Hotel Congress and Happy New Year

Corona de Tucson

January 1, 2023

Thrusday (12/29) morning sunrise

New Year's Eve morning,  Joe and I headed  north to Tucson for brunch.  Hotel Congress was our...um, my choice...mainly because we haven't been there.  

The hotel was built in 1919.  There have been lots of renovations and updates, but one thing you will not find are televisions in any of the 40 rooms. Maintaining the original ambiance with iron bed frames, vintage radios, and 1930s style rotary phones that connect to a real switchboard at the front desk are just a few of the reminders of days gone by.  In an effort to modernize, air conditioning, wiring, and plumbing have been upgraded thru the years. Also, the walls in each room have been adorned with one-of-a-kind paintings (mostly from local artists). Unfortunately, you have to be an over night guest to go upstairs.  

Downstairs, the colorful walls and gorgeous terra cotta floor tiles (original tiles...100+ years old) are the backdrop for all the comings and goings.  The Southwestern designs in the Lobby were painted by Larry Boyce.  Boyce arrived in the spring of 1986 offering to decorate the lobby for a place to park his bike.  It is documented that Boyce rode his bike from the Bay-area to Tucson and that he traveled over 250,000 miles on his bike in his lifetime...leaving beautiful murals all along the way.  He completed his work at the hotel in the spring of 1989.   

The lights on the lobby ceiling...I was glad I looked up.

When reading about the hotel, words like vintage, cultural, eclectic, charming, chic, cozy and many others rose to the surface.  It was all of those things and I will add fun !

These days, Cup Cafe serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week...even on holidays...with dining inside or on the patio.   The breakfast menu offers a variety of choices from poached eggs in a personal size cast iron skillet with ham, Gruyere cheese, cream and herbs served with hotel potatoes to Trout Benedict with smoked trout, poached eggs, hollandaise and served with  "dressed" mixed greens.  Joe had quiche of the day with "dressed" mixed greens and I had an omelet with hotel potatoes.  Both were yummy...but next time I'm definitely going for the personal size cast iron skillet after seeing one float by our table.  

Week-ends feature a Bloody Mary bar.  I later read that reservations can be made, but we only had a 10 minute or so wait...just enough time to explore and get photos.      

We are not night folks, but if we were, The Tap Room pours up draft beer and cocktails nightly. It's cozy and well decorated with the work of cowboy artist, Pete Martinez who enjoyed drinking at this bar in the 30s and 40s with Lee Marvin.  

The wrought iron saloon doors to enter the Tap Room were closed, but one of his painting at the entrance caught my eye...Dance of Death.  His work was featured in exhibits all over the country.  Eventually he and his wife retired in Tucson and Hotel Congress holds the largest collection of his original work.

This three story landmark designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival was built just south of the train depot and convenient to passengers arriving in Tucson.  A fire in 1934 destroyed the third floor where John Dillinger was hiding and registered under a false name. The fire inadvertently resulted in the capture of John Dillinger and his gang making the hotel "headline news".  Only one room on the third floor survived the fire and today it is still the only room on the third floor.  

In 2003, Hotel Congress was added to the National Register of Historic Places.  The hotel has many stories to tell..some true, some made up and even some that are haunted.    

   

There is nothing better than a nice walk on a beautiful day after a yummy and filling breakfast.  A couple of blocks down the street from the Hotel is Southern Arizona Transportation Museum.  Actually, the only transportation represented was trains.  There really isn't much to the museum.  Inside, the history and timeline of trains in southern Arizona is explained and artifacts donated to the museum are on display. 

One of the displays was dated nails.  The date was stamped on the nail head.  For example, a nail with "41" would have been from 1941.  They were usually 2 1/2 " long, made of steel and used for railroad ties.  

I would love to have a set of these old dishes from one of the earlier passenger trains.

According to the history, Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in Tucson in March 1880.  And for the first time, this small community of 7,000 people had reliable access to the rest of the country.  Before that, a trip from Yuma to Tucson took 4 days.  

Joe has always had a love for trains.  Maybe it's because his grandfather was an engineer.  On display outside is a Southern Pacific locomotive given to the city in 1955.  Locomotive 1673 was built in 1900 and logged over 1,000,000 miles hauling goods across the country.  Today it sits on a section of track at the Historic Tucson Train Depot.

The docent at the Locomotive retired from the railroad.  He was very knowledgeable and seemed to enjoy sharing with interested visitors.

Tucson Train Depot was built in 1907 and restored to its 1942 appearance in 2004. The Transportation Museum is housed in the records vault room of the old depot.  

Back at the oasis, it was a quiet week.  I read that the days between December 27-30 are often called Twixmas.  It is described as a time when life seems to slow down a little and everyone takes a deep breath...a time to recharge our batteries before we welcome another year.  I guess that really only applies to folks who work. It is nice to spend most days taking deep breaths and moving at a snails pace if that's what we want to do.  In "betwixt" the first of the week and the end of the week,  we had a nice, lazy rainy day doing absolutely nothing.  I do find it hard to get motivated to do anything on dreary days.   About 5:30 pm I looked out the kitchen window...The clouds were thick and dark with just a little glimmer of a sunset.

Same day and time, this is what I saw in the backyard.  The little glimmer of sunset cast a pretty pink color on the clouds and hid the peaks on the Rincon Mts.  

