what is there to do and see in Tucson?

If you like airplanes, you'll be able to see some great stuff.  The Pima Air and Space Museum is very good.  The AMARC boneyard is there, as well as the Pinal Air Park boneyard to the west.  The Titan Missile Museum is there as well.   

Half days drive to Hoover Dam. Incredible feat of engineering. Then a half hour to Vegas. 

Gandy

Without a doubt, a hot air balloon ride over the desert. I did it twice.

Roy

E-mail me. You have the address. I'll be at the Gadsden Pacific train show, behind a row of tables. Maybe we can get together for lunch or something while you're in town. I've got a female friend who likes to go out to lunch so we could make it a foursome. The Gadsden Pacific museum isn't open that weekend, but I have a key so I can show you the place. 

If you go to the Desert Museum, be sure to have lunch in the restaurant there, not just the cafeteria. It's a bit pricey, but the food is wonderful, well worth the price. 

Tucson is becoming a real center of activity for microbreweries and brew pubs. If you're on the northwest side, a good one to try is Thunder Canyon Brewery, at the Foothills Mall. Freshly brewed beer and decent bar food. I'd be there a lot more often, but I live on the other side of town. 

Downtown is improving. There are a couple of good museums and lots of good restaurants. They've just completed a modern streetcar system that runs between downtown and the U of A campus. 

If you get downtown, stop by the Amtrak station. There's a restored SP 2-6-0 in a shed by the station, and a small Southern Arizona Transportation Museum nearby. The UP main line from El Paso to San Diego runs through town. 

The Titan Missile Museum is worth seeing if you have the time. It's an old Titan silo south of town. Check the website for specific times of tours, since you have to go down the elevator with a tour. 

There's a museum of Franklin automobiles. I've never been there but I've heard it's interesting. Here's a link with info and hours. Franklin Museum

There's a museum of miniatures called the Mini Time Machine. Not just doll houses and architectural models, it's pretty interesting and your female friend will like it too, if she hasn't been there already. Mini Time Machine

Tucson has plenty of antique stores, plus a permanent flea market on the south side. It's called the Tanque Verde Swap Meet, but it's actually on Palo Verde Road, nowhere near Tanque Verde. I went once and wasn't impressed, but I'll mention it FYI. 

Davis Monthan AFB I was stationed there on B36's in 1952. Also side winders, coral snakes, & Armadillo's.

I'm sure you know Hoover Dam and Vegas are at the opposite end of the state....if you

are interested in Western/mining history, Tombstone and other ghost and mining towns are in the area.  A friend of mine's dad was once a horseback border patrolman in the area, briefly worked in one of the copper mines, and then came home to work on

RPO's on the Pennsy. Did not know there was a Franklin Automobile museum there.....knew there was once an active Franklin restorer/collector in the area. My

great aunt drove Franklins as long as they were made, and then was forced to turn

to LaSalle, trading in nothing.  Unfortunately, they were sold while I was away in school.  When I briefly lived in Phoenix, the old mom and pop motel I stayed in upon arrival, before finding an apartment, on the west side with car covers connecting the rooms, had an old Franklin pushed out behind the building.

I had other things to worry about and did not pursue that, and several years later, could not even find the motel.

Mount Lemon, Old Tucson Movie studios 12 miles west of downtown on the other side of the Tucson mountains, Sonoran Desert Museum, Mirana Airfield north of town, Tripple C chuckwaggon ranch( I think Riders in the Sky still play there from time to time) Collossal Cave on the east side of town, take a trip to Tombstone.  The Titan Missile museum is in Greenvalley off I-19. They also filmed part of Star Trek First Contact there. 

Armadillos, like skunks, and porcupines, think they are immune to automobiles, so are,

but only, a road hazard.  How prevalent are coral snakes?...I was startled to be told on a South Carolina plantation tour that they were found there...the guide took offense when I questioned it, for I thought they were desert critters?  Sidewinders I have encountered.

Stop and try the Sonora style hot dogs.

http://elguerocanelo.com/

Or, the oldest continually family run Mexican Restaurant,

http://www.elcharrocafe.com/

Or see the desert storage of a few planes,

http://www.desertusa.com/arizo...lane-graveyards.html

Have cocktails at the JW Marriott Resort...

Can you tell we were recently there!!

And don't forget the University of Arizona!

Recommend Arizona Desert Museum, Sabino Canyon Tram ride, Pima County Air Museum Titan Missile Museum, and Collossal Cave, but last time we went to CC we needed reservations well in advance.  If you are out in that direction, I went out to Cienega Creek Natural Preserve and there is a nice railfan spot with a bridge over another set of tracks.

I snapped this - was hoping to see one over and one under, with engines both in view on both sets of tracks, but I can see that would be almost impossible timing...

