Life on the Vine

Tomorrow is President's Day and just a couple weeks ago free pancakes were given away by IHOP for National Pancake Day.  You might be surprised to learn what other foods have their own day or month.  There is National Cream Puff Day (Jan. 2).  February is supposedly National Macadamia Nut Month (who knew!?!?).  National Potato Chip Day is in March, 14th to be exact.  Soft Pretzels get a whole month, April.  Just in time for baseball season.  Pigs-in-a-Blanket are celebrated April 24 and National Fudge Day is June 16 -- now that's a day I could get behind.  The month of September has been made the month of chicken, honey, mushrooms, papaya, potato, and rice.  An interesting combo.  I'm sure an Iron Chef could make something pretty tasty out of those ingredients. My birthday is supposedly National Cheese Pizza Day...Tom would probably think that is fitting as I'm a bit of a cheeser.  Everything you could think of seems to have a National Day: peanut butter, tempura, Iri

It might surprise you to learn there is a location just twenty miles from Tucson that receives 180 inches of snow annually.  It's 9,000+ feet above sea level and it's called Mount Lemmon. Mount Lemmon is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains, which are part of the Coronado National Forest .  It had been thirty years since either Tom or his Dad had driven up to the top of Mount Lemmon, and I had never been there.  So, this past Saturday, we decided to take a nice leisurely drive up through the winding Catalina Highway, which was recently designated as the Sky Island Parkway, and is part of the US National Scenic Byway system. As you depart Tucson from the North it's about 21 miles to the top.  It's a fairly slow climb; the speed limit is 35 mph.  The landscape goes from a sea of saguaros, to scrub oak, to pine.    We brought the puppy along for the ride.  Hoping to find a couple piles of snow for him to play in. Here are some pictures from our trip.