Around the US, National Parks

A Working Vacation in Tucson

rkendylb

I loved living in Tucson, Arizona when I was in college, and I was excited to return for a few days in 2023. Ostensibly, I was attending a conference, but the more exciting part of this was getting to bring my partner with me and showing him all the places I loved in this city! What’s interesting is that I actually used my own post, How to Spend a Weekend in Tucson, to plan this trip, but we didn’t follow that itinerary as written. That post supposes a hypothetical weekend in which you have nothing to do but explore, but most of the time when you only have a few days to visit somewhere, you also have other requirements – like attending a conference. So, here, I will discuss what we actually did during our trip and how we balanced exploring the city with work and relaxation.

Our Itinerary

Spring in the Sonoran Desert

The Story of the Trip

If you happen to compare this outline with the one I previously recommended, you can see there’s a lot missing! While I still think that that trip is a decent introduction to the city and manages to fit a lot into a short trip, it relies on having time, money, and energy that we just didn’t’ have. Nevertheless, this was a really fun little trip, and it was so good to be back in a city I loved, this time with a person I loved! I also think that when you’re showing a place to a person you care about, you emphasize different things than when you’re recommending a trip for people you may not have met. A lot of the things we did were chosen because of their significance to me personally. And some things I couldn’t plan for…

View from Mt. Lemmon

Rental Car Surprise!

Our time in Tucson started with a delayed flight that meant we did not arrive until about 11pm. We then had to stand in a long line to pick up our rental car and got a fun surprise there. I had booked the “Manager’s Special” expecting a small, crappy car…and they gave us a Tesla. While this was kind of cool, it was also not something I wanted to deal with, especially at 1am – and that’s not an exaggeration, I’m looking at the text messages from that night as I write this. 

We had a number of problems figuring this machine out. First it was trying to open the doors – a great start. Then, when we got in, the air conditioning was blowing at full speed, and we had to pull up a manual online to learn how to turn it down. I gave up on trying to understand the Tesla at that point, so it was my partner’s turn to take over and learn how to make the thing go. Teslas also brake differently than other cars, and it takes a bit to get used to that. Fortunately, once we made it out of the parking garage, we had some space on the empty roads around the airport to sort that out. We stopped for “dinner” on our way to the Airbnb at Raising Cane’s – my favorite fast food that I can’t get in West Virginia. But honestly I was a little too tired to fully enjoy it, and it was after 2am by the time we went to bed.

The grown-up stuff on the trip

Day 1: Conference and Campus

I managed to rest and caffeinate enough to attend my 8:30am conference session. The conference was the 20th & 21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, and I was presenting as part of a panel on “Interdisciplinary Pedagogy in the Desert: French Literature, Art, and the Center for
Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.” None of that is particularly relevant to this post, but I am proud of it! Following the presentation, we joined the other panelists for brunch at the Hotel Congress, a place I had walked by many times but never been to. 

The Hotel Congress is a historic building opened in 1919 that, in addition to the titular hotel, also has a number of restaurants. While a bit pricey, the food was good, and I would recommend it since it was really cool to go inside the building! And having a meal there is a lot cheaper than getting a room, so if you’re curious about it, check it out!

Because our presentation related to the university’s Center for Creative Photography, we headed there after lunch for a mini tour and chat about the art. I had been here a couple of times in 2020 before everything shut down, and it was good to explore the galleries with the new exhibits. If you’re interested in art or photography, it’s a great little museum! You can see everything in about an hour, so it would also be possible to do this and the University of Arizona Art Museum in the same day. 

El Charro dinner!

I was eager to show my partner around the campus though, so we went for a walk where I pointed out everything I remembered. It was definitely a bit strange being back on campus, especially since I felt my time there had prematurely ended when classes switched to Zoom. Also, The Scoop – the ice cream place on campus – had tragically closed, and my favorite restaurant, Sabor, was not open while we were there. We took our time walking around while I felt my weird nostalgia emotions about being there but no longer being a student. Eventually though, the late night and early morning hit us, and it was time to go back to the Airbnb for a nap.

Dinner the first night was, of course, at El Charro because it is utterly impossible to go to Tucson without eating there! We also met up with one of my friends who still lived in the city and had a delicious meal. El Charro never disappoints! And just a reminder, if you’re planning to go – make a reservation, especially on a weekend! 