Restaurants - as indicated above, can't go wrong with a Sonoran Dog or Burro for lunch from El Guero Canelo.  They have a couple In-and-Out burger places, that some people drive hours for, but we didn't see the attraction - we prefer Zinburger, and we're not fancy people.... We tried Cafe Poca Cosa, as we heard lots of great reviews, but thought it was over-hyped.  Much prefer El Charro mentioned above, or Guadalajara Grill, but hear they have had a fire or two recently.  There is a good Italian place - Carouso's - but Italian and Tucson seem to be an oxymoron.  We also found that pizza is not a Tucson specialty, although there is a place called Rosattis, that was transplanted from Chicago, that is outstanding, but it's carry-out only.

    In Tucson, we like the Old Tucson Movie Studio on Kinney Drive. It is basically a replica (built in the 1930's) of an old western town out in the desert. This is where four John Wayne Westerns were filmed(Rio Bravo, McClintock + 2) plus hundreds of other western movies (Tombstone, Outlaw Josey Wales, Winchester 73, Gunfight at OK Corral, etc.) and TV western episodes- Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, etc. plus all of the High Chaparral series.

    It doesn't fit exactly into the interests you mention, but you can walk where the Duke walked! (Plus, there is a small train ride!)

John Knapp

Erie, not Eerie

The coral snake rule was, with regard to striping, I think: 

Red on black, won't bite back,

Red on yellow, kill a fellow.

Stell like to know if found on the east coast.

Great ideas so far. Please keep them coming.

Already visited El Charro the last time I was there, saw the new trolley tracks before they were put into service, checked out the 2-6-0 at the station.

My sympathy for having eaten at El Charro. It's strictly for tourists and snowbirds. I lived in Mexico for a year, and El Charro's food is mediocre, overpriced, and inauthentic. You know you're in trouble when you walk into a Mexican restaurant 70 miles from the border and the hostess is Anglo and doesn't speak Spanish. El Charro has ambiance and fancy Margaritas, but Tucson is full of little family-owned Mexican restaurants with better food. 

My favorite Mexican restaurant in Tucson is a seafood place called Mariscos Chihuahua. It's owned by an immigrant family and they have several branches around Tucson. The seafood is just like Baja. I knew I'd found a gem one day when I went in there for lunch and ordered my usual, filete a la plancha. The waitress said, "I'm sorry, we don't have any filete today. The cook went to the market this morning and he didn't like the fish. How about some shrimp?" Nice to know somebody still cares about quality. You can order in English or Spanish, and 90% of the clientele is Spanish-speaking. 

Another hidden gem is Nico's, a local chain of Mexican fast-food joints. The burritos are enormous, and you can even get tamarindo, a Mexican soft drink made from tamarind juice. It's delicious, and hard to find north of the border. My favorite burrito is made with carnitas, crispy fried pork bits. Nico's has trouble with the health department every once in a while, but having survived a year in Mexico I'm not really worried about it. 

I just went to the Gadsden Pacific website...looks like a great show. I live up the road in Scottsdale and have put out a message to our club Paradise and Pacific. Should be fun...

Yes.

You WILL find them in Florida.

Sunshine way more that 120 days per year here in Western PA.  Yuma AZ, easily 300 days of sunshine, Tuscan with some elevation a good bit less sunshine. 

We take for granted the desert flora, cactus.  The Saguaro Cactus is rare.

Saguaro National Park. 

Recent trip to the Grand Canyon, there was a nice presentation by the Park Service about scorpions.   Relatively small, very common desert critter, that can be easily stepped-on.  Their sting is much like a bee sting, only much more powerful.  You really didn't want to be roaming around the campsite/tent areas in bare feet/flip-flops.  One of the two helicopter rescues, we experienced while at Phantom Ranch/Bright Angel Camp Ground was for a person, who had gone into Anaphylactic Shock, most likely from a sting or bite.  Park Service at the Grand Canyon, averages (3) rescues a day.

Edit/Add: This bothered me, Prickley Pear Cactus, common at the Grand Canyon.  Park Rangers can tell you the name of the fungus, or blight.  Has to do with too much moisture or humidity in an arid climate.  Apparently Cactus plants have their own problems.

According to various online sources, Yuma is the sunniest city in the United States, with 313 sunny or partly sunny days per year. Phoenix is fourth with 296 and Tucson comes in fifth at 284. 

Got home last night. Had a great time. Went on the boneyard tour, checked out Southwest Hiawatha's layout and swapped stories, hiked the desert museum with the raptor show and hummingbird cage, ate some great food, saw some old and new friends, went to the Gadsen-Pacific train show and arrived home tired and happy.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.