Driving Miss Pat, Miss Carol, and Miss Colleen

Dan joined us on our Saturday adventure - and he drove - mostly because he had planned out the day. Our only requirement was that Carol and I wanted to take them out to dinner that evening. Dan did well!

First up was a tour of Dan's students' murals. A woman in Tucson, whose 2-year-old son Ben died several years ago, started a foundation called Ben's Bells. She said that nothing people said to her made her feel any better, but simple acts of kindness did. She started giving bells to people who had done her a kindness and encouraged others to do the same. That led to registering the bells on a website with the recipient names. She got a grant to do some ceramic tile art on benches on the University campus. People painted the name of a person or organization who had demonstrated kindness. They fired the ceramic tiles and attached them to 3 or 4 benches in the college quad. This is where Dan came in. He runs a program for K-12 students with disabilities. His students helped with painting and firing the ceramic squares.

Dan's students' role in working in ceramics grew as Ben's Bells grew. Second to large murals near the University in concert with a famous outdoor muralist from Philadelphia. Then a large 4-sided mural in a plaza downtown. Now they have two workshops creating all kinds of ceramic kindness reward items - bracelets, coins, etc.

We did the whole tour of all Dan's students' murals. You can see from the photo how the concepts have matured as their work in public art has grown larger and larger.



Next up was a drive up to "A" Mountain. "A" Mountain has a giant A painted on rocks piled to to make the letter and painted white. From that spot, you can see all of Tucson. The view is spectacular! Apparently rival schools try to paint the "A" in their school colors, which leads to Tucson United school students having to keep watch a few nights before each game to ensure the "A" stays white. Sounds like that would be great fun for a high school student.

Third spot on Dan's tour was the mission church at San Xavier (which Tucsonians pronounce "sanaveer" or San Javier). It is a gorgeous old adobe church built by Spanish priests from Mexico sent to Tucson on an evangelical mission. You can see in the photo on the right that they are in the process of restoring the exterior of the church. One tower is finished and one tower is not. The mission church started in 1692, and the current church was constructed over 14 years between 1783 and 1797, making it the oldest European structure in Arizona.



All the statues inside the church are also adobe, as well as some outside the church (there are a lot of statues). Dan's parents celebrated a reconsecration of their marriage vows there for their 50th anniversary.

We spent a lot of time there sitting in a pew and taking in all the artwork. The word is overused - but the sheer amount of naive art in that space was amazing. My interior photos all turned out fuzzy; this is the best I could do.

We walked the courtyard and the gift shop (where I bought some post cards). We lost Carol so went looking for her on the hill there there is a grotto and some benches for quiet reflection. We found her coming out

of another gift shop on the site. Dan bought us all one humungous Indian fry bread which we shared. A group of Native Americans were frying them up and selling them in the parking lot for Saturday evening mass attendees. It was light, airy, and delicious. San Xavier is located on what is otherwise a reservation. On our way out, I saw my second road runner - and yes, he was sauntering on the road.

We headed over to El Charro in the Presidio for dinner - on me and Carol to thank Colleen and Dan for cooking for us for the past 4 1/2 days and for everything they did to open their home to us and make us feel like it was our home. El Charro doesn't take reservations and we had an hour wait for a table, so we went shopping at a small art alley just around the corner also in the Presidio called Old Town Artisans. The shops were in a rabbit warren of twists and turns with lovely things around every corner. I bought 4 green and red pepper Christmas ornaments for the grandkids. We did a lot of window shopping. By the time we walked slowly back to El Charro, our table was ready.

I had a chicken mole enchilada as I was told that their mole is fantastic. And "they" did not lie. Dan had a carne seca burrito. He said that is dried beef - and El Charro dries their own beef on site. We all had great meals, and shared a pitcher of Margarita (made with real limes - nummm).

It was such a fun day and fun evening! We arrived home at 8 pm, but it felt like midnight - we had such action-packed fun in Tucson. I worked on the trip blog until bed. Took a photo in the morning of all four of us sitting at the table working on our separate computers - a common site this past week.