Accent

Fly the coop -- do a loop

See if this shoe fits: You're gifted out, cooped up, glutted with holiday foods, weary of kids hyped up on sugar and Santa - and desperate for a way to entertain those family members who've trooped in for a visit this week. Two words: day trip. If you can get yourself, the kids and those beloved relatives out of the house and on the road, you might breathe new life into the week between Christmas and New Year's. But where to go? We're glad you asked. We've fashioned a Southern Arizona loop that links some well-known and offbeat destinations into an excursion doable as a day-trip or overnighter. The route will take you to rolling rangelands, snow-capped mountains, a remote Trappistine abbey, the colorful communities of Sonoita and Patagonia, a ghost town graveyard, a nature preserve, a lake, a border-town winery, a historic mission, the arts and shopping colony of Tubac, and a Green Valley shop with bargains you won't believe. You'll travel east on Interstate 10, south on Arizona 83, southwest on Arizona 82 and north on Interstate 19 back to Tucson. The trip totals about 140 miles, but you'll want to allow time for numerous stops. Day trippers, start your engines. Sonoita and surroundings The drive to Sonoita, perched in rolling range country at an altitude of 4,865 feet, is just the first leg of the loop trip - but it makes a great short outing in its own right. After driving 21 miles on Interstate 10 East from Tucson, you peel off onto Arizona 83 and travel south 25 miles to Sonoita. The highway winds and climbs through a picturesque landscape of oak-studded hills dwarfed by the snow-capped Santa Rita Mountains to the west. If you sense an almost spiritual connection as you cruise through this country, you're not alone. Ten Trappistine sisters live, pray and work in the Santa Rita Abbey not far off the highway. Sister Victoria, who has lived at the abbey since it opened in 1972, says the public isn't allowed in the cloistered community itself. But she says travelers are welcome to stop in at a visitors room or make plans for a stay at the abbey's retreat house. "We feel very blessed to be here," she says. "We built the retreat house to offer it to other people for prayer or searching. It's a place to come at life through a deeper, more quiet spot." Rates at the retreat house are $35 a day. To reach the abbey, follow Arizona 83 south 21 miles from Interstate 10 and take a right-hand turnoff on the Gardner Canyon Road. Drive one mile on the road and take a right turn toward Fish Canyon. Continue another mile, bear left at a fork in the road and follow signs to the abbey. For information, call 1-520-455-5595. When you return to Arizona 83, it's about four more miles to Sonoita, home of the Santa Cruz County Fair and Rodeo Association. Restaurants and snack-food outlets are available to top up your personal energy tank. Healthful fare is the specialty at The Grasslands, a natural foods bakery and cafe, but hours are limited. The cafe is open 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Take Arizona 83 south past its intersection with Arizona 82 and watch for the cafe on the left as the road curves toward the east. For an eclectic shopping stop, try the The Iron Horse on Arizona 82 just east of its intersection with Arizona 83. Owner Preston Sellers will show you pottery, antiques, custom iron work, Mexican and Indonesian imports and a counter full of "nostalgic candy" such as Clark Bars, Buns and Sky Bars. Like some of the other 2,200 people who live in the area of Sonoita and nearby Elgin, Sellers has deep roots in rural ranching country. "My grandmother ran the schoolhouse in Patagonia when it was a one-room school," he says. "My grandfather ran the Little Outfit Ranch." You could spend all day in Sonoita, but Patagonia beckons. And it's only 12 miles down the road on Arizona 82. Patagonia Cradled in a 4,000-foot-high valley between the Patagonia and Santa Rita Mountains, Patagonia is a one-time mining town that's now more focused on tapping into a rich vein of tourism. Rustic buildings house shops, galleries and restaurants along the town's main street. The Mesquite Grove Gallery, Painted House Studio and Shooting Star Pottery attract shoppers drawn to arts and crafts. Hungry day-trippers can choose from a variety of fare - ranging from the borderland cuisine of Santos Mexican Cafe to a mother lode of comfort food at the Home Plate Restaurant. At the Home Plate, one ultra-filling option is the Hamburger Patti Deluxe - a big hunk of ground beef garnished with grilled onions, mushrooms, garden salad and cottage cheese for $6.95. "We're famous for our hamburgers, but everything here is good," says waitress Frances Monge. Even if Patagonia didn't have a single shop or gallery, it still would attract flocks of visitors every year - bird-watchers who come to The Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve on the edge of town. The preserve is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. It's closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Entrance is $5 per person, $3 for Conservancy members. Youths 15 and younger get in free. To reach the preserve from Arizona 82 near the middle of Patagonia, go north on Fourth Avenue about two blocks, turn left onto Pennsylvania Avenue and continue about 1.5 miles to the entrance. Another option for birders is the hummingbird-haven back yard of Marion Paton, known in bird-watching circles as "the hummingbird lady." She allows visitors to come onto her property for birdwatching at any time, and she even provides a ramada viewing area to enhance the experience. "I love the birds, and I want to pass it along," says Paton, whose house is along the road to the preserve. "This is a wonderful place - the best place in the country to see the violet-crowned hummingbird," says Jim Hays, a member of a Tucson Audubon Society group enjoying the winged sights in Paton's yard. Diane Touret, leader of the Audubon Society group, says, "It's nice to get out of the hectic traffic of Tucson and come here for the day. Patagonia is a great place for a day trip." A ghost-town graveyard If you can spare time for a 16-mile side trip into the past, take the eight-mile drive from Patagonia