Historically, in summer it’s just too hot in Tucson to attract tourists so many nifty things about the City just stop until September or October. Tourist shops thin out their merchandise and operate for shorter hours. Public festivals and events almost completely disappear except high in the mountains like at Tombstone where it is noticeably cooler. Even some locals pack up and leave for a while.
But this year is slightly different: the Covid19 regulations imposed by the city government–regs. that were much stricter than elsewhere in Arizona–were lifted last week. Suddenly the city opened up again. So while the tourists may not be out and about in 100F heat, the locals sure were.
Shopping in the heat
The timing was great for my vaccinated niece and her vaccinated husband who drove over from L.A. We went out to dinner and brunch–no masks for us although the wait staff were masked at every restaurant.
Then we went shopping and discovered that some places required masks, others did not. Among the ones that did was the Old Town Artisans complex across the street from the Tucson Art Museum, which is open–also, masks required. (The cashier explained that they were requiring masks to protect their staff.)
Old Town Artisans is basically a colorful souvenir shop/artist outlet selling everything from kachinas to punk rock paintings to Navajo soaps to handmade table linens to woven baskets to bad desert landscapes. Much of it is locally made, but not all.
It’s arranged in room after room in an old adobe building . Well, maybe not “arranged” since almost every room seems to be a jumble of different artists and different objects. And speaking of “jumble”, you can see two of the more than 10 entries to this block-long adobe at the top of this page.
Dining al fresco…or maybe not
After we finished shopping I thought it would be fun to have lunch at La Cocina, an outdoor cafe/restaurant in the central courtyard of this old adobe building. But La Cocina was closed. (I don’t know if it is a permanent closure which has happened to many, many eateries in Tucson this last year.) Instead we went to the Hub on Congress Street. It has an interesting menu and good food in a kind of New York loft conversion atmosphere. (If you want to go there–and I’d recommend it–be sure to go to the restaurant, not the Hub ice cream store.)
Here are a couple of photos of the fun outdoor dining and drinking space, La Cocina. Maybe it will re-open soon.
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