OK, so this has taken a long time. We took our annual winter break trip to Arizona and California almost two months ago and I'm just getting around to posting photos and story! Let's just say I've had a lot of other demands on my free time.
We flew from Seattle to Phoenix where Carol's dad picked us up and drove us to Oro Valley near Tucson. We spent five days there in temperatures pleasantly warmer than Boston.
One day we visited the Tucson Children's Museum. It's relatively small but man is it high quality! The best part? All of the interactive activities actually work! The girls had a great time there. Their favorite parts were the big tube assembly set that you could send ping pong balls down when you were finished, and the pretend veterinarian clinic and the large pretend market with smoothie bar. My favorite thing was the pneumatic tube system through which you could send foam balls or scarves and after traveling through the complex tube system they would be launched out into the middle of the room. After the museum we visited the huge Tucson Gem and Mineral Show where we saw many pretty things. The girls each bought a small item that incorporated her birthstone. After that Grandma and Grandpa took the girls home and Carol and I had a nice dinner out at the fantastic Downtown Kitchen.
Another day we visited the family fun center and drove go karts, played mini golf and laser tag and rode some rides.
One of the coolest things we did in Tucson was visit Kartchner Caverns. The story of the caverns' discovery and development is fascinating. Both girls loved the tour.
The girls swam in the pool every day. While in Tucson I bought a GoPro sports camera - something I've been wanting for a long time. In case you missed it, I played with the GoPro's time lapse and slow motion features and produced this video.
After five days in Tucson we drove to Palm Desert, CA to visit my parents. Lots more swimming for the girls, of course. We returned to the Living Desert Museum which is always a favorite. We got a very close-up view of an owl on the glove of a handler. We also got to pet goats lots of goats (those goats have a rough life sitting around getting petted all day!).
One day Carol and I drove up Highway 74 over the San Jacinto mountains, through Idylwild and back down to Banning. Up near Mountain Center we encountered snow! That's the last thing we thought we'd see on our desert vacation.
This was the week before the Oscars and Carol and I had our evenings free thanks to Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Betsy, so we had our own little film festival. We saw five of the Best Picture nominees. That's the most movies we've seen in years!
On our last full day in California Carol and I went for a lovely hike up Palm Canyon on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. We almost had the place to ourselves. We hiked up onto a plateau and then returned via a wash that was dramatic and beautiful. We ended up hiking about 5-6 miles and had a wonderful time.
Alas, it took me so long to post this that's it's almost spring break now!
No comments:
Post a Comment