| Home / College Guide / January 14 and 15 2022 |
| Posted on Sunday, January 16 @ 00:00:05 PST |
Friday January 14, 2022
Tucson Trivia: In 1885 residents of Tucson bid for a $100,000 grant to host the state’s insane asylum. Unfortunately, Phoenix won the bid for the asylum and Tucson got handed $25,000 to build a university instead. The process of acquiring land and building the University moved at a snail’s pace and in 1891 the University of Arizona finally opened the doors for its first class.
I readily admit that my sense of direction is not 100% accurate and more times than I would like to admit, it is much less than 100% accurate. These past few days in Tucson have been a bit of a challenge for me as far as navigation. Speedway Ave runs east-west, as does Mabel St and Grant… three key waypoints in my navigation of the city. There is a trendy area on 4 th Ave, close to the university, that has restaurants, bookstores, tattoo parlours, resale shops, bars and other establishments that cater to the needs of students. It is a 15-20 minute walk from the house. And the last time we visited here there was a very cool t-shirt shop there, which alas is no more. But aside from these places, I have been generally confused about where things are and how to get there. But today dear friends, I have discovered the source of my confusion.
I have known all along that Tucson has 1 st Ave, 2 nd Ave, 3 rd Ave, etc., but today I realized that Tucson also has 1 st St, 2 nd St, 3 rd St, 4 th St, and so on.
The corner of 4th Street and 4th Avenue! OMG! Who would think this system is a good model for urban planning? OK, there is a lot of info on grid-based naming systems , but using numbers for roadways in both directions is just confusing. In Tucson, the numbered avenues run north-south and the numbered streets run east-west, which means it is easy and very likely to find yourself on the corner of 3 rd Ave and 3 rd St. Unfortunately we haven’t yet had the opportunity to talk with any locals about how they make sense of it and how they decode it when someone says something like, “I live on the corner of 6 th and 3 rd .” Is the avenue always first? The biggest number? Or do you have to specify street and avenue? The good news for now is that I am reassured that my internal compass is not totally whacko. I am not sure it will make navigation any easier, but my confidence is back.
The view of Sentinel Peak aka “A” Mountain from the Mercado San Agustin We drove up Sentinel Peak in the afternoon and brought the wonder dog with us.
There are a few not-too-long trails near the peak and we thought we would hike and get a few of the city from above. The walk was about 30 minutes and Biscuit did well even on some of the stonier portions.
Panorama of Tucson from Sentinel Peak Sentinel Peak became “A Mountain” in 1914. The University of Arizona students built the ‘A’ out of black basalt rock, which is why Sentinel Peak is often referred to as ‘A’ Mountain. The idea for the ‘A’ after a previous star football player, Albert Condon, convinced one of his civil engineering professors to make this monument a class project to celebrate their winning game of 7-3 over Pomona College on Thanksgiving Day. He had noticed that Pomona College had a “P” on their hillside. After cleaning out all the plants and cacti in the project area, the class got to work creating the ‘A’. The class went up to Sentinel Peak every Saturday to hand dig trenches for the foundation. The ‘A’ was finally finished after two years of work and was then painted white, as required by the city of Tucson. The cost to create the ‘A’ was $397, the A is 70 feet wide and 160 feet long and just around 5 feet thick.
We found the “A” Saturday January 13, 2022
We have compiled a list of things to do while in Tucson and the owner of the house we are renting also has sent us resources about what is happening around town.
The big choice for today was cat bingo or goat yoga? Hard decision … and you know what we chose!
The class was in a city park at 9 am, which meant it was a little chilly out… the temperature maybe was 50 degrees. There were about 25 people in the class, kids and adults, and about a half-dozen goats, and one dog. The class was about 45 minutes with some time at the end to spend with the goats. But the goats were there the whole class and anytime there was a table pose or plank or downward dog, there was a good chance that one or more goats might climb aboard.
Steve demonstrates Table Pose, with goat Brian’s Table Pose was a little busier There first time it was startling but after a while you just braced yourself for it… the goats tended to move as a group so you could see when they were coming to your part of the circle. The goat yoga people claim that the classes are designed so that “you can relax and enjoy the goats or you can really get a great workout while being distracted by sweet goats. Goat Yoga has been proven to reduce anxiety, reduce pain and even reduce stress. Goat yoga is practiced to bring a smile, laughs and give people a break from everyday stresses in life.
” It was just plain funny and fun. I found myself trying to concentrate on a pose and suddenly I had company, which often meant that you had to hold the pose longer than you might otherwise… with the additional weight on your back, stomach, head or wherever the goat decided to perch. I might have some goat prints on my back!
Oh please, try this at home N maste In the afternoon, we took the streetcar to the end of the line at Mercado San Agustin. There is a market plaza there with shops and restaurants. Nearby is an annex called MSA Annex ; it is built from modified shipping containers. It was a pleasant afternoon (high 60s) to visit the shops and explore some restaurants, some of which we will add to our list of places we hope to try. That list seems to be getting longer.
Mercado San Agustin Annex
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