Tag Archives: Road Trip

Postcard From Flagstaff, Arizona

The Lawrence Lowell Telescope, which was used to discover the planet Pluto at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona

We were able to get tickets for a daytime walking tour of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.  Highlights of our visit included looking at the sun through a solar telescope and visiting the building that houses the “Pluto Discovery Telescope.”  I think I want to be an astronomer when I grow up. 🙂

Interesting story about the boxing glove.  It was put there by a maintenance guy who kept hitting his head on the end of the counterweight.

Postcard From Hoover Dam

Hoover Dam from the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge over the Colorado River in Nevada

We decided we couldn’t come all the way out here and not to at least a few “big name” places.  We visited Hoover Dam and took a boat cruise on Lake Mead.  Quite a beautiful area!  Hot and windy here but a nice cloud cover made for pretty decent photography.  I took a few photos!  On toward Route 66 tomorrow and the Grand Canyon on Monday.

Postcard From San Xavier del Bac Mission

Chapel at San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson, Arizona

Mission San Xavier del Bac is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about 10 miles south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O’odham Nation San Xavier Indian Reservation. The mission was founded in 1692 by Padre Eusebio Kino in the center of a centuries-old settlement of the Sobaipuri O’odham, a branch of the Akimel or River O’odham located along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. The mission was named for Francis Xavier, a Christian missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order) in Europe. The original church was built to the north of the present Franciscan church. This northern church or churches served the mission until it was razed during an Apache raid in 1770.

The mission that survives today was built between 1783 and 1797, which makes it the oldest European structure in Arizona. Labor was provided by the O’odham. An outstanding example of Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, the Mission San Xavier del Bac hosts some 200,000 visitors each year. It is a well-known pilgrimage site, with thousands visiting each year on foot and on horseback, some among ceremonial cavalcades or cabalgatas.

Half of the actual church building was covered in scaffolding due to renovations, but this is an adjacent chapel which carries through some of the same architecture.

San Xavier del Bac Mission in Tucson, Arizona