The Temple

My 49th Temple

My son James and his wife Ellie

beautiful trees on the temple grounds

My son James served his mission in the Tucson Arizona Mission, Spanish speaking. After he married his sweet wife Ellie, we took them both back to tour his mission. He had two temples in his mission boundaries -- Tucson, and Gila Valley. We attended the Tucson Temple on the morning after we arrived in Tucson. It is a very unique temple. My favorite part about it is the dome, which makes it very distinct from most other temples. I also really loved the colors of the temple, and the landscaping. The dark wood inside the temple reminded me both of the Provo City Center Temple and the Fort Collins Colorado Temple. We went to see the temple all lit up at night when we first arrived in Tucson. Our endowment session was the following morning. This was my 49th temple.

The Trip

The main reason for visiting Tucson was to meet some of the people that James had taught and loved while he served his mission there. So we did spend quite a bit of time visiting people rather than sites, which was fantastic! I loved meeting people who had taken care of and loved my son while he was there! We arrived in Tucson in the late afternoon, and after visiting some ward members from his mission, we went to eat dinner at Little Anthony's Diner. We tried to get tickets to a show at the Gaslight Theater, but they were all sold out! James was disappointed because he'd wanted to see a show there ever since serving his mission! We'll have to go back! The diner was so much fun - we took photos outside as Marilyn Monroe, we sat in a bright red booth, and we even ordered a colorful dessert with sparklers in it! While we waited for our food, we colored on the paper table cloths with the provided crayons. It was such a fun atmosphere!

The next morning we went to the Tucson Temple. We went to see the apartments that James lived in during his mission. We went to tour other areas of James' mission, including Douglas and my very favorite -- Old Bisbee, which reminded me so much of Italy! We visited Tombstone, and we even went to The Wall in Douglas and took photos of me putting my foot into Mexico. We stayed the night in Old Bisbee in an adorable hotel called the Hotel San Ramon, and we ate dinner at Bisbee's Table. Touring Old Bisbee at night was a highlight, not to mention eating breakfast at the Breakfast Club! We also toured the Queen Mine while we were there, which was fascinating.

During our time in Tucson we visited the Pima Air & Space Museum. We paid a little bit extra to get the outdoor driving tour, which I was very grateful for because we learned so much that we would not have had time to learn otherwise! We also hiked up A Mountain, which has special significance to my family because my Grandpa Call grew up in Tucson Arizona and he told stories of making go-carts with his friends and riding them down A Mountain! We ate dinner at Lin's Grand Buffet, which is a buffet that members used to take James to when he was a missionary. We ate lunch at BK Carne Asada and Hotdogs, which tasted way better than it sounds! James also insisted that we try an Eegees while we were there, followed by a Raspado!

One of the highlights of my trip was driving up Mount Lemmon and finding the two arches that I'd heard about. When we were in the temple, Ellie and I saw a beautiful painting of an arch. I was admiring it and a temple worker overheard me talking to Ellie about it. He told me that I could find that arch on the drive up Catalina Highway on Mount Lemmon. He even told me what mile marker was near the arch! I am an avid arch hunter, so learning that there was an arch in Tucson was beyond exciting for me! I was determined that we would find this arch. I did some research online and found out that there were actually 2 arches on the Catalina Highway, pretty close together. One is near mile marker 12, and the other near mile marker 15. We drove up Mount Lemmon and pulled over at mile marker 12. We wouldn't have been able to see the arch if we hadn't pulled over, even though it was right next to the highway, because it was below the road. This small arch does not have a name as far as I've been able to discover. Then we drove up to mile marker 15, and could not have missed Rocky Arch -- it is literally touching the highway. Actually, we could see it from a distance before we reached it. We parked in the pull-out and got out of the car to view the arch, which was way above our heads. Catalina Highway is very busy, so we had to be careful of all of the passing cars, but we took a few minutes to enjoy our view of the arch.

I love all the cacti we saw while we were in Arizona! James showed us jumping cactus, and warned us to stay away from those, because they were very painful and would grab hold of you as you walked by. I purchased a tiny cactus in Tombstone, named him Bernie, and brought him home to someday grow into a giant Saguaro!

Since we visited in December, we didn't have the extremely hot temperatures that James had enjoyed during his mission. In fact, it was cloudy most of the time -- otherwise we probably would have gone to an observatory at night to view the stars. Tucson has a light ordinance so that everyone can enjoy the beautiful starry skies at night. We were able to view Jupiter and Venus during the time we were there, despite the clouds. There were so many favorite parts of this trip it is impossible to choose just one -- of course I loved the Tucson Temple (and Gila Valley as well, but the Tucson temple is just so unique!), I loved all of the cacti everywhere! I loved visiting the Wall and Old Bisbee. And I loved discovering new arches! I had been looking forward to visiting Tucson ever since James was called on his mission there, and it did not disappoint!