On a Mission

We just got back from a trip to Tucson, Arizona. We had a lot of things we needed to do while we were there but we did manage to squeeze in a few sights. One of the things we saw was the San Xavier Mission. The white buildings really stood out in the brown desert and made it easy to find. It is located on an Indian reservation. Here's a picture of the front...(this was the only day on our trip that the sky wasn't blue)...(click pictures to make them bigger and see details)...


Notice the color of the building on the right side, with some stains. Then, notice how white the left side is. It appears to be going through some renovation.


Here are two close up pictures of windows to see the before and after.



I love the look of old things. But, I have to say, I do love the crisp white and the beautiful rusty orange color on the detail.

We visited on a Sunday morning. So, it was busy with people coming and going to mass and visitors. In front of the mission, Indian women were cooking fry bread, beans, and various other foods to sell. Most of them were set up under rustic shade structures made with ocotillo branches...


Besides the main building, there were several other buildings, including a school, a little place to shop for Indian jewelry and souvenirs, and a little building with bells on top...


They had a small museum inside the main building where we could see more details of it's construction and artifacts from it's history. Here's a little passageway...I wonder where it goes?...


The ceilings in some of the rooms looked like this...


It was all very pretty but didn't compare to the inside of the church. The details inside were amazing...from what we could see. Mass was going on and the church was packed and people were spilling out of the doorway. We could only get a quick peek. For a picture of it it click HERE.

Nature is always one of my favorite things, no matter where we go. I loved looking at the various desert plants and cactus. I love the little tufts on this one, and the colors...notice the bits of purple...Isn't it beautiful?!...


The Saguaro cactus' are awesome. I loved looking at them as we traveled down the highway. I think they're soooo cute! :-) Here's one that was at the mission... I'm not sure what the holes are but I'm thinking that birds make homes inside these...


Here's a picture of lichen...it's kind of like moss. I realize that I have lichen pictures from lots of different places. I never tire of the beautiful colors...


I was able to pop into a few of the yarn shops in town. My favorite was Grandma's Spinning Wheel. They had a lot of spinning wheels for rent and for sale, along with a variety of things that aren't common at most yarn shops. They were really nice too. I bought a niddy noddy from them. Other than that, I was good and resisted the tempatation of some pretty sock yarns at Kiwi Knitting Company. I'm trying to stick to my mission of stash busting! :-)