are we on vacation again?

What a great weekend! We took a tour around Boston harbor to see the Tall Ships and the navy ships that were in port. There were so many people! I think the boat was the way to go. We chugged by the boats on Falcon pier, then over to the Charlestown navy yard to see the Constitution. It would have been a very long walk on a hot day. On the 4th itself, we started the day at Pier's park, where we had an awesome view of the Constitution's turn around. We watched the salute off Castle Island and heard the 21 gun salute as she pulled back into Charlestown. As an added treat, the Blue Angels did a fly by to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. That was really cool. It was a great place to watch all the festivities, and we even found 2 hours of free parking. We'll go back there again next year!

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Ok, so what was I thinking? I don't like the cold, the dark, or to climb over things, so why did I even attempt this? Yes, I know, because Bubba wanted to go. After driving on dirt roads for about 5 miles we got to the lot for the caves. It's just a short walk from there, but I should have known better when I saw the pile of rocks that was the entrance. I tried. I got in about 20 feet and saw the pitch darkness, and the ice formations and decided against it. Bubba helped me climb back out then took my fleece (picture my women's medium sized jacket on him) then went back in on his own. I sat by the entrance for a little while, but then my city upbringing took over and all I could envision was being eaten by a mountain lion or having some crazy Charles Manson type roaming through the forest, so instead I locked myself in the car to wait for him. Of course it doesn't hurt that we have lots of snacks in the car and that it is nice and toasty in here. I wonder when I...

Today we took a tour with Secret Canyon Hummer Adventures. It was a lot of fun. Our driver/tour guide was Brian, and he was very knowledgeable about the whole area. What a great tour! On our way back south to Sedona, we took route 64 through the Grand Canyon. It never ceases to amaze. The sheer size and the colors of the rocks, not to mention the $25 entrance fee, it is just amazing. Needless to say, it took us a lot longer to get back than it should have. It turned into about another 8 hour drive. And two hours of that was in the dark, so no good scenery.

Today we drove north to Page. It took us about 8 hours because of all the stopping and sight seeing. We spent a few hours in one of the national parks. It has both the Wupatki pueblo and the sunset crater volcano. It's a very interesting place. The pueblo is over 800 years old and the crater is from a volcanic explosion over 1000 years ago. Lots of history. We had dinner in the Cameron trading post. Just about everything was served either on or with soft fried dough. Where can you go wrong with that? Tomorrow we're off to the slot canyons... I almost forgot, we also went to the Glen Canyon Dam. Wow is it huge!

Today we roamed around part of Sedona. We're such city people... Everyone is getting out of their cars with back packs and bottles of water and walking sticks and hiking boots, and here we are in our sandals with our cameras and one bottle of water to split between us. We made it back again even with our lack of preparation. It really is beautiful out here. It's warm and a little too sunny for me, but beautiful. I found every slice of shade to stand in as we roamed around. There wasn't much, but it was enough. We ate at bodacious burgers. It was great. Bubba had an elk burger and I had fried cactus strips on mine. Yum! After that we went shopping at an arts outdoor shopping center. Incredibly nice stuff, but it all has the prices to match. Needless to say, lots of window shopping! I need a nap!

It took about 7 hours of flying (in middle seats,) then 3 hours of driving to get here, but it is still beautiful. We had lunch at an Amish restaurant yesterday, yes an Amish restaurant in AZ. And it was great. Bubba had shoofly pie for the first time, and for me it brought back memories of the very sticky sweet stuff from many years ago in PA with my family "shoofly pie and apple pandowdy makes your eyes light up and your belly say howdy!" Driving through Phoenix, the cacti were in bloom, it's almost magical seeing all the colors in a desert. Driving further north to Sedona, not that much is blooming yet. It is cooler up here and the terrain is different. We tried to see the sunset through the rocks last night, but as is usual for us we were late, but even better than that, we saw a bob cat just feet away from us! Very cool and we didn't get eaten by it, which is even better! We ended the night at the grocery store... I was exhausted when I finally fell into bed.