Monsoon Too Soon!

Not that I’m complaining, really. We need the rain. I love the storms. But…

It’s not supposed to be here yet!

Generally the monsoon starts around July 4th. I kept that in mind when I planned my one and only week totally off work this summer. My friend and I came up with a list of things to do close to home, and off we went.

Today my friend and I went to Kitt Peak National Observatory. We had planned to have a picnic, walk the whole place, take bunches of pictures, have a great time, and learn lots of stuff.

Well, most of that happened.

Kitt Peak is about an hour, hour and a half from Tucson. Here’s the view we were treated to as we approached:

That mountain under the left edge of the storm? That’s the observatory. You can see the largest telescope.

We are, my friend and I, intrepid. Undismayed. We journeyed on.

At the top, it was raining. We picnicked in the car, then the rain let up. We used the restroom (with kids before a trek? It’s a must!) and said hello to the “lucky crickets” (and huge!) living in the facilities.

We went into the visitor center. It started raining. All the lights went out, and thunder boomed right over our heads, then the lights came back on.

I bought astronaut ice cream.

The rain let up, and we began our exploration.

This is the solar telescope. That thing is huge! Note the cars in the picture. The angled part goes down underground. We didn’t actually make it to this telescope; we took a wrong turn and the clouds were coming back.

The rain resumed. The clouds rolled on. I took pictures!

So, yes. Adventure! Excitement! Rain!

Really, we had a great time. It’s never bad to get the hell out of town with good friends, right? Run up the mountains and see something cool and take a bunch of pictures and come home happy?

Nope. Not a bad thing at all. And as I explained to my kid when she was unhappy that we only actually made it to one telescope (I think this is the 4.1 meter one, but I am not certain. Our visit was a bit rushed.):

This just means we have to go back. 🙂

There are more cloud and telescope pics (and a lizard!) if you click on through.

Kitt Peak June 2012