Dia De Los Muertos in Tubac!

When on RV Club decided to put together a rally to Tubac AZ for their annual Dia De Los Muertos festival, we were all in!  My niece had told us all about how that wonderful little artist town really goes all out with decorations, parades, altars, face painting, music, etc.  After our last visit here during the Christmas holidays, we knew we would be in for a great time...and we weren't disappointed.  

 We ended up with 10 rigs and 22 wonderful people.   We came to the same campground as we had previously, and were greeted like old friends, which is always nice.  De Anza RV Resort is such a nice, clean, well maintained place, with a great meeting room that is so wonderful to have our pot lucks in, that it's hard to go anywhere else!  The weather is pretty much the same as in Surprise, so it stayed in the mid-80's for us the whole time, which for us, is just lovely!  

Our first night in, we all met at our favorite restaurant, The Longhorn for dinner and got to know "who's who".  We had a few new couples with us this year, which is always fun.  

The next day was a casual day and many of us just wandered into the town of Tubac before the crowds descended on the town for the festivities the next day.  Tubac is such an artist's town with tons of galleries, a lovely museum and one of a kind stores that one could shop all day and still not see everything.  Several of us did that for a few hours then decided to go to lunch at another one of our favorite haunts, at a Mexican restaurant that we all call "the chicken place".  It's actually named Wisdom's Cafe, but it has a very large statue of a funny looking chicken out front...hence the nickname...Oddly enough, the only chicken on the menu is a grilled chicken sandwich, so we are not sure why they have that chicken out front!  ...but it does make it easy to find!  Further down the road is another great place (with a very large chili sign!) that has every kind of spice (hot and otherwise) you could possibly want...and of course I found some "treasures" I couldn't live without!  

That night was our pot luck dinner here at the campground, and of course there was tons of wonderful food and fun!  Chris, our Wagon Master really outdid herself - both in the decorations (wow!) and in coming up with some fun games for us to play and laugh at ourselves over.  

Information regarding the festivities for De Los Muertos said that "all traffic would be stopped by 9:30am" to allow for the parade, and gave directions to where people could park, etc. so we set off around 9am to be sure we got a spot and could scout out where everything was being set up.  As it all turned out...not all that was said & planned was carried out.  But in the end, it was ok.  The parade was delightful, colorful, full of music, great costumes, lively children and wonderful enthusiasm.  Over at the vendor area people were enjoying themselves, and the dance groups did a great job and the live music and DJ were wonderful to listen to as well.  Lots of people were getting their faces painted...I thought about it, but in the end, didn't after all.  I so enjoyed watching the little children the most, I must admit.  By mid day, the activities were so far behind from when they had said they were going to be doing them, and the heat and the flies were getting to us, we were ready to call it in and go back to the campground and get ready for our happy hour.

 At the group's Happy Hour it was fun to hear what everyone had done and seen that day (as we hadn't really run in to each other!) and see who did have their faces painted!  And gotten all dressed up for the occasion to!  More games were played, along with more laughter by one and all...

 Our last day together was a breakfast pot luck...yes, we all like to eat together!  We are all such great cooks, I must say.  Some headed out to various parts in the area, and some decided to head on back home, while Jack and I just relaxed here.  I've had some very stressful weeks, and will continue to do so when I return, that these few days "off" are my mini vacation, so I'm taking full advantage of every moment of it while I can...peace, quiet, fresh air and no stress!  

This was truly a delightful short little trip, that in reality, reminded me how much Jack and I need to do more of.  Sure glad we have this wonderful RV Club of ours that reminds us and tugs at us to get out and do this...as long as we let ourselves...

Until the next time...Marie