Sunday, June 21, 2009
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!
We’ve been on the road for several days now! There hasn’t been much time to get on here, so I’ll try to catch up for the past few days.
Friday we all went on an adventure! By all I mean even the little ones, Ethan, Natalie, Kate, and Carter. We went to Kartchner Caverns and Old Tombstone. The caverns were so beautiful! There are no pictures of the caverns because they didn’t allow photography in there. Pictures wouldn’t have been able to capture the massiveness of the caverns nor the total feeling of reverence for God to have created such beauty and wonder. On the way back to Tucson, Paul, Charity, Carter, and me drove through the Sonora Desert and the Saguaro National Park. Paul pulled over and let me wander through the desert and take pictures of the cacti in bloom. Yes, I picked up rocks from the desert (not from the park, it wasn’t allowed) to bring home to my classroom. I was enjoying myself just picking my way through the cacti here and there! Then, Paul decided to take a “short cut” through the park on a dirt road. Yes, I said a dirt road. I told Paul and Charity I felt like a kid again riding on the back of Daddy’s pickup truck going, Uhhhhhhhhh. WASHBOARD! But we saw some wonderful wildlife down that dirt road, if you call a rattlesnake wonderful! He was just lying there in the path. Charity almost made the fatal error of scaring me! Ask her about it when you see her!
Then I realized I had been wandering around the desert taking pictures and picking up rocks, and I could have picked up a rattlesnake! I suddenly felt very foolish indeed! I also felt thankful that God’s hand was on me protecting me. We also saw jackrabbits and chipmunks. Carter enjoyed the dirt road too. He was going, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh”, too!
We left Tim’s house Saturday morning early and drove to Henderson, Nevada, by way of California—the Mohave Desert to be exact. It was an absolutely beautiful drive if you don’t mind miles and miles of desert. The mountains off in the distance were majestic to say the least. Paul stopped along one of the turnouts so I could collect some California rocks for school. I would have loved to have brought home some of the bigger ones for my pond area, but Paul wouldn’t have entertained even the thought of that!
We arrived in Henderson with enough time to rest a little while, shower, and change for our excursion to downtown Las Vegas. We went to the Bellagio for dinner and the theater. We saw Cirque du Solei’s “O”. It was an absolutely stunning performance! The acrobats were so graceful in the air and in the water. Afterward, we went out front and watched the water show. We got some good pictures, but they don’t do the Bellagio justice. We didn’t stay too long; I can’t handle large crowds, and there was definitely a large crowd there! I thank the Lord I live a much simpler life. I watch people hurrying here and there and wonder if they know the Lord. I even wondered at one point what would happen if I suddenly yelled out, “Do you know Jesus?” I didn’t. Maybe I should have?
Today we began our trek across Nevada to the Hoover Dam. The Dam was tremendous! We got the tour that took us deep into the dam. We peeped out the air vents about middle way down! What an awesome place! The amount of concrete and the number of workers it took to build it were astounding. What was even more astounding was that the work was done during the Great Depression, and the workers only received about $4 a day for wages. The dam was originally named Boulder Dam and was later renamed Hoover Dam in honor of President Herbert Hoover. I learned a lot of cool facts to bring back to my students, but I won’t give you a long history lesson here. I’ll just say one more thing, “Wow!”
The drive back through Arizona to get to Sedona was LONG! It wasn’t literally longer than yesterday’s drive, but it seemed much longer, probably because I was out so late last night! Ahh, city life! It’s not for me. As the saying goes, “It’s okay to visit, but I certainly wouldn’t live there.” The only reason I’d like to return to Vegas would be to see the show again. Yea, it was that good!
The drive down to Sedona was gorgeous. At some point I suddenly realized we were seeing trees! Real trees! Not the small ones we had been seeing in Arizona. Tall pine trees! We were up so high the air was actually nippy, a welcomed relief from the heart of the previous days. Red Rock is certainly a fitting name because that’s what you see as you descend the mountains—huge red rock mountains everywhere, with TREES on them. We are here in Los Abrigados Resort. It is a very beautiful resort tucked in among the mountains and the trees. I’m looking forward to a relaxing few days.
But first thing tomorrow morning will be our rafting trip down the Colorado River!I hope that is relaxing. We have to get up early tomorrow morning and DRIVE again to get to where the rafting trip begins. We’ll be on the Colorado all afternoon. I’m looking forward to it! (I think! I’ll let you know later how it turns out.)
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads!
We’ve been on the road for several days now! There hasn’t been much time to get on here, so I’ll try to catch up for the past few days.
Then I realized I had been wandering around the desert taking pictures and picking up rocks, and I could have picked up a rattlesnake! I suddenly felt very foolish indeed! I also felt thankful that God’s hand was on me protecting me. We also saw jackrabbits and chipmunks. Carter enjoyed the dirt road too. He was going, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh”, too!
We left Tim’s house Saturday morning early and drove to Henderson, Nevada, by way of California—the Mohave Desert to be exact. It was an absolutely beautiful drive if you don’t mind miles and miles of desert. The mountains off in the distance were majestic to say the least. Paul stopped along one of the turnouts so I could collect some California rocks for school. I would have loved to have brought home some of the bigger ones for my pond area, but Paul wouldn’t have entertained even the thought of that!
We arrived in Henderson with enough time to rest a little while, shower, and change for our excursion to downtown Las Vegas. We went to the Bellagio for dinner and the theater. We saw Cirque du Solei’s “O”. It was an absolutely stunning performance! The acrobats were so graceful in the air and in the water. Afterward, we went out front and watched the water show. We got some good pictures, but they don’t do the Bellagio justice. We didn’t stay too long; I can’t handle large crowds, and there was definitely a large crowd there! I thank the Lord I live a much simpler life. I watch people hurrying here and there and wonder if they know the Lord. I even wondered at one point what would happen if I suddenly yelled out, “Do you know Jesus?” I didn’t. Maybe I should have?
Today we began our trek across Nevada to the Hoover Dam. The Dam was tremendous! We got the tour that took us deep into the dam. We peeped out the air vents about middle way down! What an awesome place! The amount of concrete and the number of workers it took to build it were astounding. What was even more astounding was that the work was done during the Great Depression, and the workers only received about $4 a day for wages. The dam was originally named Boulder Dam and was later renamed Hoover Dam in honor of President Herbert Hoover. I learned a lot of cool facts to bring back to my students, but I won’t give you a long history lesson here. I’ll just say one more thing, “Wow!”
The drive back through Arizona to get to Sedona was LONG! It wasn’t literally longer than yesterday’s drive, but it seemed much longer, probably because I was out so late last night! Ahh, city life! It’s not for me. As the saying goes, “It’s okay to visit, but I certainly wouldn’t live there.” The only reason I’d like to return to Vegas would be to see the show again. Yea, it was that good!
The drive down to Sedona was gorgeous. At some point I suddenly realized we were seeing trees! Real trees! Not the small ones we had been seeing in Arizona. Tall pine trees! We were up so high the air was actually nippy, a welcomed relief from the heart of the previous days. Red Rock is certainly a fitting name because that’s what you see as you descend the mountains—huge red rock mountains everywhere, with TREES on them. We are here in Los Abrigados Resort. It is a very beautiful resort tucked in among the mountains and the trees. I’m looking forward to a relaxing few days.
But first thing tomorrow morning will be our rafting trip down the Colorado River!I hope that is relaxing. We have to get up early tomorrow morning and DRIVE again to get to where the rafting trip begins. We’ll be on the Colorado all afternoon. I’m looking forward to it! (I think! I’ll let you know later how it turns out.)
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