DeGrazia Gallery in Tuscon
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Dark clouds, wind, rain… nothing will stop us from continuing our Arizona adventure! A perfect day for indoor discoveries… Together with our friends, we made a few interesting stops in the vicinity.
DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun (www.degrazia.org), a 10-acre property at the bottom of Santa Catalina Mountains, is now classified as an historic site and fits beautifully in the Sonoran desert. Built by the painter with traditional materials, the building and its gardens reflect his personality and beliefs. As you learn more about him through his work, you feel a certain closeness to both the artist and the man. We were also fortunate to have an amazing close encounter with a Cherokee woman who was a close friend of his. She told us about some poignant and painful moments of his life, and we chatted with her for a while (you get those special moments when you travel off-season…).
The beauty of visiting friends is that they know and can take you to special places. Lunch at the Hacienda del Sol, in Tucson,was one of them. Even under grey clouds and spitting rain, the place looked beautiful (www.haciendadelsol.com). Inside and in the garden, you can experience southwestern flair, with beautiful furniture and amazing plants!
We stopped at the Botanical Garden because there was an exhibition of some work from Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, but by then, it poured hard and a stroll in the gardens would have been a too wet adventure… :(((
So we did a tiny bit of shopping and planned a home cooked meal. We stopped at a humongous wine store (an American chain called Total Wine) and bought some at prices that would put the Canadian LCBO to shame! Chicken, wild rice and veggies ended up on our plates… simple and delicious!
After dinner, our friends introduced us to a card game called Skip-Bo. The girls played against the guys, and even if I HATE to admit it, Raymond played skilfully. I will deny it publicly, though, and call it pure luck!!!!
Ray and Anna Blog 
Lovely and interesting blog, Anna & Ray! Hope you take a bi-plane flight over Sedona for a lifetime experience. And watch out for those “jumping cactus”!
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