Tucson - Sonoran Desert Museum

This guy was sitting on the rock almost as if he were saying, 'Step right up! This way to see the amazing reptiles.'
And of course, snakes top the billing in the great reptile show.

black rattlesnake speckled rattlesnake

The aviary was really nice. Many birds seemed almost at home in the large enclosure. Perhaps too many doves, but the kids didn't mind that at all.

Pyrrhuloxia or 'grey cardinal' were all over the place. I saw a cardinal in there also, but it was deep in a bush and I couldn't get a shot of it.

Down in the 'cave' they had lots of minerals. In rich ore it only takes about 18 pounds of rock to extract enough copper to make a penny. In poor ore it is more like one or two tons! Here's Erik by a copper cube.
We didn't realize this place opened at 7:30 a.m. or we would have been there about that early. Jake is our early riser and by the time we got there at around 10 a.m. it was already getting warm. Even so, we managed almost 3 hours and didn't get to see nearly everything.