Many people told us that we should be sure to see Kartchner Caverns on this trip. And it was included in the Tucson Attractions Passport, so we were even more motivated to go.

So, after breakfast at Diane’s Dad’s apartment (two days in a row of The Good Egg was enough for now), we set off for Kartchner Caverns. And it was well worth the trip. They don’t let you take your camera into the caverns (they do a lot to preserve the cave, including misting you on your way in and hosing down the path every day!), so I have no pictures to share, but their web site shows a little of what you’ll see if you go. You do need to make reservations in advance, because they only allow a limited number of people a day through the caverns, again, to help preserve them and keep the cave a living cave.

We’d watched Dark Star a couple of weeks ago; in so far as the movie has a theme song, it’s Benson, Arizona, so I was happy when I realized that a trip to Kartchner Caverns would also give us the opportunity to visit Benson, at least for lunch. Our first attempt at that was at Gallenano’s, but one breath of the smoke-filled air inside sent us reeling back to the car. The AAA TourBook listed three restaurants in Benson, and there was no “smoking section” symbol for the Horse Shoe Cafe, so we drove over there and were delighted to see a sign at the entrance saying that it was completely non-smoking. And the food was good, too. Recommended.

From Benson, we continued to Tombstone. We began our visit with a trip to the Boothill Cemetery (we even found the “Jewish Memorial” way down at the bottom of the hill). By the time we reached the main part of town, it was pretty late, so we contented ourselves with strolling down Allen Street, with a short stop at the OK Corral so that we could log at least one cache on this trip.

Then it was back to Tucson. Diane’s Dad likes to eat at Furr’s Family Dining, but it’s on the other side of town from his apartment, and he no longer drives, so we stopped there for dinner. I don’t think I’d go back on my own.

Unlike yesterday, when we hit places which Diane’s Dad and SO didn’t want to see again, we planned to spend today with them, touring Tucson before having dinner with Diane’s aunt to celebrate her 91st birthday. We’d bought Tucson Attractions Passports for them and us (and, in fact, had already more than paid for ours yesterday), so we wanted to visit places in the passport, and after a little discussion, settled on the Flandrau Science Center at the University of Arizona.

I should have looked them up on the Web first, because they were closed. Apparently, they’re working on building a new Science Center as part of a planned renovation of downtown, and so they are only open for a fraction of the schedule listed in the passport.

So we went with Plan B — art. We saw the Richard Avedon exhibit In the American West at the Center for Creative Photography, which I found somewhat disturbing; it seemed ironic that the best-dressed people in the photos were all described as “drifters”. Then we continued with the University of Arizona Museum of Art; I was fascinated by the Faithful Samurai woodblocks prints.

Dining today was not terribly inspiring; we had lunch at the Cactus Cafe at the UA Student Center, and dinner at Peking Palace. Dinner was by far the better meal. We also had breakfast at The Good Egg again.