How was your weekend?

I hope ya'll had a wonderful weekend!  We sure did!  We decided to head to Arizona for a long weekend of camping and visiting with our daughter who moved there last year for grad school.

We packed our camping trailer and brought our furry kiddos with us for a weekend of fun!

Salsa always loves to go bye-bye!  And, she loves her boots!  They protect her feet from hot pavement and keep stickers from getting stuck in the fur and between her toes.  That makes it so we don't have to spend long amounts of time picking stickers out with tweezers!  We've done that!  It's not fun for her or us!  Here she is happily resting by the trailer after a walk...with her boots on.  Such a cutie!

Our daughter spent the entire weekend with us camping.  We loved that!  And, so did Salsa!  She's always happy to have everyone together.  And, she cherishes every bit of time and attention she gets with our daughter.  Just look at that smile...

Our cat, Penelope, is becoming a great traveler!  I'm so proud of her!  And, she loved the warm weather on this trip.  She's so often cold.  So, this trip was great for her.  It was for us too.  It's been a bit chilly at home.  Especially for my hubby who works down by the beach where it's been cold, damp, and gray.  It was great to thaw out!

The campground was surprisingly uncrowded for a holiday weekend.  That was nice!  It was quiet and made it better for seeing wildlife.  And, we saw a lot of wildlife this weekend!  One of the first things we noticed when we got there was hundreds of tiny Arizona Round Tailed Ground Squirrels!  They were everywhere!  They're super tiny...about the size of a little chipmunk.  They're really cute!

We saw a couple of coyotes and we heard packs of them every night.

We were hoping to see Javelina and we were lucky to see two of them on an evening bike ride.  Unfortunately, they ran away so fast that I didn't get any pictures.  We didn't see any more of them the rest of the weekend.  But, we did hear them at night a couple of times.

We saw a mountain lion one evening.  At least, that's what it looked like.  And, the rangers said one had been spotted and reported the week before.  It was crouching down in the grasses a couple hundred feet from the road.  I only had my cell phone with me for pictures.  I snapped a couple and tried zooming in for a better look.  The pics were super blurry but the coloring and ears looked like it was a mountain lion rather than a bobcat.  I've never seen one before and figured I never would.  So, this was a little exciting.  It was a little scary.  And, it was also a little sad because being that close to people is unusual and could mean something is wrong with it or it could end up needing to be moved or something if it keeps going that close.  I'm hoping for the best...that this was just unusual and that it will stay away from now on.

There were a lot of birds....Roadrunners, doves, bright red birds, tiny birds....and lots of pretty singing.  There were lots of quail too.  They're SO plump compared to the ones near our home.  We saw this one watching out for his flock in the riverbed.  It's a little blurry because he was far away.

As always, I was on the lookout for wildflowers.  I found some beauties!  Check out the blooms on this cactus.  Gorgeous!

There were lots of these on big bushes/trees...

The weather was quite warm in the afternoons.  But, the early mornings were nice and cool and we made sure to get out to enjoy it.  We went on a couple of bike rides along part of "The Loop".  It's a series of connecting bike paths along riverbeds and roads that run through and around Tucson.  It's very impressive!  I love riding and walking on The Loop because there are no cars and the views and wildlife are a lot of fun to see along the way.  The Loop is very popular and busy.  I wish we had such a thing where we live!  This is my daughter riding onto one of the bridges that crosses over the river...

There was a little surprise along the portion of The Loop that we rode on....a little labyrinth.  Of course, we had to walk it both days that we rode by.

Our daughter has gotten into archery and had just gotten a new bow.  We went with her to a range to see her shoot.  We also tried shooting.  It's surprisingly different than my husband and I ever would have imagined!  It takes a lot of strength and it's quite complicated!  Hubby loved it.  I'm not sure yet if I like it or not.  Here's hubby shooting alongside our daughter.  I love this picture!

We ate at camp most of the time.  But, we did go out a couple of times for lunch.  We tried a new-to-us restaurant one day.  It had great reviews and their website sounded like it was great.  We drove up and it looked like a dive!  But, it's popular and we couldn't even get a parking spot the first time we tried to go there.  The next day, we went right after they opened and had no trouble getting a parking spot.  It was very good!  It's called Tacos Y Tequila.  And, that's just about all they sell is tacos and drinks.  The tacos are interesting, unique, and delicious!  Their house margaritas were quite good too!

We enjoyed lots of relaxing, reading, knitting, and, most of all, being together!  It was such an awesome weekend!