The Desert

I will be the first to admit that I have a love-hate relationship with living in the desert. On the one hand, the natural beauty is so foreign, yet so awe-inspiring and magnificent to me. On the other hand, it is so damn hot I can almost not handle it. Today we were actually very excited that the high was ONLY going to be 100 and so thankful for the humidity and the 1/100th of an inch of rain we got last nite. I keep telling myself, 'one more year,' 'one more year...'

Here are some snaps from a few months back, but they fit with the theme. We traveled down to Tucson to visit Cynthia, good friend from back in Gainesville, but who lives near Seattle now and was in Tucson for a conference. We visited the Saguaro National Park and it was beautiful.

Posing with Cynthia:










Nora's favorite part is playing in the rocks:













Beauty even in the starkness of the desert:

I always think that so many of the cacti and succulents look so similar in form to things you would see growing on the ocean floor. The Ocotillo, for example, looks like some sort of coral to me. Greg's explanation is that there are a finite number of forms that living things can take when they grow.