Day 7 of Our Cross Country Adventure: Las Cruces to Tucson

Day 7 was a big day on our trip for two reasons.  The first was that Paul attended the University of Arizona, and has pretty much wanted to take us there forever.  The second reason was that I'd planned two days in Tucson as a little mid-way break from the constant driving, and so we wouldn't be packing up to leave immediately after arriving.

We left Las Cruces and stopped at a customs checkpoint where we were all asked if we were US citizens and I was thankful they didn't require driver's licenses, since for all we know Paul's is hidden somewhere in the car or is back in San Antonio.

Then we were back on the open road, with cactuses becoming ever more frequent and Paul constantly asking what I thought of the desert.

He may not have like my somewhat grumpy answers.

You see, despite living in a fairly dry climate for 29 of my 30 years, that one year of humidity has apparently done terrible things to my nose (I'm sure pregnancy isn't helping either) and the dry air hurt.  I was pretty shocked, since my nose should be used to dry, triple digit summers.  Yet somehow my nose has forgotten what dry air is like and it was not pleasant.  More than that, I'd finally splurged on a new set of cami-secrets (the little shirt cutouts that raise your neckline), since mine was worn to death, and yesterday, a few hours into wearing it for the first time, I glanced down to find a spot of blood from my increasingly unhappy nose.  So that was less than fun, although today seems better, so I'm hoping I've adjusted quickly.

We made it to Tucson by lunch time and Paul took us to Bison Witches, one of his favorite sandwich shops.  Then we headed over to the U of A campus, with me and the girls wilting as our air conditioning proved that it only works 80% of the time and that it wasn't willing to give it a go in the 100 degree heat.

We retreated into the U of A bookstore where we thankfully found a stand of Mae's favorite Llama Llama books and met up with one of Paul's best college buddies.  After frozen yogurt we re-braved the heat to make our way to our hotel (thankfully the air conditioning was working again).

The girls loved the pool and the view of the pool from our room, and were able to get their wiggles out in their lifejackets (Mae is getting bolder each time we go swimming, now she barely wants me holding on to her).

Then it was on to a somewhat disasturous dinner at one of Paul's favorite restaurants, in which none of the very fancy meals looked even vaguely appetizing to my pregnant stomach and I finally settled on a ridiculous salad that at least included 1 hot pepper (let me say that everything on the kids menu looked awesome and I found myself wishing that I was under the age of 10...).

I think I'm just coming to terms with the fact that I'm not really a fancy restaurant type of girl.  I'm much happier at a laid back restaurant... and I don't need a dozen bizarre ingredients on each dish, especially when I'm pregnant and still a bit queasy.  Thankfully Sadie wanted to trade lettuce for carrots, and I did swipe one of Mae's uneaten cheese quesadillas.

Now for another day in the desert.  What are the chances that today isn't going to be the hottest day of the year?

And now for more extra pictures!