I'm not sure where my burst of energy came from on Thursday, but I actually cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer, cleaned the refrigerator and freezer,  polished all the kitchen appliances and gave myself a pat on the back.  Joe spent time working on a leather belt.  

Speaking of the kitchen, when we were at the 4th Avenue Street Fair, we purchased a nifty little gadget.  

A young man and his daughter were selling these kits. It's a garlic clove peeler and grater.  I am happy to say, it works!  It you put a garlic clove in the blue rubber tube and role it in the palm of your hand, all the skin comes off...tadah!   Rub the garlic clove on the red dish and it minces...tadah!  I have never liked pealing or mincing garlic ...this is much easier.  
 

The Gold Finches are the first to discover the new tree in the backyard.  It provides a place for them to hide...

    a place to perch. 

I think this little guy was lost...

We have seen lots of Mourning Doves the past few weeks.

And the Cactus Wrens still put a smile on our face...they can run pretty fast. 

The violas have seed pods.  I think that is so cool...the seeds are so tiny.  

The wild Globe Mallow on the other side of the fence is full of color.

And the skies continue to "wow" us.

The Empowered Woman...a gigantic mural painted on the side of One Fifth Avenue Apartments at the corner of Fifth Ave and Congress Street...was completed in 2022 and added to the list of over 100 murals around Tucson.  It is most impressive!   

I like the word "cheers"...it's used as a toast to celebrate friendships and a way to express thanks.   So,

to everyone and here's to a great 2023!

Happy New Year !

Until next time, 

Heading home from town...

HAPPY TRAILS!  

Birds, Brunch, and Begonias

Corona de Tucson

September 10, 2022 

Friday afternoon clouds...we could smell the rain !

Yesterday morning, we found ourselves heading back to Tucson.  Joe had an appointment with the eye doctor at 8:00 am.  We skipped walking, had a cup of coffee while the puppies had breakfast and were out the door by 7:00.  It is a common answer when either of us asks, "How far is it?" to always reply 26-28 miles. So far, the miles/time to get any where in Tucson is the only downside to living southwest of the city.  By no means is it a complaint...we love it here!  Traffic can be a little on the heavy side that early in the morning (some folks do have to go to work) so we allowed ourselves a good 45 minutes.  We prefer these early appointments.  There are usually other stops to make and Friday was no exception.  After getting a great report on Joe's eye, we were off to Wild Birds Unlimited...I love that store.  We bought a goldfinch feeder and Nyjer Thistle seed.  Lesser Goldfinch live in this part of the country year round.  They often stop by for a drink, but never visit any of the other feeders. 

The ladies at Wild Birds Unlimited (WBU) are awesome. Not only are they friendly and glad to answer all my questions, they are a wealth of knowledge.  We learned a lot about Lesser Goldfinch.  First off, these sweet little songbirds prefer to eat away from the large birds so as not to be intimidated or harassed.  And second, the Nyjer seed should be kept fresh and dry.  We had no idea that these picky little acrobats prefer a high oil content seed and once the seed dries out will turn up their beaks and look for fresher food.  

We also learned they will eat at the patio (a less chance of the seeds getting rained on) and have no problems sharing their space with the hummingbirds.  So, we hung the feeder this morning and fingers crossed we have takers. 

Our next stop was almost as exciting as the bird store.  It has been awhile since we treated ourselves to brunch.  Brunch is my favorite meal to eat out and being so close, I couldn't resist a second visit to Cafe a la C'Art.  I love this old historic part of downtown Tucson. 

We arrived about 10 minutes early...they open at 10:00 am during the week...along with a couple of other folks.     

  

     

We chose to eat inside this time even though the patio is very inviting...but then so are all the other spaces.

Both of us ordered the exact same thing we had last time.  Joe had the Cafe Skillet and after tasting his roasted potatoes with bacon, tomatoes and rosemary, I might have to make a change next time.  I ordered the Salmon Benedict...a yummy combo of poached eggs, salmon cakes and sautéed spinach all smothered in a dill dijon creamy sauce.

Back at the oasis, we welcomed dark clouds and patches of blue.  We could smell the rain and hear the thunder.    

It was a nice surprise to wake up this morning and see that we did get rain sometime during the night.  

I planted a small pot of begonias this past spring.  I always had pots and beds of begonias in Georgia and thought why not.  To my astonishment, the one little pot I planted is quite huge and very pretty.  It has to be watered everyday, so who ever rinses out the bird bath (which we do every morning) also has to water my begonias.  This was one small tray with six tiny plants.

After the rain...

This morning, we had a rather historic visit.  I counted at least 35 Gamble's Quail in the yard all at the same time.  They arrived in hordes thru the fence over the fence and even over the concrete wall.  They just kept coming and coming !

They ate, they scratched, they fussed, they had water, and they chased each other in circles.  

And then they left...just like they came...over the wall, over the fence, and thru the fence until there were only a couple remaining that didn't linger long.

When it was all quiet again, I happened to notice a new hummingbird at the feeder.  I spent time trying to identify it and found a close match (White-eared Hummingbird) but there were differences so I don't think that is it.  Do you know this hummingbird?  I don't remember ever seeing a hummingbird with a white stripe over his eye.

Last spring, we planted a small torch cactus.  It has bloomed three times this summer and grown a lot fatter and taller.  

This morning I noticed it had two new growths...one on each side. 

He knows better...

Breakfast, one peck at a time...

When I sat down to look at photos on the computer, I had no intention of blogging...and voila ! Until next time...

HAPPY TRAILS!