Tucson is a prickly delicacy wrapped in a warm tortilla and smothered in sunshine sauce. In December, we visited that arid nirvana with a chunk of my family. Delicious food was eaten, 150-year-old cacti were beheld, exceptional trails were hiked, and careless kids were spiked. Here’s how the piggings and the prickings went.

Tucson is the second-largest city in Arizona. It is encircled by five minor mountain ranges and a national park. Its bragging rights include being the first U.S. city to receive the title “City of Gastronomy” by UNESCO and boasting the southernmost ski resort in the United States. We wasted no time sampling its inimitable offerings intimately.

Jason went outside with some of the nieces and nephews to explore our first morning in Arizona. Within minutes, a nephew walked backwards into a jumping cholla, a barbed cactus known for attaching painfully onto anything near it. Although its hooks made removal more difficult than expected, Jason disconnected flesh from plant with skilled maneuvering.

After all those spikes were disconnected, we created opportunities for more stabbings with a hike in Saguaro National Park on portions of the Douglas Spring Trail, Converse Trail, and Garwood Trail- about 1.5 miles in total. Glorious desert!

Following our trek, we ate lunch at the humble looking but highly rated Baja Café. Yum! This restaurant is known for eggs benedicts and huevos rancheros. I got the Wyatt Earp, which is a grilled green chile and cheese tamale pie topped with tomatillo sauce, seared pulled pork, two strips of chipotle bacon, fire roasted green chilies, onions, tomatoes, melted cheddar and Monterey jack cheese, poached eggs, avocado hollandaise, pico de gallo, and cotija. If I didn’t just make you hungry with that run-on sentence, you may have no stomach for bad grammar. I’d highly recommend Baja Café, even if you prefer snickerdoodle pancakes to eggs benedict.

During the afternoon, we shopped at the Old Town Artisans, cute stores in downtown situated on the site of a fort built by the Spanish in 1775. Beyond offering distinctive handmade items, these shops contain remnants of original gold-leafed mouldings, wallpapers, and ceilings constructed from saguaro cactus ribs.

The next day, the wind picked up quite a bit. It made the mid-fifties feel more than 50% less hospitable. However, seeing as it was 20 degrees back home, you won’t catch me ungraciously complaining here. Despite the chilly breeze, we hiked about four miles through Sabino Canyon in a convoluted loop that jumped on a number of trails including parts of Esperero, Rattlesnake, and Bluff. These took us through cactus-covered hillsides and above Sabino Creek. Appearing like a vein diffusing golden blood, the land lining Sabino Creek was covered in deciduous trees just losing their fall leaves. This ordinary gilded stipe seemed almost alien surrounded by resilient saguaros.

We spent the afternoon at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Since large sections of this museum are located outside, the chilly wind plagued us still while we observed a load of desert critters including black widows, roadrunners, bobcats, and endangered Mexican gray wolves. We learned that there are over two dozen types of rattlesnakes in the Sonoran Desert. That’s a whole lot of rattling my nerves! The museum’s Cactus Garden is notable with over 100 types of these unique plants, including rare and endangered species like the Pima pineapple.

Our time in Tucson passed in a sunny, gusty, prickly, cheesy blast. The plates and landscapes were inspiring and the wind almost immobilizing.