As many longtime readers know, I live in Tucson, AZ. But, in all time I’ve done this blog, I don’t remember ever sharing an image of the city itself. Well, here it is in all its glory!
As you may know, Tucson is surrounded by hills and mountains. I took this image from up on Sentinal Peak. It is aslo known as “The Big A Mountain”. The reason? Right behind where I was standing to take this picture, there is a huge letter A, symbolizing the University of Arizona. It is quite large and can be seen for miles. It is all white, but a few years ago, it was red, white and blue…the school colors. I don’t know why they changed and painted it with just with white, but they did. Every year, it’s a tradition that the freshman class come up here and give the Big A a fresh coat of paint.
Moving back to the photo, the big highway in the foreground of the photo is I-10. This interstate runs from Los Angeles to Florida, or ocean to ocean, as you might say. It first goes east to Phoenix, then turns south for 100 miles to Tucson. Just to the right of the photo, it turns east again and heads to Las Cruces, New Mexico. From there it goes South again to El Paso then eventually works its way south and east again all the way to Jacksonville, Florida. It is a very long, long highway.
Just behind the freeway is downtown Tucson. Its funny in a way in that some of oldest old homes from the days of Spanish occupation in Tucson now mix with the modern downtown. When I first came here, I was not impressed with the downtown area. But it has been going through a renaissance with new buildings, new restaurants and shops. Its becoming quite classy and a fun place to hang out. There are theaters there…and just on Monday, they held a large outdoor jazz festival at various locations. There is a lot of new activity happening here and I am mighty glad to see it.
Now look just behind the downtown area and you will see a large collection of buildings that runs north and south. That would all be the University of Arizona. Look closely and you can see the football stadium. That is at the south and east end of the campus. Let your eye follow from there all the way until the large buildings come to and end. That would be the north end of the campus. It is quite large…trust me as I have walked almost all of it at one time or another. 40,000 students make up the student body. Its big enough that it has its own transportation system as well as a police department.
In between the downtown and the campus lies the 4th Ave District and the University District, each with its own unique ambience and definitely worth a visit if you ever come this way. Connecting all of these is a new streetcard system that begins on the west side of the freeway, just to the left of the photo. It travels through all the districts I mentioned, ending up at the very north end of the campus. Its a great way to travel the city and not worry about parking. As a matter of fact, I took it today to attend an art lecture at the University Museum of Art.
Tucson is surrounded by mountains. Most of the mountains you see in this photo are part of the Santa Catalina Mountains. To the far right of those mountains in the photo is the beginning of the Rincon Mountains. The city of Tucson runs right to the base of both those mountain ranges. It is a big city, in term land size. The city sits at about 2,500 feet evelvation and has aproximately one million people in the greater Tucson area.
I hope you have enjoyed this quick tour of my adopted home. I live in the western foothills above the city, at about the same elevation as the Big A mountain. It would be a couple of miles to the left of where this photo was taken. I really love this city and have enjoyed my 7+ years here. Maybe not so much in the summer, but everything here is air conditioned, included the streetcars. Thank God for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment