DESTINATION: TUCSON, AZ
Sometime Again in the Future

INCLUDED: Escort, transfers in Tucson, accommodations, baggage handling, tips for included items, ground transportation in Tucson, admissions as outlined, 15 total meals, 6 evening hospitalities.

  Wednesday, March 17:  Fly from Eugene to Tucson & transfer to the Inn Suites Hotel in downtown Tucson.  (7 nights) Your hotel features HOT Breakfast each morning and a Hospitality event each evening.

  Thursday, March 18: We take a day trip north to Oracle, AZ to visit the BIOSPHERE 2.  Time Life Books recently named one of the 50 must see "Wonders of the World.." Here we are able to see:
Ecosystems under glass; Ocean with coral reef , Mangrove wet-lands , Tropical rain forest , Savannah grassland

a Fog desert all in one place.
Biosphere 2 is run by the University of Arizona.  The enclosure now serves as a tool to support research already underway by UA scientists. As a laboratory for big-scale projects, the university*s stewardship of Biosphere 2 will allow the UA to perform key experiments aimed at quantifying some of the consequences of global climate change.  (B,L)

Friday, March 19: We take a Day-trip to KITT PEAK OBSERVATORY, including a tour of 3 different telescopes; the Mayall 4m Telescope, the McMath-Pierce Solor Telescope and the 2.1m Telescope.  Today's adventure includes a box lunch. (B,L)

Saturday, March 20: This morning we stop to visit OLD TUCSON, an actual movie set for many western movies.

Later we visit the ARIZONA SONORA DESERT MUSEUM, a world renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in one.  Landscaping has been designed to show-case over 300 animals in realistically natural settings.  There is nearly 2 miles of paths traversing 21 acres of beautiful desert. (B)

Sunday, March 21: The morning is free-time.  After lunch we visit the Tucson Botanical Gardens and later, the DeGrazia Gallery.  DeGrazia is a famous

southwest artist. (B)

Monday, March 22: We visit the PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM including a tram tour.  We've included a box lunch for today since their food concession is being remodeled.  Later we visit MISSION SAN XAVIER del BAC. The celebrated Jesuit missionary and explorer, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, first visited Bac in 1692. Eight years later in 1700, Father Kino laid the foundations of the first church, some two miles north of the present site of the Mission. He named it San Xavier in honor of his chosen patron, St. Francis Xavier, the illustrious Jesuit "Apostle of the Indies." From the earliest times, the Tohono O'odham settlement in which the Mission is located was called Bac, "place where the water appears," because the Santa Cruz River, which ran underground for some distance, reappears on the surface nearby. (B, L)

Tuesday, March 23:  Today, we take a day-trip to visit TOMBSTONE,  Arizona, a living town with a rich and colorful history. Many of the Wild West's most famous characters called Tombstone their home at one time or another. We visit the O.K. Corral, the Tombstone's Historama  & The Tombstone Epitaph.  (B)

Wednesday, March 24: As with all tours,

today,we have to head for home

with transfers back to the airport. (B)