Our first stop was the Desert Diamond Casino. This was the first casino we visited on our trip even though we passed many (Oklahoma seems to have one at every interstate exit). We played until lunch, ate the buffet, and traveled to our next destination. Oh, yeah, we lost our allotted amount at the casino after winning $25 on a nickel slot. The casino is not open 24 hours so we arrived soon after it opened which was nice--cigarette smoke hadn't had a chance to build-up. When we left after lunch, the smoke was noticeable.
Our next stop was Mission San Xavier del Bac which was one exit north of the casino. Work is underway to clean and repair the outside of the mission. You can see the scaffolding to the left behind Joyce in this picture. This picture also gave us a virtual geocache.
There is a lot of history in the mission. It dates back to the 1600s. That fine Spanish army Colonel Hugo O'Conor left the mission to found the presidio in Tucson.
It is billed as the Sistine Chapel of North America. This picture shows the front altar.
This picture is of one of the domes in the ceiling.
Here is one of the side altars.
After viewing the mission, the courtyard and the museum, we walked to Grotto Hill next door.
The hill is no longer property of the mission. Here we are standing halfway up Grotto Hill with Mission San Xavier del Bac in the background.
Here is the mission as seen from the hill.
We walked through the Native American shops near the mission and then headed for Wal-Mart to buy our drinking water.
We returned to the campground and made plans to visit East Saguaro National Monument on Saturday.
2 comments:
You guys keep doing all the stuff I like. First its nice old aircraft and now Casinos. All these new pictures make me want to drink cervasa and eat mexican food. I hope ya'll are taking movies too. Cecil
Yes, we have the movie camera. But unfortunately, it hasn't been out of its bag! We are having too much fun!
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