to the ghost town of Harshaw. The road to Harshaw is marked with a sign on the left (east) side of Arizona 82 as you come into Patagonia from Sonoita. The unpaved but well-maintained road winds through foothills of the Patagonia Mountains, where cattle graze and long-abandoned ranch buildings show the weight of the years. When you reach the signed Harshaw townsite, you'll find that the remnants of the "town" amount to one house, which is off-limits to the public. But across the road, on a low hillside, is the real treasure here: a ghost-town graveyard. Keeping in mind that this is a place for a respectful visit, a walk through the cemetery gives a glimpse of life more than a century ago. You'll find the grave of Angel Soto, who was killed in 1899 in an argument over a cow, according to a testament on his tombstone. You'll pass the last resting place of Ahira B. Sorrells, who was born in 1839 and died in 1907. Elsewhere in the cemetery are unmarked graves, family plots and a marker commemorating the short life of Aurelia Alicia Cota: "September 25, 1946-April 12, 1948. Our little angel." If stretching your legs in the graveyard puts you in the mood for a longer walk, watch for the marked trailhead for the Arizona Trail as you drive back toward Patagonia. The trail, about three miles from Patagonia on the Harshaw Road, is one leg of a route that spans the state from Sonora to Utah. Day-trippers will have to pick and choose their stops to make the whole circuit in a single day. If you're one of those folks who has to do it all, you might plan to spend the night in Patagonia before moving on. The town has several bed-and-breakfast lodgings as well as the Stage Stop Inn near the center of town. Rates range from $79 for an upstairs room for one person to $129 and $159 for two-person suites. En route to Nogales Seven miles southwest of Patagonia on Arizona 82 is a signed turnoff for Patagonia Lake State Park. If you're up for fishing, picnicking, hiking, bird-watching or camping, the park has it all. Visitors drive in four miles from the highway turnoff to reach the lake. Day-use hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the entrance fee is $7 per vehicle. Camping costs $15 per night, or $22 with electrical and water hookups. Journeying on toward Nogales, you'll pass the Arizona Vineyards winery along the highway as you approach town. Boldly advertising itself as "America's No. 1 winery," Arizona Vineyards offers tastings and sales of vintages with names such as "Rattlesnake Red," "Apache Red" and "Arizona White Burgundy." "Dry, very dry. It's good!" judges visitor Rose Cortese as she sips a sample of one of the winery's reds. A stop in Nogales, with an excursion to the Mexican side of the border, will add international flavor to your loop trip. But there's much to do and see on the colorful streets of the city, so many Tucsonans take an entire day for a Nogales visit rather than incorporating it into a longer sightseeing trip. Tumacacori "It's a mystical place," volunteer Gregory Conners says of Tumacacori National Historical Park 19 miles north of Nogales along Interstate 19. "Leaving religion aside, it's a deeply moving place." It was a religious man, Jesuit Eusebio Kino who founded the Tumacacori Mission in 1691. Much later, about 1800, work was begun on the church that survives today as the centerpiece of the historical park. "We closed our eyes and imagined what the church looked like long ago. It was cool!" says Taylor Kempton, 9, after a tour of the old mission with members of her fourth-grade class from Sycamore Elementary School in the Vail School District. Says Sycamore teacher Tricia Beck: "This place takes Arizona History out of the textbook. It really brings home what it was like to live here." Tumacacori is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Admission is $3. Youths 16 and younger get in free. Tubac Sometimes you just want to shop. Tubac is your place. About four miles north of Tumacacori along Interstate 19, the artsy-craftsy community is a colorful colony of shops, galleries, boutiques, jewelry stores, pottery stores and restaurants - with golf resorts nearby. From La Paloma de Tubac, with its 10,000 pieces of folk art and pottery, to Sacred Paths, featuring baskets from all over the world, the community offers a rich mix of items to beautify your home. Glenna Wood, co-owner of Sacred Paths, says many of her baskets are priced at $20 to $30. Batik masks from Java range in price from $24 to $115. In addition to pottery at a wide range of prices, La Paloma sells long, woven curtains, or cortinas, for $20. If you weren't born to shop, you might visit Tubac Presidio State Historic Park for a look back at the old days in the region. The park is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Christmas. Admission is $3. Youths 7 to 13 get in for $1, and kids 6 and younger are admitted free. Near the historic park is a trailhead for the Anza Trail, which meanders 4.5 miles from Tubac to Tumacacori. Tubac offers a variety of lodging choices for travelers who want to call it a night. Rates at the Tubac Country Inn, 13 Burruel St., run from $105 to $145 a night. A thrifty final stop You've finished with Tubac and you're on cruise control - bound for home. But make note of the Esperanza Boulevard exit as you whiz past Green Valley on the way back to Tucson. If you're passing by any Monday through Saturday between 9 a.m. and noon, consider taking the Esperanza Exit and heading for a place called the Country Fair White Elephant Thrift Store. Take Esperanza west to La Cañada Drive, turn north on La Cañada and proceed to the first traffic light. Turn left there into a business park, spot the White Elephant and prepare to buy cheap. The store is a non-profit organization that collects donated goods, sells them at ganga prices and donates profits to community groups. Even with hours limited to mornings, it does a bang-up business by offering everything from computers and sports equipment to books and clothing. On the 50-cent rack, you'll find top-quality, lightly used clothing items for a mere half a buck apiece. Mint condition copies of Arizona Highways magazine go for a dime. The hard-to-believe prices reign throughout the store.