From Sedona AZ, to Tucson AZ.
by Kiran Jayasinghe
On Day 6, we left Sedona and headed to Tuscon, AZ. We drove south on highway 179. This is a very scenic drive and we got to see a lot of the red cliffs. Then we took interstate 17 south and finally interstate 10 south towards Tucson. We passed through Phoenix, and stopped for lunch there. We ate at Chick-fil-A. Though there wasn’t any snow, or anything else exciting on the way, we were pretty much ecstatic, because today, was Christmas Eve! Time passed quickly, and we reached Tuscon at about 2:00 p.m. Instead of heading for our hotel, we drove to the Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium on the campus of the University of Arizona. We arrived just in time for their “Holiday” show. The show explained why we celebrate Christmas. After the show, we ventured into the museum. We saw their math exhibit first. There were lots of brainteasers. One of our favorites were using seven different pieces to form a 3 by 3 cube!
Unfortunately, the museum was going to close in half an hour, so we looked at the exhibit that would take the least amount of time, which was the mineral exhibit. It was beautiful. We saw gold, silver, amethyst, sapphire, and even some petrified wood! We also got to see a fossil of a trilobite, which was a completely fantastic experience! Afterwards, we headed towards our hotel.
Our dad had reserved the Country Inn and Suites in Tucson for us. There were two of these hotels, and our dad had thought that we were staying in the one near the airport. When we got there he figured out that we were actually staying at the one closer to the city center! We finally found the hotel after taking a wrong turn twice. The hotel was decorated nicely, had an elegant look, and actually offered free fruit and cookies! They also offered free breakfast in the morning. The rooms were clean and smelled good. We rated it 4 out of five stars.