Saguaro National Park & Old Tucson

Started the day really slow, thinking that we only had an hour and half drive today – only to realise at about 10am that it was Friday (not Saturday) and we were just past Phoenix (not Tucson) and not only did we have a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us but we were also planning to stop at some places en-route!!  First world problems – don’t know what day of the week it is or where the hell we are!! Packed up in a rush and set off for Saguaro National Park – home to giant cacti (en-masse). Not much else to say about them other than that … they are LARGE (up to 40 feet tall) and there are LOTS of them.

Next stop was Old Tucson Studios – where hundreds of movies and TV series were filmed including but not limited to, practically every John Wayne western, Little House on the Prairie (remember that??), The High Chaparral, Bonanza, Tombstone, The Three Amigos, Cannonball Run, etc. Looked just like a town out of a western (or a movie set of a town out of a western).

Watched a 30 min show, took a walk around and took some pics and went into the candy store.  There amongst the prickly pear licorice, prickly pear fudge, precious-stone looking jelly beans and other “foreign” candies is …. Darrell-friggin-Lea Australian Liquorice!! WTF??? WHY?? We did NOT buy any of that, but we did buy some Prickly Pear Lemonade (remember what Americans call Lemonade is not Sprite or an equivalent but lemon squash/fresh lemon juice). It was very nice – tastes similar to Turkish delight with a watermelon-y aftertaste.

Onward to HH for the night – the oldest winery in Arizona, Sonoita Winery. There was a Canadian couple (originally from Montreal – so French-speaking) also staying the night and they came over to invite us over for a drink. Spent a couple of hours chatting to them and they gave us their number in Canada to get in contact when we’re there or if we need any help/advice.