Second Half of our Vacation

We left Tombstone AZ after staying there for two days. Our next destination was Sedona, AZ. On the way back through Phoenix we stopped to see my dad's tomb plate. He's remains are at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona. It is funny, when you think of Cemeteries that hold the remains of our Veterans, you usually get a mental picture of grass and white headstones as far as the eye can see. This place is a desert, no grass in sight and no white headstones either. They have the flat grave markers instead even though there isn't any grass. (Most Cemeteries now use the flat markers so that they can just ride the mower right over everything.) We still got the same feeling though with all those markers and knowing what they gave up so that we could, well you can fill in the blank with your own thankful thoughts...

It was a nice drive to Sedona, lots of open spaces. Sedona is where my dad last lived and I took a drive past his old house. I was thinking that it would have sold and been torn down to make a newer, more modern house, but it was still there. If you ever go to Sedona you will find that the red color in the earth there is breathtaking. No pictures can do it justice, but after a couple of hours, it looses the aaawwww factor. We had heard about the vortexes that are in the area and had to check it out for ourselves. The vortexes are where there is minerals in the earth that make a type of magnetic field. People have all types of ideas about these areas. We took the animals for a hike to check one out and see what (if anything) we would feel. Well, we definitely were hot! You could feel a little something....almost like static but no shocking discharges.

The place we were excited to go to was Slide Rock! Oh, that was fun! It is a national park, so we couldn't bring the animals. It is a stream that meanders down moss covered rocks that make a natural water slide. There were a few places that you could dive into nice deep clear pools. A few of the dive areas were 10ft high. Here are a few pix of the kids and Jim having fun.

On our way home we swung through one of my old stopping grounds, Jerome. It is a mining ghost town that I have wonderful memories of. Of course, it still looks pretty much the same. We had lived in what was once a miners house. It was nice to visit and share my memories with my family.

What a fun exhausting trip!

Our Arizona Vacation!

We packed up our animals and luggage and headed out on the road on June 6Th. Our first stop was Tombstone. We checked into our pet friendly Best Western after a 10 hour drive. As we got acquainted with our new surroundings we felt right at home seeing a mural on the wall of someone who reminded us of a friend of ours named Tommy. This hotel had a fabulous restaurant, Ranch 22, attached that had gourmet food at a decent price.

Rich in history and characters. There was a lot to see and do, we started out with, what else, the old Courthouse Museum (we are homeschoolers after all) then a gun fight! It was a funny, yet informative show. Right after the first show was over there was an other one starting. This time it was a trick riden, rope wranglin, and whipping good time. We were dazzled by Texas Kate who had won a trick riden world championship in the past. She astounded and then floored us when we found out she is in her 50's and still doing all these tricks! Just amazing.

As you can see Jim was having loads of fun. So I asked Texas Kate for some Bull Whippen tips. Wouldn't you know it, I wound up leaving with a 8ft bull whip. Watch out, I may just learn to use it!

Next up was a trolley ride tour to get a lay of the land, so to speak. It was a very informative tour and had some nice twists to it. We even had western Elvis on board for a short while. Uhhn uhn. He wasn't dead, just lives in a ghost town. LOL I have to let you in on a little tip. If you by the trolley tickets, they give you a discount on most of the other attractions and even a few restaurants.

So, can you guess what we did next? After all this excitement we were famished! We mozied on over to the OK Cafe and dug in to some yummy grub. The kids even opted for a genuine Sarsaparilla. MmmMmmm Now that we were refreshed and full, it was a good time to get in some walking and check out the stores and of course the saloon. It had the original beautiful wood bar! We even got to drink the actual whiskey that Doc Holiday had a liking for.

The shops had an array of merchandise and not many that carried that normal cheep souvenir stuff either. One store even had fudge! We found a few good bobble's for some friends and ourselves and headed to.....Boot Hill. On our way out the door, we were distracted by the beginning of the reenactment of the famous OK Coral gun fight. They lead you straight to the coral where they have the rest of the reenactment for only $15 per person.

At one of the shops we were told we would find some interesting grave stones at Boot Hill, the only one we found amusing was this one. After that, we headed back to the hotel and the pool.

Here lies George Johnson
Hanged by mistake
1812
He was right
We was wrong
But we strung him up
And now he's
Gone

This was only our first day out of three.....More to come.....