Traveling

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It’s Wednesday afternoon.  We drove from Yuma to San Diego earlier today.  We’re currently in our exceedingly lovely hotel room with the sliders open to a sunny patio, a paved walkway, followed by sandy beach.  I do not want to move from this spot, but unfortunately staying here indefinitely is not an option.  We’re on a book tour after all.  Bill is dozing over his iPad, and Bella is zonked out on the bed.  Have I mentioned that doing book tours is hard on man and beast alike?

It’s not often you get a few hours off on a tour, and so we’re all really relishing this mini-vacation, because it turns out to be the second one this week.  On Monday, after the noon-time Sierra Vista signing, we took our granddaughter and her fiancé over to Bisbee for a “hit the high spots” tour.  We went to Santiago’s at the bottom of Brewery Gulch for lunch.

My chile relleno was TERRIFIC!!  (By the way, for those of you who are outlanders in the American Southwest, the proper pronunciation of Chile Relleno is CHILL-EE RE-EE-NO.   If you say CHILE RE-LAN-NO—that’s a good way to get run out of Dodge.  Ditto for Fajitas.  That’s pronounced FAH HEE TAS.  And do not ever call Tacos —TAY-KOES— or Enchiladas — EN-CHEE-LADES.  The first time you come to Arizona to visit, you will thank me for this handy pronunciation guide to Arizona foodstuffs.

Geographic names can also cause difficulties.  Gila Bend is pronounced HEE-LAH BEND.  The Huachuca Mountains are the WAH-CHOO-KAZ.  And the mountains on the far side of the Sulphur Springs Valley, the Chiricahuas, are pronounced the CHEER-EH-KOW-AZ.

Wait, I’m off topic here.  Thinking about the food at Santiago’s sent me into a spasm.  What I really wanted to talk about was going back to Bisbee on our mini-vacation.

As we walked into the restaurant, I saw that one of the Lavender Jeep Tour vehicles was parked half a block away in front of the Copper Queen Hotel.  When people write to me asking about what to do when they visit Bisbee, I often mention the jeep tour, but I hadn’t ever been on it.  That changed during the late afternoon hours on Monday.

I loved seeing the town through the eyes of someone who no longer lives there—noting familiar and some unfamiliar places.  Believe it or not, there are some streets in Old Bisbee on which I had never before ventured.  But it was also fun seeing it through the eyes of people who had never been there before.  I had initially envisioned Bill doing the driving and me doing the talking.  Instead, we had someone else driving with me chiming in here and there with the tour-guidey stuff.  (Spell-checker is NOT going to like the word guidey!)

So if your going to Bisbee to visit, don’t write to me for advice:  Do the following: Book the Lavender Jeep Tour.  That’s a must.  If you’re staying overnight, the Copper Queen Hotel is a good bet.  For a fine dining evening experience, try Cafe Roka—but check their hours first.  They’re not open every evening.  And for great Mexican food, definitely Santiago’s.

You can tell them all that I sent you.

7 thoughts on “Traveling”

  1. Enjoyed this blog. Your comments about Bisbee brought back memories of home tours there, the Copper Queen, etc. Thanks for the tips about the restaurants. Will give a try on our next visit. Keep your blogs coming.

    Frank & Natalie…

  2. Your advice about taking a tour in a city you don’t know is right on. I did that in London. Took a bus tour so I could see places I wanted to visit later. It is a good way to become familiar with a place.

    Thanks for the tips on food. I love Mexican food, but it is hard to find in CT.

  3. Thanks for the travel tips. Living in Oregon we are used to hearing our various names mis pronounced and sometimes beyond recognition. We would enjoy seeing some of your Arizona scenery and also enjoy your discriptions of the Seattle area.

  4. (gasp!) Judy, in your next-to-last paragraph, you used “your” instead of “you’re.” You NEVER do that! You must have been tired.

    I love San Diego this time of year, too — even if our accommodations were not luxurious (we stayed with a friend and cooked our meals). Someday I’m going back there again. And this time of year is best, to this Seattlite.

  5. Loved the pronunciation guide. Reminded me of a story my dad used to tell about something that happened when he was at Basic Training in San Diego in WWII. Dad grew up in Southern California, but there was another recruit who was from Kansas who was planning to visit a relative in the area with an day pass. He waited at the bus stop outside the main gate, for the bus that would take him to meet his relative. Late in the evening, he dragged back into the barracks. Dad asked him if he’d had a nice visit. The Kansas recruit threw up his hands in frustration. “I waited all day for that bus to La Hoya, but it never came. There sure were a lot for La Jol la, though!

    Thanks for the updates. Have a great tour!

    • My husband was stationed at the Navy base on Coronado so I learned the way words were pronounced. It is odd that people wouldn’t know so many words are Spanish, but they don’t. It’s the same in Tucson.

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