The Haughs

February 8-13, 2012

We were graciously invited to go to Tucson and stay with Robin and Michael in early February, which we did.  Didn’t stay terribly long, at least it didn’t seem that way to us, maybe R & M, but we had a great trip.  We flew into Phoenix, due to better, more convenient flight times, rented a car for the 2 hour drive to Tucson.  BTW, the cheapest rental car was obtained by booking through Costco Travel.  Saved about $60.

We got to Tucson and had an outstanding meal that Michael had prepared.  Got a tour of their house, which is very nice and settled in for the night.  Robin had to work on Thursday, so we went to Tubac, AZ, which is an art community that had an art fair going on.  Not a bad drive, less than an hour and it was a beautiful day, with temps in the mid 70s, not bad.  We didn’t really buy anything, but it is fun to look at the art of all kinds.  Like any art fair, some wasn’t to arty, at least to my taste.  Well worth the trip.   On the way back, all vehicles had to stop at a border patrol station and the vehicle is sniffed by dogs.  No delay, but I have never seen that before.

We also stopped at the Mission San Xavier del Bac, a very cool place, built in the late 1700s.  I am told that it isn’t far from where my mother’s family was when she was a small child.

Friday we toured a couple of the rock, mineral and gem shows that were going on.  Seems Tucson is the main place for all the collectors and jewelry makers to congregate in early February.  There are more than 40 sites set up around the city.  We hit one a sports complex.  There were several tents the size of a football field containing an unbelievable array of stuff.  Beads to petrified wood. Polished and finished and raw.  It was unreal.  Some photos below.  Many pieces big enough for a strong forklift, and some tiny.  At the convention center, there is more finished product.  Millions of dollars worth, with hundreds of vendors.

Had a great dinner at Cafe Poca Casa that night.  Outstanding place with the best Mexican food I have ever had.  Certainly not tacos and burritos.  We would go back there in a second.

Saturday was rather hot, Dianna wasn’t up for much walking, so I went to the Pima Air museum, which explains several aircraft photos in the collection of photos below.   I liked it, but some wouldn’t if they are not into aircraft.  Michael got tickets to The Gaslight Theatre in the afternoon.  It was a lot of fun!

Sunday, the Arizona Desert Museum.  A very special place, which I will not begin to go into all we saw there.  It is part native animal zoo and part botanical garden.  We saw a lot of really interesting things and really enjoyed our time there.  The free flight of the Harris Hawks was a real treat.  As well as being eaten by a duck.  (video below)

It was great to see Robin and Michael, along with their dogs.  That was fun and most welcome.

Thanks to them!!!!

This is a link to the photos I took in Tucson early February, 2011 CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS

Ducks at the Arizona Desert Museum Aviary:

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Robin’s encounter with a duck. Very short, I didn’t get the camera aimed quick enough.

Bighorn sheep at the Desert Museum:

Water at Sabino Canyon:

We made a trip to Tennessee the end of September to spend some time with the displaced Wisconsinites.  We have not been down there for a year and it was good to see them all.  I took Grace to her ice skating practice on Friday morning.  She is dedicated, setting her alarm for 4:45 AM so that she can be there in time to be on the ice by about 5:35 AM and leaving the rink for school at 6:50AM.  She is cheerful and happy to do it, but it sure makes for a long day.  She also has a lesson in the afternoons on some days.  Called Curry Class, which I had to look up, and I found this post:  “The “Ice Class” was developed by 1976 Olympic Figure Skating Champion, John Curry. The class includes deep edges and turns and figure skating moves. The class is done in a ballet class format. The skaters in the class have to be in precision with each other while doing edge moves. All has to look effortless.”

In the video, you will see that at the end.  The first part is her practicing on Friday morning, followed by the class.  I cut the sound, as it was raining so hard during the first two videos that all that could be heard was the pounding of the rain on the roof.   Click here to see:

 We spent individual time with both Grace and Elizabeth, taking them individually for lunch and some shopping for clothes.  I think they had a good time and so did we.  KC had to be in Chicago for a meeting, so Joy flew up there on Thursday evening and they spent the weekend in Chicago to celebrate their anniversary, which was on Friday.

