Day 6: Tubac -- 130 miles round trip

We had a nice Mexican meal last night at The El Charro Cafe in Oro Valley.  El Charro is advertised as the oldest continuously owned (by the same family)  Mexican restaurant in the US.  This was definitely not the original 1922 site, so they must have branched out.  It was quite busy for 8 pm. We had to wait about 30 minutes.  We had some great margaritas and asked about their speciality called El Charro carne seco.  It was described as "fluffy" beef, sort of a shredded beef jerky.  T said "no" at "fluffy," but R and I tried it.  Fluffy is a good description.  It was OK and we left quite satisfied and full.

We got up this morning and left for Tubac about 8:30.  It is about an hour drive and we got there about 20 minutes before the opening time.  We got a great parking place in the shade and close to the craft booths and downtown (about three square blocks).
They had some wonderful craftspeople there and we had a great time browsing, buying, and appreciating art.  We had a nice lunch at a local bistro and a later when it was getting quite warm, stopped for ice cream.  We left about 2:00 and headed south towards Tucsan.  We had to go through border patrol again, but the dogs didn't give us a second sniff and the guard sent us on our way.

We stopped just south of Tucson at the Mission San Xavier Del Bac.  This is a beautiful mission that you can see for miles.  The mission was founded by father Kino who founded many missions in southern Arizona and northern New Mexico.  You see his name everywhere in the Tuscon area -- it is sort of like when we were living in Boston and saw "George Washington slept here" signs everywhere.

Just off the parking lot is a cultural center for the Tohono O'odham Tribe.  There we met Joe Begay, a Navajo by birth who has had a long career as an actor, singer, and silversmith.  His speciality is O'odham jewelry with the "man in the maze" symbol that is unique to the tribe.  He had many fine wares and more stories about movies and a thick photo alblum of him with various stars he has worked with.  (Look him up on google.)  He was a delight to talk to and T and I both now have O'odham jewlery.

Man in the Maze

We made it home in time for a hike through the wash looking for birds and javalina.  We only spotted two quail -- tomorrow is another day.  It is off to the Tuscon Gem Show tomorrow.