Greetings from the Salt Lake City airport where we are changing planes on the way home from Tucson. A few flying scenes:
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| Mural in Tucson Airport. |
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| Landing in Salt Lake City. |
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| Between Terminals A and B in Salt Lake City are a very long series of very imaginative murals. I took lots of photos which I will post eventually. |
Blog post © 2021 mae sander.
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| A pot of chili: a garnished bowl of this is shown above. Quite a few canned tomatoes here! |
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| Mushrooms in a tomato sauce, to be eaten cold with cilantro. |
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| Tortillas filled with ricotta and topped with cheddar, in a tomato salsa out of a bottle. |
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| Ottolenghi’s eggplant dumplings with canned tomatoes and basil leaves. |
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| Good old-fashioned spaghetti on the stovetop. |
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| Gumbo with green pepper, celery, onion, tomato, and of course okra. |
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| Deeper tomato flavor? I add a squeeze of tomato paste. |
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| Another useful pantry item: sun-dried tomatoes in oil. |
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| Tomatoes in a big bowl of salad. |
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| With red pepper and onion as a garnish for cold soup. |
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| On a plate with other raw vegetables to eat with Len’s freshly-baked bread, butter, and cheese. |
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| Tomatoes, cheese, and cilantro leaves. |
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| Tomatoes, Trader Joe’s smoked tuna, lemons, and parsley. |
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| Breakfast on the patio on the first really warm morning of the year. My coffee and juice are shared with Elizabeth and her friendly bloggers at Altered Book Lover. |
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| Not my kitchen: Dickey’s Barbecue Kitchen |
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| Driving around Arizona with a group of 8 birders: a chain restaurant barbecue lunch at Dickey’s. |
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| Coming from a Mexican kitchen in Sierra Vista: a dinner for the 8 of us birders. |
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| We really loved these Sonoran tacos at a restaurant in Tucson. Mexican food was definitely a highlight of the trip (second to birding). |
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| Our guide prepared a number of quite interesting picnic lunches and dinners. We all agree: food tastes better outdoors! Especially in these breathtaking woodlands and mountains. |
Here, from Len's Flickr set, are his photos of our best sightings during our first 8 days of birding in southern Arizona, along with some of my photos of the scenery. To see all Len's photos, click on any of the images below.
We have one more day of this great trip, organized by Field Guides Birding Tours. Our guide has been amazing at finding birds during this terrible drought in the Southwest.
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Patagonia Lake: an amazing place in the desert! |
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| One of our most beautiful days was spent in the Chiracaua Mountains near Portal, Arizona. |
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| ... and yes, we saw lots of cactus in bloom. |
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| The Cafe on the road to Patagonia, Arizona, sources its beef from a nearby ranch. We watched birds at the vast ranches in that neighborhood. It’s a very dry year, and cattle are overgrazing, but somehow still surviving. |
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| We ordered the hamburgers, which were very tasty. |
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| Another lunch: inside the Gathering Grounds cafe in Patagonia. On one wall: a great black and white mural. The food is also great. We had very delicious sandwiches and fabulous rhubarb and strawberry-rhubarb pie. |
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| The very interesting mural in Gathering Grounds. |
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| Isabel’s Mexican restaurant in Wilcox, Arizona, also served us a really appealing lunch. |
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| The salsa bar at Isabel’s. |
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| Patagonia, Arizona, is an excellent birding spot. No wonder there is a quail among all the murals on the public restroom there! |
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| A roadrunner, too! |
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| Notice the REAL girl pretending to be part of this mural on another wall of the public facilities. |
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| It’s a great work of art! |
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| Elsewhere as we traveled around southern Arizona, we saw this beautiful storage tank. |
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| We saw some really great birds in Patagonia, so it’s nice that it also has such neat street art. |
