Nature and Culture of Tucson: Day 9: A Day in the City (Ellie)

Today was our final full day in the city of Tucson. In the morning our crew set out to Tohono Chul, a botanical garden, art gallery, and bistro. When we got to Tohono Chul we split off into two groups of seven to be led around the garden. As we walked around the garden we learned about all the native plants in the area along with some interesting background stories that came with some of the plants we were looking at. After we walked around the garden we then headed to the bistro, but little did we know we were in for a little bit of a long wait. As we were waiting Dr. Salem decided to take a little nap on the patio. The food at the bistro was very tasty. After our time in Tohono Chul, we set out to the downtown area of Tucson and we went to this series of art shops Ms. Eckert recommended for us to explore. The shops were pretty cool, every single one had something different. There was a record shop, a Native American jewelry shop, a vintage shop, and local artist's shops. My personal section was the record shop I spent the majority of the time there. Later, we returned back to our hotel to relax before dinner and the U of A game later in the evening. For dinner, we went to a restaurant just outside our hotel, and our dinner was accompanied by a local band playing some tunes. After we finished our dinner we headed over to the U of A campus to watch the Wildcats play USC. The atmosphere of the arena was thrilling, and U of A fans scattered everywhere it was awesome. We watched LeBron James's son "Bronny" play for USC (not his best game), the U of A fans didn't appreciate it when he had the ball so he was greeted with jeers except for Baker's very loud cheer in the dead silent arena when "Bronny" scored. In the end, U of A won 82-67 so it was a great game. Then we all headed back to our hotel for a restful night.