John surprised me the next morning by telling me that he wasn't really interested in returning to the Grand Canyon. Really? I had planned this trip FOR John to finally visit the Grand Canyon. I had to agree though--the Grand Canyon is overrated. While it's beautiful and (in the truest form of the word) AWESOME, it's overcrowded. So during breakfast, I scrambled to remember some of the places the kids and I visited back during our Tour of the USA trip in 2004. Walnut Canyon, to this day, remains one of my favorite places to visit out west, so we drove there first.
Walnut Canyon National Monument sits outside of Flagstaff. It's a series of geological ancient cliff dwellings. While there's a nice hike next to the visitor center that gives great views of the canyon (which we hiked and snapped our typical selfie), you can't really appreciate it until you hike down into it.....which, of course, we did.
It's nice, because the trail is completely paved. It's several hundred steps down into the canyon. The whole time we were descending, I was remembering our hike from the day before and actually dreading the return ascent.
While most of the cave dwellings were looted during the late 1800's, it's still possible to see the actual rooms. It's a testament to the Hopi people who lived there, building homes in the sides of very tall mountains. We tried to imagine how they would even get up and down with water. Thank goodness John (and our very tall family) didn't need to live there!
I know it might sound spoiled, considering how much John and I travel, but I really do appreciate the times when it's just the two of us. Due to his busy schedule with church and work, I don't get many chances to see him for an extended period of time. Trust me, my smile in these pictures is real :-)
Thankfully, I made it back up the steps, again ready to hack up a lung from the altitude. I could have stayed there all day, but we wanted to see some other places. Of course, we had to stop for a few minutes in the gift shop. Not only did I need to collect souvenirs for the kids, I like to support the National Parks.
Back home, we have a murder of crows that lives on our land (full credit to Johannah for knowing what a group of crows is called). I hate those stupid things, because they are the noisiest, most obnoxious animals. Every morning, I wake up to them calling each other, because they've found some tasty piece of dog food somewhere on our property. They remind me of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park who call each other, albeit to eat children in the movie. John couldn't resist reuniting me with my mortal enemy (in puppet form, no less) at the gift shop.
Thankfully, I convinced John to stop for some lunch before we headed back into Nowheresville.
So I sent this picture out to my kids, asking if they remembered what significance this specific Cracker Barrel played in our lives. Ethan was the clear winner, remembering exactly why it is special (although to be honest, CB has always been rather special to the Kennedy family). Back in 2004, when the kids and I toured the Flagstaff area for several days, we stopped at this restaurant. During lunch, I stepped away from the table to use the restroom. While I was gone, the waitress came back to the table to refill my drink (contained in a brown, plastic cup). Some Word of Wisdom radar went off in Ethan's head, because when I sat back down, he told me that he was pretty sure my drink wasn't Sprite. He wondered if it might actually be ice tea.
Side note: I didn't join the church until I was six years old. Before that, ice tea (now called sweet tea in most places) was a staple of my Texan diet. In fact, I haven't had it in the past 40 years, but I can still remember exactly how it tastes....and I love it.
Back to the story. With a mischievous look in my eyes, I looked at the kids and said, "Well, I'll just have to taste it." And I did.
And it was a little taste of what I believe I will be drinking in heaven :-) I then faked absolute indignation and even more fake hatred of the drink...and to this day, my kids laugh whenever we relive that story. And they make no judgments of my decision that day, thank goodness.
Next, we were off to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, just a few miles north of Flagstaff. Holy smokes, what a place! A volcano went off here, nearly 900 years ago, completely changing the landscape. I would like to mention that the park sits at about 8,000 feet which I thought would be the ultimate test of my altitude sickness. Oh no. John decided that he didn't just want to see the lava (again, at 8,000 ft), but he wanted to climb the mountain so that we could see into the crater.
I put my foot down. Between the lack of oxygen, my lack of appetite, and my completely stressed-out lungs, I told him that I would not be making the climb. I got back in the car and told him to go ahead. Yep, and then that little voice in the back of head reminded me that this is what I swore I would never do when I sported a 20-year-old, healthy, strong, rockin' body; I would never act old.
I got out of the car and started climbing, and there was no paved trail this time. Instead, the path was just small lava beads--perfect for losing my balance and slipping!
You know, it's one thing to feel a bit older and to take things a bit slower, but when my husband (who is actually older than I am) can sit on a log and wait for me to catch up, I wonder what's the point?! Yep, as he likes to remind me, he has the cardiac health of a 32-year-old...according to Penn State University, and he has the legs of Hercules....according to me. And yet, I am so thankful that he constantly pushes me to stay active. No doubt, I would be a 300 pound recluse if he didn't :-)
I thanked the Arizona National Monument gods when I finally reached the top of that silly climb--once again rated "strenuous"--and just about passed out when I saw that we had reached an elevation of 9,000 feet. Yep, we climbed 1,000 feet in just under a half a mile. John, OF COURSE, wanted to run down into the crater, but this time I declined. If there's a "down", there will be a back "up", and I was already wondering how my weak formerly-broken ankle was even going to make it back down to the car. So, I stayed at the top and took one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip:
I might have seen my life flash before my eyes as I made the descent back down. Of course, I could have been hallucinating, due to the lack of oxygen :-) We then hiked through more lava fields, and headed on.
