By Simran Jayasinghe
We woke up in Tucson. This was our second day in Tucson, and it was Christmas day! We got dressed and headed down for breakfast. The breakfast at the Country Inn and Suites had scrambled eggs, sausages, french toast, cereal, yogurt, and a few other breakfast items. The breakfast is complementary which was very nice.
After breakfast, we went to the Sonora Desert Museum just outside the city of Tucson, next to the Saguaro national forest. The Sonora Desert Museum is a outdoor museum. It was established in 1952 by William H. Carr. The Sonoran Desert Museum is 98 acres. We went to see a show called “Live and (sort of) on the Loose!” This show talked about Gila monsters and rattlesnakes. During the show we got to see a live Gila monster and a rattlesnake! Both of them were trying to get off the table they were on. I guess that’s where the “(sort of) on the loose” part comes from. We learned a lot of interesting information about the two animals.
Next we headed off to the Raptor Free Flight show. On our way there we stopped at, ‘The Cottonwood’, a small snack bar that has hot and cold drinks, and ice cream, where we each got a ice cream cone. At the Raptor Free Flight show we watched different types of birds fly right above our heads! We saw two types of birds, Barn Owls, and Harris’s Hawks. The birds are not tethered in any way. They were completely free flying between some trees. We saw a group of seven Harris’s Hawks and one Barn Owl. These two types belong to the class of birds known as raptors.
After the Raptor Free Flight Show, we walked on some trails, and dug for some dinosaur bones. At the Sonoran Desert museum we saw a lot of Saguaro Cacti. We also saw some Prickly Pear Cacti. The Desert Museum is almost like a small zoo as well as a park with a lot of trails. They had exhibits showing Mexican Gray wolves, a mountain lion, a black bear, a bobcat, and some other animals. Because it was Christmas day, all the animals on exhibition had gotten Christmas presents in the morning! We saw the empty wrap the animals had torn apart.
We stopped at the gift shop and snack bar, and our grandparent bought us a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate. After an exciting day at the museum we headed back to the hotel. We were getting hungry, but could not find a place to eat dinner since it was Christmas day. A lot of shops were closed! Finally we found Ghandi’s Indian Cuisine, probably the only restaurant open that day, and had scrumptious Indian food.
Click here to learn more about the Sonora desert museum.