15 December 2011
Christmas is getting close. I can tell cuz the Christmas lights have already fallen down 2 times and the big bow on the front has fallen 3 times. Made us feel pretty festive. So when friends Mike & Susan invited us to go with them to see the Christmas lights in Tucson we jumped on the opportunity.
It’s pretty easy to do. There’s a street in Winterhaven area of Tucson named Christmas Ave. Property owners there go all out decorating their yards, trees, houses, cars or anything else that stays put for a few hours in the evening. I guess when you live on a street with a name like that you have no choice. Even those in the neighborhood who don’t celebrate Christmas join in. Like the house with the makeshift minora made from plastic pipe; and another with a giant dreidel.
Mike did his homework and got us there quickly: I-10 to Exit 255. N on Miracle Mile (past the NoTell Motel… seriously!) to Oracle, 2 blocks left to Ft. Lowell, then down Ft Lowell to Christmas Ave. He even found a map of the neighborhood that showed the proper route to drive through the neighborhood. It needs to be organized cuz there are a lot of cars! Tucson police control all vehicle access and each of the entry points is lighted with emergency lighting. There are only 3 nights when cars are permitted into the area, otherwise you have to make it by foot. There’s an entry fee: as many canned goods as you can afford. The only problem I saw is that pedestrians are permitted onto the same streets as the cars, so it can get a little scarey and we needed to stay alert.
Trying to get photos turned out to be a challenge… night shots from a moving car are if-y at best. So, if you’ll pardon the fuzziness, here’s our memory shots:
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| Straight from an animated movie… |
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| Dunno how I managed this one! |
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| LOTS of cars! |
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| Not sure… an Arizona igloo? |
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| Anybody wanna play Angry Birds?! |
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| Not terribly inventive, but it was better lit than a shopping mall. |
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| Even this Jeep got a layer of lights! |
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| Mike looking pretty grim: “Where’s the bathroom?!” |
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| Yep… a dreidel |
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| Traditional southwestern motif |
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| Couldn’t miss this with lights banging on/off. |
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About bruce10b
Celia and I are full-time RVers wintering (and now summering!) in southeast AZ. Our 2 Bernese Mountain Dogs, Annie & Kelly, prompted the name of this blog but sadly are gone because of kidney failure. They will live forever in our hearts.
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a dog house on wheels 
great pix — great commentaries!
Thanks Becky. But it wasn't as easy as it was when we used film. With all the automation on cameras these days you'd think it would be a snap to take a photo of a string of lights… what a pain! An internet acquaintance who is an exceptional photographer [ http://dezsantana.com/ ] even discovered his newest camera failed to focus properly when taking pics of Christmas lights made with LEDs… but incandescent lights were OK! So it's not as easy as I thought.