This afternoon, we drove to the top of Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, AZ. It is 9,157 feet above sea-level, and receives approximately 180 inches of snow annually. So strange to see so much snow in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. The mountain was named in honor of botanist Sarah Lemmon, the first woman to trek to the top of the mountain with Native American guides by mule and foot in 1881.

Bob in front of the desert after we drove down the mountain.

When we got down from the mountain, we stopped at Frost Gelato and got a couple tubs of gelato. One half coconut and half pistachio (Bob’s favorite) and the other one half seasalt carmel (my favorite) and half tiramisu. When the people behind the counter found out we were visiting, they said we had picked a bad time we visit Tucson. I’m sure we looked at little confused and I mentioned how great the weather was. They responded, “Oh, you haven’t heard?” They then went on to tell us that their U.S. Representative had been shot (but survived surgery), and a federal judge and others had been killed along with some others.

According to the book in our room, “In 1692, missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino visited the site, which was called Stjukson, or ‘spring at the foot of the black mountain’ — that name would later evolve in the word we know today as ‘Tucson’. In the late 1800′s the area’s namesake, Richard Starr, ran a stagecoach trail through a mountain pass here in the rugged Tucson Mountains, giving visitors an opportunity to visit the wild western city.”

The resort is an oasis in the Sonoran Desert which is a unique ecosystem stretching from Northern Mexico to central Arizona. It is home to more species of plants and animals than any other desert in the world.

As we were driving through Death Valley, Bob said that he thought we had a flat tire and stopped right away. Yes, it was flat and lost air so fast that the tire was even ripped. We went into the trunk to get the tire out, but we found out there was no jack. Thankfully, some tourists stopped, but they were in an SUV, so there jack was too tall for the car. WIth a big heave, two of the men lifted the car and we were able to just get the jack under. WIth the tire changed, we drove 15 miles to the nearest convenience store. We still had 150 miles to Vegas and there was one little town about 50 miles away that had a tire store. I should mention here, that I have AAA, but as we were in the middle of nowhere, we had no cell phone signal. The attendant said we could use the store phone for $5 per call and $2.50 per minute. Bob called the tire store, but their tire changing machine was broken. Our two options were to drive the 150 miles to Vegas on a spare tire, or drive 55 miles the opposite direction to Lone Pine. As Lone PIne had our size tire, we chose the latter as it was closer. About 2 1/2 hours later, we were driving back by the convenience store and once again on our way to Death Valley.

Bob had planned ahead to do a 5k run at the bottom of Death Valley. So here is Mr. Fitness!

Who knew that a desert could be so beautiful. Due to all the rain this year, Death Valley certainly wasn’t the barren wasteland that I had pictured.

We will miss the breakfasts that included fresh mango, papaya, banana and pineapple. Even though the breakfasts were part of our meal plan, we were given a receipt to sign each day. The breakfast would have been $45 each per day if we were paying for it. We had heard that things were expensive, so we packed some food to take with us. A Kit Kat candy bar was $4.00 USD in the store and $9.00 USD in our minibar.
The money was so colorful and it such large denominations that I felt rich until I had to pay 1,100F for a jar of vanilla paste.
We’ll also miss the fresh flowers in our room. Each morning, while we were at breakfast, our room would be cleaned and they would leave fresh flowers on the bed, in the living room and in the bathroom.
We are so excited that we were able to go to Bora Bora as it is somewhere that both of us have always wanted experience. The blue waters of the lagoon were beautiful…even when it was cloudy. This photograph was taken from our bungalow deck looking toward the shore. It was about a quarter mile to walk on board walks from the beach to our guest bungalow.
The main items that were for purchase were pareos (wrapped dresses), vanilla and black pearls.  Other available pearls included dark blues, greens and pinks. Here are some that were for sale in the resort gift shop, some as much as $65,000 USD.Here we are, dressed in warmer clothes as we’re getting ready to walk down the dock one last time before taking the water taxi to the airport. About five minutes later, it started raining and I was able to wear my stylish rain poncho (compliments of the hotel!) one last time. A couple days after we left, Cyclone Oli went through the area with 90 mph winds and gusts up to 120 mph. Even though we had some rain (a tropical storm passed through one night), we were blessed to have our wedding and honeymoon during a window of nice weather after the torrential rains of SoCal and before Cyclone Oli in French Polynesia. The day after we left guests in the overwater bungalows had to be evacuated and moved to secure rooms, churches and schools. Our prayers are with the members of the little church we attended and hope that none of them suffered any damage or loss.