It was a great time and we really enjoyed seeing them all.  A few  photos, which I have captioned, can be found here.

I built a bluebird nest and have yet to see a blue bird.  Early in the spring I had a Black Capped Chickadee, and after that nest was finished, I cleaned out the nest box and now I have a Wren in there.  Wrens build a nest with sticks, for a Wren, really big sticks, and a lot of them. You can see the photos of the nest, one of the tiny babies, with a head about the size of a pea, and the mother yelling at me.  I was picking some tomatoes that are right next to the nest box, and she didn’t like it.

Click on the photo below to see the short video of her “yelling” at me, and the photos of the nest.

Click on the Wren to see all the photos

We went to see Robin and Michael and allow them to go to Tucson, with minimal worry about their 3 dogs.  Saw a lot of birds in the back yard, ate lots of fruit and had a great time, with great people.  Outstanding weather too.  We left there and headed north of Seattle where we toured the Boeing plant where they make the BIG aircraft.  747,777,787, all very big, and even bigger when you look down on the factory floor.  A really big building, nearly 2.5 miles around the outside.  From there we took a very long convoluted trip to Seattle thanks to my new Garmin.  Won’t go into that story, would involve too many bad words.  Waited forever to get on the ferry, thanks to a Mariner’s game and Friday night traffic.  I figured we would be at Steve and Leigh’s house in time for dinner, but got there at around 9:00.  Thank you Garmin!!! @*&$@

On Saturday morning we went whale watching on an all day trip with http://www.pugetsoundexpress.com/ out of Port Townsend, WA.  They were outstanding, making the trip a pleasure.   I mentioned that it would have been worth it even if we didn’t see the whales, and we saw a lot of them.  Had a great lunch at Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. (Click this link to see the map, a red pointer will be at Friday Harbor.  Port Townsend will be below it, Seattle to the lower right.  http://tinyurl.com/43dodsg ) If you look at the map, you will see a thin black line to the left of Friday Harbor, that is the Canada border.  We are pretty far north at that point.

I took a fair amount of photos which can be found here, by clicking on the photo below: 

Mt Ranier, nearly 100 miles away

 It was a great trip, thanks to all that made it possible. Bob

Here are some photos from the gathering when Jim and Susan came into town.

Click on Kara to see the photos:

Spring’s moving on to level two nose work.  Now she is learning to find target odors.  We are working with anise but starting next week will also do birch.  She finds the target then gets the reward.  She doesn’t seem to like it quite as well as searching the whole room but she’s getting the gist of it and it’s only been five days.

Spring’s nose work progress

Slow cookers can be so loud – Poor dogs could hardly stand 9 hours of Beef Burgundy smelling up the house.  It’s a wonder they didn’t become dehydrated.

The book, my WSU art exhibit and estudiando espanol have pretty much been taking all of my free time lately so no new photos to show.  I’m looking forward to getting back to doing some IR work soon.

Infrared Photography – Images by Michael Kloth

We had blizzard warnings and they came to pass.  A blizzard as defined by Wikipedia is: 

A blizzard is a severe storm condition characterized by strong winds and reduced visibility. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of 35 mph with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to ¼ mile or less and must last for a prolonged period of time — typically three hours or more. Ground blizzards require high winds to stir up already fallen snow.

Blizzards can bring near-whiteout conditions, and can paralyze regions for days at a time, particularly where snowfall is unusual or rare.

We had them all, wind up to the mid 40s and lots of snow.  Photos attached.  4 hours with a snowblower and nearly 2 gallons of gas, and we can now get out of the driveway.  Some photos and a video attached.  Click on the photo below to take a look at them.  Then click on the first image to see the video, the arrows at the top to advance through the photos.  Bob