Get-A-Way

If you get away for just a day or two, it still counts as a vacation, right?! Sometimes that's what our family needs to do from time to time, just get away. A week or two ago, we decided to take a "mini" trip to Flagstaff, Arizona so we could get out of town and regroup as human beings. Why Flagstaff, you ask? Well, it's not too far away, it's not covered in snow and it's not too expensive of a town to visit. Besides, the people are nice and there are things to do there!

We left on a Tuesday morning and headed southeast from Vegas towards Flagstaff...with the dog. Yes, the dog came with us this time, which, looking back, might have been a mistake. She has NO social skills and was a complete idiot. Anyways...we headed out and naturally, the route we had to take crosses over the Hoover Dam. The picture above is looking from the Dam back towards the road we came from. Those pillars are part of the new bridge that will cross over the Dam someday. They are amazingly tall and awesome to look at! The construction company actually had one of the cranes tip over not too long ago (scary!).

We got to Flagstaff a few hours later and scouted out the town for lunch and the Chamber of Commerce, quickly realizing that Flagstaff is a railroad town...90 trains a day! Sounds like Kuna, Idaho....Later that day we took in a tour of the Riordan Mansion (highly recommend...www.azstateparks.com) and then went for a family hike near the Lowell Observatory. The next morning we got up and took advantage of the hotel's breakfast, then drove to nearby Walnut Canyon (ruins of the ancient Wupatki people....another cliff dwelling), then tried to find Lake Mary and Mormon Lake to possibly do some fishing, only to find that the lakes have been basically dried up for about 8 years after an earthquake created a hole at the bottom of each! When we got back into town, we inhaled our lunch and headed off to the Lowell Observatory (known for it's location and founder of Pluto...or planet X. It also houses a 24-inch refractor telescope. That was a cool visit! Shortly after that, we headed back home. The second picture is of the boys inside one of the cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon. It's good to get away and it's also good to be home!