop while a medivac helicopter landed. What?? Then the border patrol showed up. Okay now this is getting interesting.

A huge line of cars started backing up behind us. All three of them.

My husband decided to use the time wisely and brush his teeth.

So eventually they helicoptered an illegal alien out of the desert while the rest of the illegal crew awaited extradition back to Mexico. Mind you we were 90 minutes from the border by car in 110 degree heat.

So now we are back on the road to Biosphere 2. Along the road to it, there were "wild cows" along the road. There are so many, apparantly, that they have to have cow guards on the roads. Cow guards are grates in the road that the cows do not like to walk over. No kidding.

So we finally made it to Biosphere 2. Which is no longer being used. And has recently been sold to developers. To make a housing development. Because there are not enough of those. Can you believe it??? It cost 150 million dollars to build, and there is no more research there!!

After a really interesting tour at Biosphere 2, we headed to Mt.Lemmon in Tucson. This is their ski resort (!!!) area. We drove to the top to take the chair lift up, only to find out it was not stopping at the top because a storm was coming. Whatever. So we headed back down the mountain, with the storm. A little rain, you think? No, it HAILED. Can you believe it?? (look real close, those white balls are hail)

So after the hail storm, we made it back down to Tucson safely for some kick butt Mexican food.
Whew! No day with Brian and Nina in Arizona is ever BORING!