Day 11: 'Biosphere 2 Tour'

 

A popular tourist site in Tucson is the very interesting science experiment from the 80’s called Biosphere 2.  It’s located just a little outside of Tucson and we had reservations for the three of us to tour it.  


We were pleasantly surprised to learn that we would be allowed inside the facility, specifically the rain forest and gardens that were part of the system that allowed the scientists to live enclosed within it for 2 years.  We were unable to see the inside living quarters but the tour of the gardens made up for it by far.




One highlight for me was finding hummingbirds living quite nicely inside the Biosphere, feeding on all the flowering cacti.  Of course I had to show the pictures off and unfortunately for Rick and Cole (who patiently nodded as I kept thrusting my phone under their noses to see the zoomed in pictures), the next person we came across looked like to me like he was one of the tour guides.  Since he had been watching us approach for a few minutes, I proceeded to show him the hummingbird picture too.  Whoops - not a tour guide!  He had to mute his microphone and tell me that he was giving a lecture to a class of 7th graders.  (Moms are always embarrassing their children, right?)


As this was our last day in Tucson with Cole, we tried to find a neat place to have lunch at.  Cole had heard of an authentic Indian restaurant he wanted to try, so we stopped there.  It had a cute little courtyard and side yard that had a koi pond and even some large bird enclosures that housed small parrots, a pair of peacocks and a very colorful Lady Amherst pheasant.  Unfortunately they didn’t seem to grasp the meaning of “gluten free” so we left and found a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed selecting our items from a HUGE menu that was framed in a 3’ x 4’ frame and leaned against a chair at our table.  

Dropping off Cole at his dorm in the early afternoon gave us the rest of the day to pack up the truck and get it ready for travel, as well as the RV.  We were now ready for the rest of the journey!





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