I love skies. John thinks that most skies look exactly the same, but there is something beautifully different in skies around the world. (A second side note: Northern Michigan, and Rainbow Valley (in front of our German home) are my favorite skies on the planet.) Because there are so few clouds in Arizona, it was lovely to see the clouds above Flagstaff.
The last stop of the day was Wupatki National Monument, a series of pueblos that acted as a New York City Conference Center to the ancient Native Americans. People came from far and wide to trade their goods, farm, socialize and even play ball games. From the visitor center, it looked rather flat (for which at this point, my burning quads thanked me), but it wasn't, because NOTHING is flat in the western United States!
Walnut Canyon National Monument sits outside of Flagstaff. It's a series of geological ancient cliff dwellings. While there's a nice hike next to the visitor center that gives great views of the canyon (which we hiked and snapped our typical selfie), you can't really appreciate it until you hike down into it.....which, of course, we did.It's nice, because the trail is completely paved. It's several hundred steps down into the canyon. The whole time we were descending, I was remembering our hike from the day before and actually dreading the return ascent.
 |
Thankfully, I made it back up the steps, again ready to hack up a lung from the altitude. I could have stayed there all day, but we wanted to see some other places. Of course, we had to stop for a few minutes in the gift shop. Not only did I need to collect souvenirs for the kids, I like to support the National Parks.
So I sent this picture out to my kids, asking if they remembered what significance this specific Cracker Barrel played in our lives. Ethan was the clear winner, remembering exactly why it is special (although to be honest, CB has always been rather special to the Kennedy family). Back in 2004, when the kids and I toured the Flagstaff area for several days, we stopped at this restaurant. During lunch, I stepped away from the table to use the restroom. While I was gone, the waitress came back to the table to refill my drink (contained in a brown, plastic cup). Some Word of Wisdom radar went off in Ethan's head, because when I sat back down, he told me that he was pretty sure my drink wasn't Sprite. He wondered if it might actually be ice tea.
Side note: I didn't join the church until I was six years old. Before that, ice tea (now called sweet tea in most places) was a staple of my Texan diet. In fact, I haven't had it in the past 40 years, but I can still remember exactly how it tastes....and I love it.
Back to the story. With a mischievous look in my eyes, I looked at the kids and said, "Well, I'll just have to taste it." And I did.
And it was a little taste of what I believe I will be drinking in heaven :-) I then faked absolute indignation and even more fake hatred of the drink...and to this day, my kids laugh whenever we relive that story. And they make no judgments of my decision that day, thank goodness.
 |
| These huge boulders of lava stretched for a couple of miles. |
I put my foot down. Between the lack of oxygen, my lack of appetite, and my completely stressed-out lungs, I told him that I would not be making the climb. I got back in the car and told him to go ahead. Yep, and then that little voice in the back of head reminded me that this is what I swore I would never do when I sported a 20-year-old, healthy, strong, rockin' body; I would never act old.
I got out of the car and started climbing, and there was no paved trail this time. Instead, the path was just small lava beads--perfect for losing my balance and slipping!
You know, it's one thing to feel a bit older and to take things a bit slower, but when my husband (who is actually older than I am) can sit on a log and wait for me to catch up, I wonder what's the point?! Yep, as he likes to remind me, he has the cardiac health of a 32-year-old...according to Penn State University, and he has the legs of Hercules....according to me. And yet, I am so thankful that he constantly pushes me to stay active. No doubt, I would be a 300 pound recluse if he didn't :-)I thanked the Arizona National Monument gods when I finally reached the top of that silly climb--once again rated "strenuous"--and just about passed out when I saw that we had reached an elevation of 9,000 feet. Yep, we climbed 1,000 feet in just under a half a mile. John, OF COURSE, wanted to run down into the crater, but this time I declined. If there's a "down", there will be a back "up", and I was already wondering how my weak formerly-broken ankle was even going to make it back down to the car. So, I stayed at the top and took one of my favorite pictures of the entire trip:
 |
| Can you find John? I promise that he's actually in this picture...wearing his bright green Baltimore Marathon t-shirt. |
 |
| The easy hike where we actually saw other tourists, because, you know, nobody is crazy enough to hike to the top of a mountain to look down into a crater... |
The last stop of the day was Wupatki National Monument, a series of pueblos that acted as a New York City Conference Center to the ancient Native Americans. People came from far and wide to trade their goods, farm, socialize and even play ball games. From the visitor center, it looked rather flat (for which at this point, my burning quads thanked me), but it wasn't, because NOTHING is flat in the western United States!
 |
| I don't really want to think about what kind of games were played here, nor what they used for a ball... |
The coolest thing, by far, at this monument was a naturally occurring "blow hole". Air naturally shoots up through an earth crack. There is nothing making this happening, and it's absolutely astounding. I imagine that during the hot summer months, during the main tourist season, this thing is completely surrounded.
As John and I were driving back to the hotel that evening, we both agreed--it was a wonderful day.
Comments
Post a Comment