We had lunch at another favorite of ours – Poco and Mom’s Mexican restaurant. They’re famous for their New Mexico hatch red and green chilies. I had their green chili chicken enchiladas – yummy goodness. Emily had two special order enchiladas with homefries.
So how do you top off a day visiting exotic animal? Why by eating a dinner of exotic cuisine.
We tried Peruvian restaurant for our first time. I was swooning when they brought out homemade corn nuts! And they were presented in such a cute wooden dish. (In case you don’t know, I enjoy corn nuts, I generally have a stash hidden somewhere. Hmm, not sure if boys are allowed to say ‘swooning’ and ‘cute’ – oh well.)
I had ‘chupe de camarones’ – a shrimp bisque with rice and cheese; and ‘aji de gallina’ – pulled chicken breast cooked in aji amarillo and roasted walnuts served over potato with a pyramid of rice. Both were great.
Emily had a vegetable and rice dish – with a “peruvian corn”, a large kernel corn with lots of flavor. It was served with a delicious sauce.
We had today by ourselves, so we decided to visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We estimated a couple hours since it was pretty small. Boy were we wrong! In the plus 10 years since we lived in Tucson, the zoo has greatly expanded. It became an all day extravaganza.
So many amazing experiences… Probably the best raptor show I’ve ever seen. A breathtaking snowy owl encounter with a zoo keeper meet and greet. A hummingbird enclosure that was full of chirpy nest building creatures – including one with teeny tiny babies. Wonderful wild cats in epic enclosures. They even had crystal caves and an aquarium. All topped off with sunny 80 degree weather.
Just some photos of us driving in west Tucson to our first excursion of the day. Some beautiful cactus hills.
This time we tried the pool at night. It was a magically lighted, with the colors changing periodically.
