Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

In need of a little quality family time, we headed to Tucson to visit the Sonora Desert Museum. What a place! The drive in was spectacular as the desert is alive with color-purple, white, orange, yellow....for anyone who thinks Arizona is a brown clump of tumbleweeds, this is the drive for you! Once we arrived at the museum, why they call it a museum I don't know since it's not like any museum I have ever been to, we got a map from a nice older gentleman and began our journey. We saw the friendliest hummingbirds in their own pavillion, an amazing aviary with more than 40 different species of birds(we even saw 4 snakes roaming the area freely...eek!)and many other fantastic exhibits. One of our favorite parts was visiting a show called Running Wild where the guide talked about creatures with feathers, fur or scales. Jack even got to "pet" his first snake! Relax, it was only a gopher snake! As we walked the trail, we appreciated the most amazing views of the green valley below, flowering cacti abound and the sounds of unseen creatures scurrying from bush to bush. Toward the end of our trip, we visited their Earth Sciences center and saw magnificient displays of gemstones and other natural minerals and Jack, being the budding scientist, looked through the lenses of his first microscope. He was so excited that he breathlessly said to me, "Mommy, this is magical!" Magical indeed!