{"id":1246,"date":"2008-03-02T23:09:48","date_gmt":"2008-03-03T05:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1246"},"modified":"2008-03-02T23:09:48","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T05:09:48","slug":"hotel-congress-tucson-az","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1246","title":{"rendered":"Hotel Congress, Tucson AZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends of ours from Nogales come up to Tucson every weekend to take advantage of the city’s offerings. (There’s not much to do in Nogales.) Since they’ve been here longer than we have, we asked to meet them in town to learn what sorts of places they like. \u00a0 \u00a0 They suggested lunch at the Hotel Congress, in the heart of downtown Tucson.<\/p>\n

\"tucson-hotel-congress-exterior.jpg\"<\/a>\"tucson-hotel-congress-lobby.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hotel Congress is a neat place. \u00a0 A fire on the third floor is famous for having flushed out John Dillinger<\/a> in 1934, after a massive national manhunt failed to locate him and his gang. The hotel is still operating today, and is the kind of place I’d like to stay just to get a feel for the 1930s. \u00a0 The interior still feels appropriate to the period, with a few updates here and there. An old telephone switchboard is on display next to old telephone booths in the lobby \u00a0 which contain modern payphones. \u00a0 An old-time barber shop is still in operation off the lobby — I’d like to try it out.<\/p>\n

Just off the lobby is a nightclub with frequent live entertainment, and another small pub. \u00a0 The overall sense I got was of an old Fred Harvey railroad hotel<\/a>, probably because of the era and the use of native American designs throughout the interior. \u00a0 It’s very much like the way Mary Elizabeth Coulter<\/a> would decorate, but the architecture doesn’t have her signature flair.<\/p>\n

\"tucson-hotel-congress-sketching.jpg\"<\/a>The lobby currently features art by Daniel Martin Diaz<\/a>. \u00a0 Emma spotted one of his unusual designs and immediately had to try to copy it. \u00a0 She’s got a bit of talent for art that I completely lack, so I am always impressed when she does this and try to stand back long enough to let her complete it. \u00a0 Besides, there was enough of visual interest for me to stay busy taking pictures. \u00a0 I’ve set up a small album on Flickr of other images from the Hotel Congress here.<\/a><\/p>\n

We ate lunch in the “Cup Cafe,” right off the lobby. \u00a0 It’s a fairly small place with perhaps a dozen tables and bar seating, and more tables outside. \u00a0 The floor is paved with pennies. \u00a0 Being in the middle of the downtown, it attracts a lively and funky crowd. \u00a0 Here’s the view I had during lunch …<\/p>\n

\"tucson-cup-cafe-view.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All through lunch I had to bite my tongue to avoid making, uh, wisecracks about the view. \u00a0 But if the view was less than appetizing, the lunch made up for it. \u00a0 Pretty darned good for a $9 lunch. We declined dessert, reluctantly, and headed out.<\/p>\n

Being downtown made me realize how little of Tucson we’ve really had a chance to explore. \u00a0 There are so many cultural experiences, places, events, hikes, historic sites, and people to discover here. \u00a0 That’s a good thing, because I wouldn’t want to feel like I’d already “done everything” before we even finished the house! \u00a0 We are considering re-arranging our schedule yet again, to allow more time in Tucson. \u00a0 We’d do this by taking a week or two on the road in the Airstream in March and\/or April, then returning to the house for a bit before heading out again for the summer. \u00a0 Nothing’s finalized, but it is clear that our plans are very fluid right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends of ours from Nogales come up to Tucson every weekend to take advantage of the city’s offerings. (There’s not much to do in Nogales.) Since they’ve been here longer than we have, we asked to meet them in town to learn what sorts of places they like. \u00a0 \u00a0 They suggested lunch at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}