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Dear Tucson…


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Each issue we link up with Rachel Miller’s Love Letters to Tucson blog for a letter from a Tucson inhabitant about why they love this fair city. This month: Victoria and Raul were skeptical of moving to Arizona, but Tucson won their hearts. Photos by Rachel Miller.

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Dear Tucson,

When we heard we were moving to the old pueblo we were angry. Livid. All we knew of you was that you were located in Arizona, the most dreaded of the red states, with pink underwear clad prisoners and bigoted laws towards immigrants. But we had no choice; it’s where work was sending us. So rather than wallow, we Googled you. What is there to do in Tucson, we asked. And the Internet answered: there is roller derby, a museum fashioned after a zoo, and one of the largest arrays of telescopes in the world. There is desert and mountains and 360 days of sunshine. There is climbing and hiking, go-kart racing and skydiving. There are monsoons, saguaros, and gila monsters. There is even an Air Force base, a major university, and thousands of proud local businesses. We were placated; we figured we could make it work.

And then we arrived: it was May, it was hot, and there was no one here. There were tumbleweeds blowing down Congress, stragglers on 4th avenue, and jobs were hard to find. But there was sunshine and mountains and AC. We found a small apartment in downtown Tucson and set about exploring our new home.

victoriaraul2 We found a extraordinarily cool place, filled with amazing, kind people, incredible, tasty restaurants, and weird plants. We found adventure everywhere we looked, with plenty of new things to try and new places to visit. And although we were initially skeptical, we’ve since built a home here. And we love it.

We love the sunshine, the haboobs, and the monsoons.
We love the mountains and the desert.
We love biking through town and hiking up Aspen Trail.
We love the mosaics, murals and street art.
We love the lizards, stray cats, and terrifyingly large spiders.
We love the carne asada, the cookouts, and the pools.
We love how close you are to the border, to wine country, to the Grand Canyon.
We love the star filled sky and the sunsets. Oh the sunsets!
We love “keep Tucson kind/shitty”, “Bear Down”, and “Free Baja AZ”.

Thank you Tucson — you will forever be in our hearts as our first home together, our oasis in the desert, our little slice of sunshine.

tkm
Vic & Raul

Victoria and Raul moved to Tucson two years ago when work brought them kicking and screaming to the Old Pueblo. What they found delighted them. They met Rachel down at Broadway and Stone close to Ben’s Bells on Thursday evening and exchanged thoughts on downtown restaurants, pizza and cocktails. Victoria blogs at I scream for Sunshine where she writes about travel, food and life.

* Want to contribute to Love Letters to Tucson? More info here.

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