Tucson Desert Museum

West of Tucson, across the Tucson mountains, is the Desert Museum.  The museum, while having a few buildings, is literally the desert itself.  There is a pathway that wanders through enclosures of native animals, gardens of desert plants, and shade structures to give you a break from the sun.  One could easily spend most of a day seeing all the wonders of the Desert Museum.
Twice a day, there are rapture shows, where a family group of Harris' Hawks show off their hunting skills, with daring feats of swooping, flying, turing about in mid air and generally giving all us land bound animals a good thrill.  This alone is worth the price of admission.

On our first visit, we discovered that buying a year family membership, not only got the two of us in, but free admission for 3 guests.  This took care of the five of us who were there.  Now we have free admission for the rest of the year.  I think we will go back often, especially as during the next few weeks all the desert plants will be in glorious bloom!