With dreams of warmer weather and saguaro cacti, we arrived in Tucson last night. Although it was drizzling, the enormous saguaro next to the car rental were a perfect welcome. The AirBnb, a converted bakery, was also welcoming with holiday lights and cookies.
The main event of today was Biosphere 2. We read a short book about it a few years ago and also enjoyed the documentary, Spaceship Earth, last year. Created by some very out-of-the-box thinkers, it’s now it’s run as a research facility by the University of Arizona.
On the drive north we got some sandwiches to go at Dickman’s Meat & Deli, which I recommend as the food options around Biosphere 2 are rather limited. The drive itself was pretty nice. Much of the area is uncommercialized so there were plenty of rolling hills and cacti to admire.
We went on both the audio tour, using their phone app, and the docent-led Lung tour. The whole place feels very sci-fi: the building design is incredible, the plants have outgrown the space, and most surfaces have a bit of something growing on them or paint flaking off them. Because the main buildings were designed to be completely sealed, a separate“lung” building was created to expand and contract as the air density changed over the course of a day. To access the lung we got to go through the lower level, full of mystery pipes and valves. I really enjoyed seeing this portion of the complex; it was definitely worth the time and extra ticket cost.
After our tours we enjoyed some ice cream and stocked up on groceries at Sprouts.
We had a little time to chill at the apartment, then it was off to the local Japanese hobby shop. Our visit lined up with their monthly build night, so Soren was happy to pick out a model and start building in-store. I wasn’t sure if the place would be busy or dead on Christmas Eve. It was pretty quiet, but three employees were working on various projects.
The night ended with a small feast at the Ethiopian restaurant Cafe Desta. It was justifiably packed. Great food, great ambiance.
(9 192 steps)
Leave a Reply