Tucson March 17 - March 24, 2026

Tucson March 17 - March 24, 2026

Tuesday: This year we chose to meet up with Grandma, Grandpa, James and Maggie in Tucson, Arizona. Noelle had a different SB this year and chose to go to Portugal with 2 classmates and a mom. Greta, dad, and I left for Chicago around 6:30pm. We dropped off Wilson with the Christenson's. He didn't mind one bit. We got to Hilton Rosemont near O'Hare around 8:30pm. We basically changed into pj's and hit the sack early.

Wednesday: This morning I skipped my morning run to not be so rushed. We hoped on the 5:30am shuttle to O'Hare. We should have taken the 5am one. We had to still get my boarding pass printed out. The lady at the counter at Frontier Airlines was not helpful in the least. Two other coworkers tried to help her and still had no idea why my boarding pass wouldn't print out. They said I'd have to contact security to figure this out. Then the super worker came by and came to the rescue. She looked at me and asked if my name was JillM? Then she said please don't take offense to this, but are you a male or were you a male? Supposedly Expedia had my first name spelled wrong and me listed as a male. When we got it figured out, we then bolted it for security. I wasn't able to go through pre-check for whatever reason. I actually made it through this faster than Greta and dad. I sprinted to our gate. I then had a brilliant idea that Greta should hop on a cart and get a ride to the gate since she had a boot on. She has a stress fracture I believe from running too many miles too quickly, trying to stay in shape after her hockey season has ended. Fortunately, we got on the plane in time. Matt looked at his watch and his stress meter was quite high. LOL. We got to sit together in the same role. No hot water was available for coffee or tea and the air conditioning wasn't working. It was super hot in our plane and the cockpit was super cold. Oh well, it wasn't too long of a flight. Once to Phoenix, we rented our vehicle and started driving to Tucson. Grandma and grandpa meanwhile we're headed south, to meet us. We ended up meeting at a restaurant called SEIS kitchen. It was a really good Mexican joint. I enjoyed my taco salad with seasoned chicken and most amazing cold brew, four leaf roast. Next week drove around for a while since our ARB&B was not ready yet. We stopped at Ross and picked up a few items and then went to Safeway to buy our weeks worth of groceries. We then headed to our rental. James had just gotten here. We have a really nice rental with a hot tub, in ground pool, three bedrooms, pool table, dartboard. It overlooks the mountains. We stayed in tonight and chilled. We had frozen pizza for dinner and went for a walk in our neighborhood after sunset. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to raise a family here. It's so strange. There's no yards with grass for kids to play. Greta did point out though there is a cul-de-sac near our place where street hockey would work really well. We all went to bed early. I think it was 8 o'clock which actually is 10 o'clock Wisconsin time.

Thursday:

Happy 47th birthday to me! It felt so good to get up and run this morning, my usual 5 miles. I ran through the neighborhood which was pretty hilly. Matt went on a walk run as well. Grandma Erma made everyone French pancakes. We heard from Noelle this morning. She got her ring for the upcoming ring dance. She's not sure who she's gonna go with yet . We then hit Walmart for a sunvisor for Erma and the gas station for ice for our packed lunches and a cappuccino for grandpa. We then drove to the Pima airspace museum. It was a good thing to do earlier in the day since the high was 104° today! We walked through one hanger and then did a tour around the property to see all the retired planes. We also listened to a World War II vet, over 100 years old, tell war stories. We then made our way back to our ARB&B for chill time. Greta got her suit on and sunbathed. She FaceTimed her friends Sophia and Lucy. Grandpa took a nap. Matt watched TV, James played Xbox, Erm put her hair in rollers, and I got caught up in my journal. My friend Chrissie's mom passed away on March 16th. Today she posted on Facebook when the funeral will be. It's super sad. She press passed away of breast cancer. She was my confirmation sponsor. This evening we all got dressed up and went to The Union for dinner. Afterward, we came home and Matt and I went for a neighborhood walk. I opened my gift after that, a homemade card and a $100 gift card to Whole Foods. They know me well!! We hit the sack soon thereafter.

