Dancing in the Desert

I spent last weekend in Arizona. I'm nuts about the Sonoran desert. I love the botany and wildlife of the desert. The giant, many armed saguaros, the little families of quails and the snarling javelinas are some of the most interesting examples of desert life.
There is a System of the Down song that's on 93x about five zillion times a day right now, and one of the lyrics is "Dancing in the desert, going to have a real good time." Well, last weekend I had a chance to dance in the desert. I attended a wedding in Oracle, AZ, near Tucson. The DJ was spinning polkas and I had a chance to flap my arms to the infamous Chicken Dance right there in a country club in the middle of the desert. (This was after a couple of margaritas from the glass margarita fountain set up next to the buffet.)
I was excited to see something I've missed on previous visits to Arizona. The prickly pear cactus is blooming right now. I'm fascinated by the strange, cylindrical fruit that grow from the top of the spiny paddles. Arizonans use the fruit for all kinds of different foodstuffs - cactus jelly, cactus candy and my favorite, prickly pear ice cream. The ice cream is so wonderful that whenever I see the prickly pear cactus, all I can think of is, "Yum! That's where ice cream comes from."
Well, it's been a long time since my last blog post. I attempted to post live from Arizona, but after I'd written several paragraphs about my trip (which were much richer than those above) , the wireless internet connection at the Country Inn cut out on me right in the middle of posting. Darn Country Inn. I was never able to get the connection back long enough to post. Next time, I'm going to use an Internet cafe. Keep watching the blog - there may be more Arizona photos coming up soon!

The Prickly Pear Cactus