We're Here!

What a whirlwind cross-country trip we've had!

• We left Holbrook, AZ on the 10th of November and headed for Williams, AZ to go to the Grand Canyon.  We took the train to the Canyon.  Hanna was really excited about riding it but after an hour she was asking  "When are we getting off?"  It is about a 2 hour trip each way.  She told me she thought it was going to be like the train at Disney World (which takes about 10 minutes) It really is worth it to take the train instead of driving.  We had about three hours to walk around after we got there.

 Hanna went right over to the Ranger station so she could get her booklet done to get her Junior Ranger badge and patch.  We have gotten just about every park badge between Florida and California, along the southern route. 




 As you can probably tell from the pictures, it was chilly!  In the sun we were warm but the wind was blowing, so if you were in the shade you were pretty cold.  It was absolutely Beautiful the day we were there.  I feel like all the cliche's are true about words and photos not really expressing how magnificent the experience is.

•We left the Grand Canyon on the 12th of Nov. and drove to Needles, Ca.  We took a day trip to the town of Oatman, AZ.  It's a "Ghost Town" touristy place with wild donkeys.  Weird.  I noticed the gas was about a dollar less in AZ.  Oh,  when I  stopped for gas on the way out of Needles, the gas station guy comes over to me and says " oh your tires need to be replaced on your tow car- 3 have bulges"  I immediately tried to call David - but couldn't reach him.  So I had Jake email him and meanwhile I got down on the ground next to the tires and couldn't see anything.  I am rattled because we are about to drive through a long desert stretch of road and don't want a flat or blowout (been there done that!)  David finally called me back (after an excruciatingly long 3 minutes) and said he had been ripped off at a service station before in CA.  I drove over to the tire store a couple blocks away and had the guy there look at my tires and he said they were fine and couldn't see any reason to be worried.  Wow, scary creepy.  How many other tourists didn't get a second opinion?  Ick,  I've never been exposed to blatant  thievery - highway robbery? before, wow.

•On 14 Nov. we left Needles and drove to Victorville, CA.  Happy to be there.  Not so many people, we liked it.
•15 Nov. went on to El Cahon, CA.  Did not like it. Had a terrible place.  Dirt, Dirt, tons of people and then more people.  It was supposed to be a nice resort but was like a trailer park with lots of junk and long term people.  Hanna liked the pool.  First time she got to go swimming since we left Florida.  We stayed here 2 nights to recuperate then moved on.
•17 Nov. drove to Escondido.  What a huge difference!  Fancy, Fancy, Fancy.  We love it here.  We decided to stay here a month to relax and go to the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park , and of course Legoland.  David got here on the 25 of Nov. and we went started right in having fun.  Had a great, quiet Thanksgiving.  I made turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and stuffing.  Fun and yummy but it took around 2 hours to do the dishes!

So that's the update for now, y'all come back now, ya here!
P.S.  I have been looking for a sewing machine for a while at the thrift stores along the way and yesterday in Oceanside, we found this lovely little jewel...$20 can you believe it?! Lucky me!

Oh No Albuquerque!

    •Wow, another post so soon?  How much could there be to say?  How much fun could we be having?      •We left Amarillo, TX on Nov 3 and drove to Albuquerque, NM.  We went to the Natural History Museum and it was very interesting.  I got to hold an albino snake, Hanna liked it but didn't want to hold it.   They also had Dinosaur exhibits and Space exhibits.  It was really cool!  Hanna and Jake had a lot of fun- Me too!

Hanna loved touching the dino skin- interesting texture.

We also went to Explora, the hands on children's science museum.  I thought we would be there only an hour but we were there three!  Hanna thought it was great but so did Jake!

  Jake got to ride a bicycle backwards on a wire one story up- very exciting.  He got weighed so the bike could be properly counter-balanced so it wouldn't flip over. 
It looked like he was in the circus!  Fun!

   •We also went to the Albuquerque Rattlesnake Museum.  Hanna was super excited because she LOVES Craig Ferguson and he mentions this place all the time.  It's where he got his snake cup that he drinks out of on the show.  It's like we found the Holy Grail! She was squeeling and jumping up and down!  The guy behind the counter was really nice to her.  He couldn't believe how excited she was.  She bought the mug and a hat.  She is thinking if she can get in to see the show in LA, Craig will see her hat and ask her up on stage.  She wants to be a late night talk show host.

     •On Friday, 6 Nov. we went to the Albuquerque Art Museum.  It was really great.  We had a good time until we left.  As soon as we got to the car we knew something was WRONG.

 This is the right passenger back seat window on the ground next to the car.

This is Hanna and Officer Hsu(shoe).  He was super during our VERY stressful afternoon.  We decided to have a Forensic Science class instead of freaking out (some more).  We were already pretty upset because the thief got away with a bag of stuff from each of us.  Jake was the hardest hit.  His bag had his LEGO stuff, Camera, Watch, and Apple headphones in it.  Hanna lost a Flip beanie baby, blanket, and Stainless Steel water bottle.  The only thing of any value( to me) I lost, was my fabric bag from Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  The kids were troupers.  Jake helped out by calling around on his iphone to glass replacement places.  He found one that could do it right then, so we went over.  It was in a little bit of a scary neighborhood, but the people were really nice and did a great job.  I really wanted to have it done right away because we had to drive on the freeway to get home and I was worried about Hanna in the back seat.
     •We left ABQ as soon as we could, on Sun 8 Nov. and drove to Holbrook, AZ .  We stopped here for 3 nights so we could go to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park.  We loved it!  When Jake was 3, we drove through it when we drove from Calgary, Alberta to Corpus Christi TX. 

Well, that is our update for now.   :) Julie