And Just Like That, It's 2025

Corona de Tucson

January 1, 2025

Christmas...

Christmas week just flew by.  At the top of the list was baking sugar cookie Christmas trees for Santa. Santa likes all kinds of cookies, but these are his favorite and this year Santa helped decorate them. Jamie and Andra came over on Christmas Eve to spend the night. We enjoyed our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. 

Homemade lasagna, salad and toasted buttered bread was simple and yummy.

 

Ozzie and Lucy were joined at the hip!  

Christmas morning was perfect to watch the sunrise and enjoy coffee by the fire.

Sahuarita Lake Park...

Friday we were off for a big adventure...Lucy's first big adventure ! We haven't taken Lucy anywhere except to the vets.  That's not much fun and now that the vaccines are done (and we were advised to wait a couple of weeks after she had them) we can take Lucy to some fun places.  

About 15 miles from home is Sahuarita Lake Park.  It's a manmade lake stocked with fish that is surrounded by a 15- acre city park. There is a walking path around the lake, benches and covered picnic tables.  

 And the best part...lots of grassy areas !

The path around the lake is a mile.  Lucy walked the entire path...and everyone we met said "What a happy little puppy!" She was so happy...chasing leaves,  crunching leaves and enjoying the warm sunshine and beautiful day.  

Spa Day...

Saturday was another big day for Lucy...she had her first spa day!  She loves a bath, lets me brush her and even brush her teeth.  But I was not sure how the clippers for her fur and nails would be and thank goodness, we were given a good report when we picked her up.

Lucy's favorite new treat this week is frozen blueberries...

New Year's Eve...

The Hotel Congress, then called the Congress Hotel formally opened in Nov.of 1918.

Hotel Congress was once again our choice for brunch on New Year's Eve.  

This time I chose a Cast Iron Baked Eggs dish...two poached eggs, ham, leeks, gruyere cheese, cream, and herbs served with breakfast potatoes and sourdough toast and fresh orange juice over ice...so yummy! 

I always enjoy going there!  And every time we go, I Iearn something new.  

The headlines in the 1918 Arizona Daily Star newspaper read...

"New Congress Hotel is Open; Has 100 Rooms; Grill on First Floor"

A peek inside the tap room...the original first floor grill with it's own street entrance and served lunch to the public from 11:00 to 12:00 daily. 

"Tucson's "war bride" hotel, the Congress - the only building of major proportions built in Tucson during the war period- has opened". "The hotel has 100 elegantly furnished rooms, all of them outside ones, single en suite, and has 75 bathrooms, tub and shower." "It has a telephone in every room, steam heat, and elevator." 

Lobby Entrance...in the 1918 article, the original Congress Hotel was heralded at the time as the Southwest's first "flatiron" hotel because of the triangular shape of the building and plot of land upon which it sits. 

In 1985, new owners hired friends, designers, and artists to help run the hotel and gave them "room" to experiment to see what would work to draw in both tourists and locals.  It is definitely a work of art...and absolutely beautiful. 

 

All the light fixtures were made by resident artists who would stay at the hotel.

City walks are always on the fun list of things to do.  Out destination this time was the The Children's Museum and anything and everything in between.  On the way, we passed by the Scottish Right Cathedral.  

The Cathedral was dedicated in 1916.  In 1979, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building to the Armory Park Historic Residential District (That sounds like a mother walk!). 

 

The stage inside this beautiful Neoclassical Revival style structure (which was reported to have cost $150,000) was constructed and furnished at the time of dedication.  The stage machinery, the many painted backdrops, and the flying system are still in use today.  The building also included a 3-manual, 22-rank organ which was upgraded in 1937 by its original designer 

We stopped at the WWII memorial...

and took note of several other bits of history.

1914

The Willard Hotel was built in 1904.  The name was changed to Pueblo Hotel in 1944 and the "diving girl" was added in 1951.  That makes us the same age! She was meticulously restored in 2012.  The building underwent major restoration in the early 1990s and the pool was filled in. 

The Ronstadt Transit Center...
Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson. Her granddad created wagon wheels and ironworks for the region. In the early 1900s, his shop built streetcars pulled by mules for the Tucson Street Railway...the first public transportation in Tucson. 

You might remember that our last walk in the city was to the Pima County Library.  What is interesting to note is that The Children's Museum building was once the Pima County Library.   In 1898, Andrew Carnegie donated $25,000 for a new library to be built in Tucson with the stipulation that the city fund the books and maintenance.  He also stipulated that should the library move, the building could only be used by another nonprofit.  The original building was built in 1901 and two wings added in 1938.

The Children's Museum opened in the historic Carnegie Library building in 1991.

The building was added to the National Register of Historical Buildings in 1976.

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Outside there is a veggie garden, music garden, and a butterfly garden along with water activities and a science cart for hands-on science experiments.  

 

One more thing to note...the Bufano Bench is a 22-foot marble arched bench you see when you walk up to the museum.

The bench was sculpted by Beniamino Bufano and placed at the entrance in 1920.  It reads...
"To the memory of those pioneers of Arizona who have given their lives that we might live in peace and unafraid in this sunkissed borderland."
It is believed to be Tucson's oldest piece of public art.

Back at the oasis, it's been a lazy few days.  

The skies matched my violas early one evening...

Lucy helped replant some flowers...

A hawk sighting on the wall...

Lucy's first puzzle...

Sunset from the kitchen window...

And just like that, it's 2025 !  Wishing all our family and friends a Happy New Year.  

Until next time,

One of the murals at Sahaurita Lake Park

HAPPY TRAILS !