Casa de San Pedro to San Pedro House

Kate and Jim's 2003 Vacation - Day 5 - Feb 26

This was a more relaxed day with some actual tourism thrown in.  
DSC00677a.JPG (54550 bytes) I walked out the door of our room at the Casa de San Pedro, and there were feeders full of Lesser Goldfinches.  Happily, they were close enough that I was able to get pretty tolerable pictures.
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DSC00693a.jpg (38124 bytes) From the dining room, we had views of several feeders including this Gila Woodpecker enjoying his breakfast.
DSC00701a.jpg (56409 bytes) Pardon me for anthropomorphizing, but let's pretend this guy is saying, "What are YOU lookin' at?"
DSC00705a.jpg (115401 bytes) And this Lark Sparrow made an appearance too.
DSC00717a.jpg (111666 bytes) Our first stop was the San Pedro River.  Hey, the B & B was right there.  So you know...we like took a walk.  It was very muddy.  I've still got mud on my shoes.
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DSC00723.jpg (62701 bytes) Here's another view from the river of the Huachucas.  Note that the clouds are still hanging over the mountains.
DSC00720.jpg (144900 bytes) This isn't a great picture, but I wanted to show how the flood debris piles up against the cottonwood trees.
DSC00726.jpg (88906 bytes) After cleaning our shoes, we played tourist and headed into Bisbee, Arizona.  I've always wanted to visit the place and I've finally gotten it out of my system. This must be where all the hippies went - very strange. The town isn't as weird as Key West or Bolinas, CA, but it's in that league. 

The city is rated by one of the magazines as one of the 10 most "quirky" places in the US. I'll agree with that.  I've also realized that when a place is referred to as an "artist's colony," that's a code word for "really weird people live here." 
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DSC00731a.jpg (60657 bytes) We visited one store (not this one), that had the strongest odor.  I can only describe it as a combination of fish and marijuana (not that I really know what that smells like...I'm only guessing...I just want to make that clear).
DSC00734.jpg (56968 bytes) There are more VW bugs per capita then anyplace I've ever been.  There's one hidden in this picture.
DSC00735.jpg (62227 bytes) The reason that Bisbee exists is because of copper.  Here is the mine.  It's a very deep hole.
DSC00743aa.jpg (82844 bytes) After Bisbee, we went back to San Pedro House, which we visited with Stuart on Monday, to get some additional pictures at their feeder.  This is a Gambel's Quail.
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DSC00780aa.jpg (78485 bytes) Just before we left, an Abert's Towhee showed up.
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Tourist note: We had dinner at the Outside Inn on Route 92 south of Sierra Vista.  It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it was very nice and upscale restaurant.  The food was pretty good too.  My diet really is taking a beating on this trip.