ARIZONIQUES

ARIZO ANNUAL EVENTS ATTRACTIONS

Aerospace and Arizona Days, April, 748-3358. Nearly 100,000 people attend the air show featuring a precision flying team (usually the USAF Thunderbirds) and a parachute team plus displays of fighter aircraft.

Arizona Summer Arts Festival, all summer, 621-1302. Theatre, opera, film, art, and music combine to present more than fifty events.

Colossal Cave, 791-7677. Tours of mineral formations and desperado hideouts inside the largest dry cavern in the world, where the temperature remains seventy-two degrees year-round.

Flandrau Planetarium, 621-4556. Regularly changing astronomy productions on a 180 degree domed screen, plus a sixteen-inch telescope, exhibits, and shop.

Mission San Xavier del Bac, 294-2624. Historical lectures and Sunday masses in the 200-year-old Spanish mission.

Old Tucson, 883-0100. Famous Western movie location with train and stagecoach rides and staged gunfights daily.

Saguaro National Monuments, East and West Sections, 883-6366, 296-8576. Dense saguaro cactus forests and diverse desert vegetation, a distinctive retreat for walking, picnicking, and enjoying.

Tucson Botanical Gardens, 326-9255. Guided tours through a garden of arid land, semitropical, and tropical plants around an adobe home.

Fourth Avenue Street Fair, April and December, 624-5004. Food and entertainment typical of Tucson traditions along with local and out-of-town crafts merchants, all assembled among the quaint shops of Fourth Avenue.

Gem and Mineral Show, February 13-16, 791-4101. The largest in the world featuring exhibits, competitions, lectures, and programs for everyone.

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo, February 23-March 3, 792-2283. The world's greatest non-mechanized parade kicks off the sixty-year-old "Fiesta of the Cowboys," the greatest midwinter rodeo in America.

Tucson Festival, spring, 622-6911. A six-week salute to Tucson's colorful heritage. More than twenty celebrations include Pioneer Days, Festival of the Arts, Fiesta de los Niños, Tucson International Mariachi Conference, and San Xavier Pageant and Festival.

Tucson Meet Yourself, October, 621-3392. Tucson celebrates its cultural richness and diversity at El Presidio Park with ethnic traditions, crafts, food, and dance.

MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

Arizona Historical Society, 628-5774. Life-size Arizona mining hall, period rooms, permanent and changing exhibits.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 883-1380. A one-of-a-kind collection and exhibit of living animals and plants of the Sonoran Desert in near-natural settings.

Arizona State Museum, 621-6302. Southwestern Indian exhibits of prehistoric and modern times.

SPORTS & RECREATION

Mount Lemmon Ski Valley, 576-1400 or 576-1321. The southernmost ski area in America offers downhill and cross-country skiing, sledding, tubing, and a warm lodge in winter. In summer, hiking, picnicking, and camping.

Sabino Canyon, 749-2861. Enjoy hiking, bicycling, picnicking, and wildlife-watching around the flowing water and cacti of this green, desert oasis. Open-air shuttle bus tours and moonlight tours available.

Seven Falls, 749-2861. The picturesque waterfall in Lower Bear Canyon is a favorite of backpackers and sightseers.

De Grazia Gallery in the Sun, 299-9191. Unique adobe structure designed by Southwestern artist Ted De Grazia, housing his ceramics, bronzes, enamels, and famous paintings.

Kitt Peak National Observatory/Museum, 327-5511. The world's largest astronomical facility plus a museum, shop, and guided tours.

University of Arizona Mineral Museum, 621-6024. Uniquely Arizona mineral displays; fine gem stones and fossils.

Pima Air Museum, 574-0462. More than 130 aircraft displays from the 1903 Wright Flyer to the fastest jets.

PERFORMING ARTS

Tucson is one of only fourteen cities in the United States that has its own ballet, opera, theater, and symphony.

Arizona Dance Theatre, 628-7446. Best known for its performance of The Nutcracker each holiday season, the theatre performs classical and contemporary ballet.

Arizona Opera Company, 293-4336. The company, which presents world-class performers in grand opera, stages two productions in Tucson and two in Phoenix this season.

Arizona Theatre Company, 622-2823. Professional actors perform six plays every season.

Gaslight Theatre, 886-9428. A Tucson favorite, this unique dinner theatre features musical melodrama and comedy year-round. Reservations are necessary.

Tucson Pops Orchestra, 791-4860. The orchestra performs "Music Under the Stars" free every Sunday night in May and June and again from midAugust to September at Reid Park Bandshell.

Tucson Symphony Orchestra, 792-9155. The oldest continuing symphony in the Southwest presents three concert series from October through May.

Circle K/LPGA Golf Tournament, 791-4873. The finest women golfers in the world compete March 19 through 23 at Randolph Golf Course.

Cleveland Indians Baseball, 791-4873. The major league team plays exhibition games at Hi Corbett Field during spring training.

For a more complete calendar, free of charge, please write the Arizona Office of Tourism, Department CE, 1480 East Bethany Home Road, Phoenix, AZ 85014Edited by Kimberly Johnson Designed and illustrated by Blair Butky