Not many places do blueberry pancakes as well as the Blue Willow. They're crispy and tender with blueberries inside and on top and just enough big enough that one isn't enough and two is almost too much. Order them with a side of thick cut bacon and then chow down while sitting on the breezy cool patio surrounded by green plants and you'll see why Blue Willow remains one of Tucson's best breakfast restaurants.

Greenfire was a great history of Aldo Leoold's impact on American conservation and details his legacy of influencing advocacy for water, air, soil, vegetation and wildlife resources.

Chorizo and eggs is a tasty combination and Cup Cafe offers a fantastic version of this dish with a spicy sausage they call gunpowder. Eat it sitting inside the cafe so you can check out the varnished floors covered with 100,000 pennies and the chandeliers made of empty wine bottles or take your tongue tingling breakfast outdoors to their shady patio. After breakfast, tour the rest of historic Hotel Congress and then retire somewhere shady and cool until the summer heat lessens and the downtown nightlife heats up.

Hiking in Arizona during the summer is a grueling, and quite honestly, horrible ordeal when temperatures reach well over 100 degrees. But in the winter or spring, it's ideal! Sabino Canyon is a, popular for a reason, destination with Saguaros standing guard along the many trails in this park. It's also one of the few places with water flowing which makes it all the more unique for us desert dwellers. Sabino Canyon lies in northern Tucson off Sabino Canyon Road.

A destination since 1919, Tucson's Hotel Congress is home to the Cup Café--one of the best places in town from breakfast to happy hour and on into late night. Look up when in the restaurant--a couple of 'dead soldier chandeliers' will light your menu-browsing. You can get duck confit tacos to go with your local microbrew or cocktail. (Just so you know, this establishment won the 2010 World Margarita Championship.) Across the hotel lobby is the Tap Room--a true western bar that's been serving drinks continuously since the hotel first opened--one of the oldest drinking establishments in the West. Infamous 1930's bank robber John Dillinger was captured here. Today you'll find a cross-section of Tucsonans and out-of-towners, downtown business people, hipsters, night owls, musicians, university students, older couples on road-trips...

Think of beverages in Arizona, and maragaritas may come to mind...but green tea? lapsang souchong? pu-erh? A few blocks east of the University of Arizona in Tucson, "Seven Cups" was recently named one of the best places in the U.S. to have authentic Chinese tea. The name of this tea shop comes from a 9th-century poem: The first cup kisses away my thirst, and my loneliness is quelled by the second. The third gives insight worthy of ancient scrolls, and the fourth exiles my troubles. My body becomes lighter with the fifth, and the sixth sends word from immortals. But the seventh—oh the seventh cup— if I drink you, a wind will hurry my wings toward the sacred island. So, when you want a break from the sun in the Sonoran Desert, step in to this unexpected find. (The 'lotus moon cake' makes a great sweet nibbly to go along with your cuppa.) www.sevencups.com

Popsicles that are 'prickly'--huh? 'Prickly' as in 'prickly pear' juice--from the cactus fruit that ripens into a sweet amethyst treat in mid-summer in the deserts of the Southwest. (They're called "tuna" in Spanish.) Stop by the Farmers' Market on a Sunday morning in Tucson and check out the cactus-juice popsicles, displayed on chunks of dry ice. Eat yours fast, before the juice melts down to your elbows...

Adobe streetfront: door...window...sky. Color. Much of Tucson, like most western U.S. cities, is devoted to strip-malls and parking lots, but the historic core still has blocks of 19th-century Sonoran-style row-houses. In the 1960's, acres and acres of the Barrio Viejo was razed, but fortunately not all of it. Today it's a combination of gentrification and the pleasantly decrepit--attorney's offices, student rentals and family homes share this yard-less streetscape in a bilingual neighborhood. In reading about the history of this neighborhood, I came across this description, written back in the 1930's by Dr. James Harvey Robinson of Columbia University, who was visiting Tucson for the first time: "But this cannot be the United States of America, Tucson, Arizona! This is northern Africa - Tunis! Algiers! - or even Greece, where I have seen as here, houses built flush with the sidewalks with pink, blue, green and yellow walls, flowers climbing out of hidden patios and overall, an unbelievable blue sky. And the sweet-acrid smell in the air? Burning mesquite. Lovely! And the people - charming. But all this is the Old World, not America." The Barrio Viejo is perfect for a bike-ride--you do feel as if you've left reality-TV-obsessed Gringolandia...if only for a few blocks...

