2019 Jan 11 Tucson 1



Bus trip through downtown Tucson.  Cathedral is under renovation, but I was still able to get a good picture.  
Below:  Could not guess what this was until the tour guide told us.  Someone guessed a bird cage.  This is hanging above a restaurant.  They're drying jerky for sale in their restaurant. 


We drove by several murals.  This one was the best I thought.
San Xavier cathedral.  Also being restored to original.  The right dome was never completed back in the 1800's due to lack of funds.  So they are restoring it without the right dome.



Biosphere 2 is about 25 miles North of Tucson.  I loved touring this amazing place.  It was named Biosphere 2 because planet earth is Biosphere 1.
It encompasses several structures.  The lower dome in the back is called a lung.  It adjusted the air pressure throughout the Biosphere.
The dining hall where the Biosphere prepared and ate their meals.  They of course had to grow everything.  So mostly vegetarian diet, but they did have chickens and eggs.
During the two years that the team spent totally enclosed in the Biosphere.  only a minute amount of water was lost.  There are special pipes that collect the condensation as it evaporates, and then pipes it back through the system.  I found it all very fascinating.  The University of Arizona is still operating and doing experiments about the environment.

Below: This is inside the lung.  Roof moves up and down to adjust the air pressure throughout the complex.
Walking out of the inside of the lung to the area between the lung and outside.  It really blew us around.  And then the tour guide shut this door and opened one to the outside.  We lost a few hats.


 Cliff and I visited the Arizona Dessert Museum.  Not only a zoo, but also a botanical garden.  Below is a Great Horned Owl and a Harris Hawk.
Agave garden below.  There are over 200 species.








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