Whew- it's been a whirlwind of fun around here! I am wrapping up the first of my two spring breaks. My second one is a week and half in April over the Easter holiday. I guess it's kind of a pain in the butt for adults trying to find something to do with us kids for 2 but I sure like it!
We started our vacation off with a visit from Nana D and Mr. Walker for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo mountain bike race. It's turned into two separate events, with the boys heading out to race and the girls staying behind to eat and shop. Everyone is happy so it's all good.
Mom and Nana spent their time shopping down on 4th Avenue and mom gave her calorie watching for a day and had a big ol' slice of chocolate bourbon pie. It was fabulous! We also met Ms. Audrey and Madeline out for dinner on Friday. Saturday was very lazy and quiet and that was OK by all of ladies.
The boys on the other hand, were out drinking beer and riding mountain bikes until it all went to hell. Mr. Walker got in one lap and dad got in one lap and then a huge winter storm moved in and it started raining. And it didn't stop for like two days. Dad and Mr. Walker packed up and came home a few hours early but they were well rested. So there is that.
Everyone got back to our house Sunday afternoon and dad got the RV cleaned out and restocked and did all the RV laundry so we could be ready for next adventure. We were up at 4:15AM, said our good byes to Nana and Mr. Walker (who stuck behind to get Ginger put away, do their laundry AND vacuum for the house sitter- awesome!) and headed out for our trip to Death Valley. Once we got out of Phoenix, it was a really pretty drive and mom was ooooing and aaaahhhing the whole way. We made a quick detour to Hoover Dam since neither mom nor I had set foot on it. It was super cool and I loved it. We lucked out and beat the traffic- we got down and parked with no problem but on our way out, the line of cars to get in was about a mile long. Ugghh- I don't think we would have had the patience to wait through that!
After a few more hours, we pulled into our campsite at Death Valley National park. As you can see, I wasn't too impressed initially and had a deep burning desire to finish a movie I had already seen 10 times......
Since we got in kind of late that day, we waited until the next day to start our exploring. We started out in Badwater. It is 282 feet below sea level- the lowest point on the North American Continent. You can see the the Sea Level sign waaaaaaaayyyy up there as we were standing on the once ocean floor.
They let you walk out as far as you want too and we went a long way out. The further we went, the more water and salt you ran into and the less people too. I wanted to walk all the way across but in the end decided that wasn't a super brilliant idea.
After Badwater, we headed to the Natural Bridge hike. It was short and little anti-climactic but the parking lot was pretty dramatic.
After that, we headed to Golden Canyon for another hike. This one was about 3 miles round trip and it was aaaaaahhhhmazing! It was literally a gold color the whole until the end when we ran into a big red wall. For the intrepid hikers, you can squirrel up a rocky, kind of slippery, kind of steep path to the top of the canyon wall. And since we are intrepid hikers, we did it and it was kind of scary but so worth it. The view from the top was aaaaahhhhmazing. ( Mom needs to find a thesaurus). We got the top, turned around and surveyed the view. The only word that came to mind was "WOW".
We only ended up being able to spend about a day and half in Death Valley but totally want to go back and would highly recommend it to anyone. It was beautiful!
Now because we were so close, we couldn't pass up a trip to Disneyland! Because half of Tucson goes to Disney in February, we ran into our good friends (and mom and dad's godson) and spent one day with them and then the next day, we met up with another family we know for a quick dinner.
So that was my/our Spring Break and it was pretty amazing. It's back to real world tomorrow- mom to work, me to school and dad on a business trip. Deep sigh. Softball practice starts next week but it's supposed to rain again, so we'll see what happens. Have a great one!
