This is more of my tribute to Tucson, Arizona.

Tucson has many very beautiful catholic churches around town. None is older, however, than the San Xavier Mission. Notice that the right tower is incomplete. This is because the Spanish stopped construction when the indian workers, who were putting up the second tower dome, kept falling to their death. To the right, here, is a closeup of the area in the upper middle. If you look closely where I have put the arrows, you'll see a cat near the top of a swirl, and a little mouse inside the swirl. According to the local hispanic community, should the cat ever catch the mouse, the world will come to an end. Since I am not quite sure whether the world is coming to a good end or a bad one, my hopes go with the mouse.

Also possessing a curious historical tale is the small school I attended while I lived here, called Pima Community College. To the right is a photo of the inside of one of the classrooms, with a stone pillar poorly aligned with the wall. This is a common sight in many of the older buildings at PCC West. According to one of the professors, when PCC was founded in the sixties, they envisioned an educational experience like that of the ancient Greeks. The professors would stand by one of the pillars, while students would gather around him for their lessons. When the administrators found that students were having trouble finding their "classes", and that the desert winds disrupted note-taking, the experiment was quickly ended, and traditional classroom walls were constructed around the pillars.

This photo is one of the few shots I took of the Saguaro cactus. Only in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and northern Mexico are these distinctive plants found (although they seem to be associated with EVERY desert for some reason).

Tucson architecture and local flavor is rich with pride in the desert sun. Although it's not shown here, the squarish "pueblo" building shapes and wall textures, along with the desert colors of tan, orange, white, etc give the town a lovely Arizona ambiance. Arizona themes are found even in the grocery store I wandered in to buy camera batteries.

The last photo of this page is of my alma matter, Mountain View High School. I graduated in the class of 1990, the *first* graduating class. I'll never forget the assembly held before the graduation ceremony. Our principal entreated us to behave with dignity, as befits the tradition of the ceremony we were about to participate in. At that point, an anonymous senior calls out "But we're the first class, *what* tradition are you talking about?". Heh...

Well, that concludes the second part of this Tucson tour. If you'd like to see the rest of the man-made sights around Tucson, click Here.

If you find anything in here you have questions or comments about, feel free to leave me email right here. 

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