No--you don't have the wrong address--this is indeed a downtown office building/parking garage. But don't be alarmed. Enter the doors, and Café Poca Cosa's stylish interior tells you immediately: this is no boring strip-mall-Tex-Mex joint. Neither, fortunately, is it an overly precious nouvelle-cuisine bore. It's been voted 'Best Mexican' in Tucson...by locals who know that chimichangas were born in this desert town...but you'll find no chimi-combo-plate here. Chef-owner Suzana Davila changes the chalkboard-menu twice a day; her concentration is on fresh ingredients and innovative dishes that translate regions rather than betray tradition. National publications have sung her praises, but Ms. Davila still checks on her own customers and eats lunch in the dining room with everyone else. She's a self-taught native of Guaymas who can concoct over two dozen varieties of mole... Complex sauces, refreshing drinks such as pineapple-basil agua fresca, and Baroque masks in red niches await you...Come for a late lunch on a weekday if you want to avoid the justifiable crowds...Have an open mouth and discover what contemporary Mexican cooking can be. Tucson can be proud of its plentiful taco-trucks and Sonoran-hot-dog stands...but Poca Cosa celebrates the variety of Mexican cuisine for when you want to sit down in style. Buen provecho!

Your thoughts when you see the phrase "Summer in southern Arizona:" it's HOT and all the 'snowbirds' leave town...Most wouldn't think of mounds of fresh produce at a farmer's market in the desert city of Tucson. But the arrival of the monsoon coincides with nature's edible bounty, even here in the desert. The nearby Santa Cruz valley is actually one of the oldest continually-farmed regions in North America, dating back four thousand years! Heirloom beans, squash, chiles, and tomatoes are still grown...The nearby higher elevation lands near Willcox are known for their orchards and even a few vineyards. Mesquite flour is made into cookies and tortillas. Prickly pear cactus is made into jams and popsicles.... All this is available throughout the week at various farmers' markets around Tucson. The biggest one is on Sunday morning in the neo-colonial courtyards of St. Philip's Plaza. And, if you're curious, you'll get language-and-cooking lessons. On a recent Sunday morning, my wife and I asked what some weed-looking greens were. The answer: purslane--"verdolagas" in Spanish. They grow like weeds once the monsoon rains begin...and they contain more omega-3 fatty acids (think fish oil) than any other leafy plant. In a salad, or sautéed or stewed...Who knew? Farmers' markets are always a great place to get a vibe for a place--a cross section of people and produce...And even in the desert, it is possible to shop and eat local...

El Charro sits in a converted set of historic houses & buildings a block off Tucson's old town district - the same location where it began serving food in 1922. We had lunch here, at a big old wooden table in a warmly decorated dining room. Ask to be seated inside - or else in the garden, if the weather's amenable. It's a bit cold and dim in the front of the restaurant. I had an amazing vegetarian burrito, stuffed with roasted veggies, avocado and a green corn tamale - the others went for the excellent chimichangas, reputedly invented here {you can read the story on the menu}. The special-brewed beer, an amber, was great, the salsa verde addictive, the decor a great talking point.

Although a large and ever growing city, remnants of Tucson's past can still be found with the working cowboy/girl on ranches which provide trail rides to those wishing a glimpse into western life of old.

Just south of downtown Tucson is a reminder of the city's Hispanic-and-adobe past--the Barrio Viejo. One of the most eye-catching buildings is the Teatro Carmen, which opened in 1914. For the rest of the teens and on into the mid-1920's, this venue featured Spanish-language plays and concerts. Plans exist to restore this structure, but for now you can still admire its colorful façade as you wander in this historic neighborhood and catch glimpses of history amidst the restoration... For more information: http://www.womensheritagetrail.org/women/CarmenVasquez.php