On the trail

Day 2: Date Day in Tucson

This was the day that we had specifically reserved for exploring, and I wanted to make it a fun little date of seeing and doing some of my favorite things in the city! We got a later start than I had intended and had coffee at Dutch Bros. (another place I couldn’t possible skip in Tucson) before going for a hike. I had hoped originally to hike at sunrise, but we were both just too tired for that. We did one of my favorite hikes in the area: This AllTrails loop starting at Douglas Spring in Saguaro East. It’s 3.4 miles and mostly flat, so it gets you moving but isn’t too long or exhausting. You also get to see a lot of different saguaros and other desert flora and fauna. Our trip was in April, which I consider one of the best times for hiking in the Tucson because so much is in bloom!

After our hike, I was getting a bit hangry, so we made our way to Baja Cafe – one of the best brunch places in Tucson where I had some amazing breakfast chilaquiles! There’s often a long wait for Baja Cafe (at least in my experience), but it’s always worth it!

Brunch at Baja Cafe

We again took a break in the afternoon because it was hot, and we were tired. This is something to keep in mind when visiting Tucson – the heat gets to you, even when it’s not the height of summer. If you’re planning a trip to the area, plan to either do an inside activity or just take a break in the afternoon.

When we headed out again, our goal was to go up Mt. Lemmon, but we were a bit concerned about the charge on the Tesla and decided to charge it before driving up the mountain. This took a bit of figuring out, but we eventually got it and discovered that we could play games on the car’s screen while it charged. We also got to just take some time to hang out and talk while we waited, and I mentioned that when I was in college, I had this idea that it would be a cute date to get dinner from A&W (my favorite fast food place with severely limited locations) and milkshakes from Dutch Bros and eat on Mt. Lemmon. Since we were close to the only A&W in Tucson, we decided to do it!

As it turns out, there were a couple of flaws in this plan. First, it’s about an hour drive from A&W to Windy Point where I had planned for us to have our picnic, which meant that the food was kind of cold by the time we got up there. The second problem was that we were there in April, and Mt. Lemmon gets a little chilly in the evenings. We still went up to Windy Point and walked around on the rocks, looked at the city, and ate a few fries. But with the wind blowing and neither of us wearing a jacket, we went back to the car pretty quickly to finish our meal. Still, it was fun and cute, and I was really happy to fulfill this little daydream! It was a really nice way to end our date day in Tucson.

Quest fulfilled!

Day 3: A Laid Back Day

This was a more relaxed day as I wanted to attend a few more conference sessions in the morning. We met up with one of my professors for a delicious lunch at  Blanco Tacos & Tequila and had a nice time enjoying the sunshine and the food while we talked for over an hour. 

Since I’d missed the start of the next conference session, I decided to skip the rest of the day, and we went for a drive around the neighborhood where my apartment was. Wanting to spend some time outside, we ended up at Sweetwater Park. While this didn’t make the top list of destinations in my Tucson guide, it was one I was really excited to see since I spent so much time there with my roommates during COVID. We took our time walking through the park and trying to spot wildlife before returning to our Airbnb for a rest and do some remote work before the conference dinner. And that was pretty much it on Day 3!

From the overlook at Gate’s Pass

Day 4: Gate’s Pass and Back Home

Our last day in Tucson was a little vague, but we ended up making the most of it in a way I really loved! We had breakfast with another of my professors, and I left our schedule open since I didn’t know how long we would spend there. As it was, we wrapped up pretty quickly and still had several hours before our flight. I’d mentioned that I loved the drive into Saguaro West, and we decided to make a final Dutch Bros stop and head that direction!

Since we weren’t going to the visitor’s center or doing an actual hike, we took our time on the drive and stopped for a while at Gates Pass. Before driving through the pass itself, we pulled off at the overlook and hiked the short path up to the second overlook where we spent a while just taking things in and enjoying our final day in the desert. I was reminded of our San Diego trip when we spent our final day at Cabrillo National Monument before going to the airport, and I decided I really like this little habit of soaking in as much time in the sun as possible before getting on a plane.

After driving through the pass, we just explored a bit on the roads in that area before circling back towards Tucson and the airport. It was a fun ending to the trip, and I loved getting to see this part of the park that we otherwise would have skipped. 

Final Thoughts

I was so excited to return to Tucson on this trip and to show it to my partner! While our trip was short and also involved doing some work (the conference on my end and remote work for both of us), we still had a really good time and got to see some of my favorite parts of the city! I wanted to write this partly just to reflect on this fun little trip, but also to show an alternate way of planning a trip when you have things to do besides just exploring and being on vacation. This is how we’ve done a lot of our mini trips in the last couple two years where we go somewhere for some Purpose and then build the fun things into our free time. I also hope this highlighted a few of my personal favorite things in Tucson that I will always make time for even above more popular locations! Here’s hoping I can do another Tucson trip sometime soon!

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