Friday:

This morning I got up and ran my 5 mile loop again. Meanwhile, Greta and Grandma made blueberry muffins for breakfast. Matt had to log in to do work for awhile this morning. After his work was done, Matt, Greta and I went hiking. It was a hot one for our 3 mile hike up the mountain, likely in the 90's. It started relatively flat but then quickly became steep. The lady at the trailhead, the Ranger, seemed very concerned we're gonna get overheated and didn't have enough water. We did pretty well, Greta did have mild pain in her foot. Today was the first day she didn't wear her walking boot for her presumed stress fracture. Once back to our place, Grandma and James went out to get laundry detergent and ingredients for tomorrow's charcuterie board for when Maggie is here. Greta and I chilled outside in the sun. I read my book and had ice cream earlier than I've ever had, 10:45 AM! Halotop lite is the bomb! We then went to a restaurant called Tuxon Chix. Spicy fried chicken… Right up everyone's alley except for Jill. We were going to drop off Grandma at the mall to shop while we went to the movie Project Hail Mary. As we're driving there, James finds out on Facebook that this same mall had a shooting the day before. That plan changed! Grandma came and watched the movie with us instead. Afterward, we stopped at Walmart to buy burgers for dinner amongst other groceries. Grandpa grilled out for us and now we are watching Top Gun 2. James left at 8:45 pm to go pick up Maggie from the airport. Everyone but Erm got to meet her this evening. Erm was exhausted and hit the sack before James left for the airport. She seems super easy going and nice.

Saturday:

This morning I ran my usual route around the hilly neighborhoods, except this time I got to see the sun rise. Once back we all chatted for a while on the back patio while sipping coffee. After everyone got up, we made another batch of coffee that Maggie had brought for us and tested some of the dark chocolates she brought as well. We then piled into two vehicles, Greta with James and Maggie and the rest of us in our rental. We drove to old town Tucson. Was that a joke! Once we pulled in the parking lot, we were under amazed. It looked like a Wisconsin Dells! We were envisioning old buildings and more of a historical feeling, but it was basically an amusement park. We took one look at the prices and given our under amazement, we opted to take a picture by the sign and head somewhere else. We certainly got a laugh, some of the other people who we saw there were talking it up like it was the greatest. Instead, we drove to Tucson and went downtown. We found a cute restaurant and had lunch. Afterward, we went to Goodwill to find some treasures. James found wall art and a belt and Maggie found a porcelain candle cover. Once back to our rental, we got in our suits coated ourselves with sunscreen. We went into our pool and hot tub. We kept teasing Matt on how white he is. Afterwards we played pool and cribbage. Matt and I went to Whole Foods to buy wine to pair with our charcuterie board that James and Maggie put together. Felix grilled us chicken and we watched March madness basketball while having dinner….of course after singing the dinner prayer.

Sunday:

This morning's run was really hard. This many days in a row of hills is taking a toll on my body. Grandma and grandpa headed out fairly early this morning. They had a good two hours to get back to Apache Junction. James, Maggie, and Greta went to a coffee shop downtown to buy some energy drinks / sugar loaded beverages. We watch March madness and James and Maggie headed out just before noon. They had a six hour trek back to San Diego. Their plan was to stop at Culver's. I guess Maggie has never been to a Culver's. Greta and I floated for a bit. Then Greta and Matt watched the women's hockey national championship game. UW badgers won it again! I did yoga and went to Whole Foods while they were watching that game. Afterwards, we went to get our nails done at star nails. Greta got a manicure, Matt and I got pedicures. We then decided to go for a drive while listening to tunes. We didn't have any luck finding a souvenir shop. We still need to find something for the Christianson's for watching Wilson. We found ourselves back at Whole Foods to buy our dinner. We ate dinner in our rental while watching a new Netflix series. We finally found one that Greta, Matt, and I all like, The Madison. We hit the sack soon thereafter.

Monday:

I woke up this morning with a blazing headache so I opted not to run. I had breakfast on the porch with Matt. He then did some work and I did an hour of yoga. That felt good! We let Greta sleep in for a bit. When she woke up she wanted to work on her soccer referee certification quizzes. Finally by about 10 AM we decided to head to Mount Lemmon to hike butterfly peak trail. We drove a good hour up to 7000 feet. There were so many cyclists biking up! Fortunately, it wasn't as hot at that altitude. The hike wasn't as beautiful as we hoped. It was 4 miles long. Greta asked us at one point, "Why do we do this?" We kind of were wondering the same thing as we all got a little moody. It was quite a trek down and then back up. At our halfway mark we ate our packed PB&J's. Once back to our car we couldn't wait to refuel with ice cream. We ended up going to cold Stone. We made our way back to our rental and chilled by the pool, reading our books. Greta finally finished her soccer referee quizzes. We're gonna head back to Whole Foods again (darn) and purchase the souvenirs for the Christenson's after getting potbelly subs for dinner.

Tomorrow we leave at 8am. We are gonna allow ourselves enough time given the partial government shutdown.

We enjoyed Tuscon, but have decided we would be happy somewhere else too. Until next time…

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