Monday, February 3, 2014

Tucson 2014 - Day 5 and Day 6

And on Day 5 the Seahawks won the Superbowl. Nothing else mattered in our world. Food and Fun!


Day 6 was a planned site seeing day. So no shows for me. I'm cutting my show schedule by almost half. But since I'm pretty much out of money that's not such a bad thing.

We left the house early and headed to Tombstone. Oh my fun! We could have spent the entire day there but we actually had booked two things today so we only had a few hours in Tucson.

The first thing we did when we arrived is dress up and have our photos taken. I was, of course, an outlaw. Marshal was a Sheriff. And my mom was a Floozy. hahahahaha It was great. Marshal had so much fun.

We headed to a bank robbery next. Thankfully they schedule all their killins in Tombstone. ;)


The scene of the bank robbery.
Shooting at one of the bad guys from the show.
After Tombstone we high tailed it to the Karchner Caverns. You have to be there one hour before your show time, but as with most of those warnings it's mostly important only on busy days. Monday is not a busy day. We were a few minutes late and still had plenty of time. There is a movie that plays every 15 minutes and we had time to watch most of it before the guide called our time.

You are not allowed to bring ANYTHING into the cave. Seriously. No photos are allowed, which of course drove me bonkers.

Kids are not allowed in the big room tour. We went on the smaller tour in the Rotunda/Throne room. You take a little tram up to the entrance - after storing all your stuff in a locker. They don't even want you to take off a coat or sweatshirt without rolling it up so that no lint comes off. As you walk into the cave you go through several rooms. One sprays you with a fine mist of water to hopefully water you down so you don't lose too much skin or lint.

And you cannot touch anything except the railing. This created quite a challenge with Marshal who was the only kid on the tour. He did awesome. It was hard and he asked lots of questions while the guide was speaking, but for a four year old I could not have expected better. In order to make sure he didn't touch anything I ended up carrying him half the tour. He is getting heavy!

This cave system is incredible. It's hot and humid and I actually felt a little claustrophobic. Toward the end I felt like it was hard to breath - but that could also be because I was carrying a 4 year old!

The story of how this cave was found is amazing and, as usual, I am in awe of God's majesty in nature. It boggles my mind to see the amazing formations in the cave - from stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, "bacon", and "popcorn" (they use a lot of food names to describe some of the formations) - the beauty is surreal. And thinking about how long it takes to form things is beyond comprehension.

The Throne Room

Soda Straws
If you are ever in Arizona and can manage it, check out this cave. It will blow your mind. Just don't wear a sweatshirt or have claustrophobia!

Tomorrow we get back to shopping. Though at a much slower pace and smaller scale.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Tucson 2014 - Day 4 - Too Tired to Blog

Day four is done and gone. I'm seriously out of money - I can't use the credit card anymore. :) I've got some cash left so I'm hoarding it until I find something really unusual that I need to take home. And some basics. I want to get some lobster clasps at one of the shows where I know there's a big vendor.

So we will be doing more site seeing than I anticipated. :)

But day four was still fun because we took Marshal with us. I'm trying to create a new rock hound in him. One of the vendors at the 22nd Street show gave him an Ammonite for free. He was pretty excited to see all the fossils too. Grandma bought him a dinosaur shirt. And I found a book I want to get him someday when he's a little older.

He wouldn't stand in front of it to take a photo so I had to be sneaky.

This nice vendor gave him an ammonite.

Dinosaur!

Helping mommy and grandma find pretty Copals.

Our most exciting find - a mosquito perfectly preserved in Copal - which is not Amber because it's too "young".
 
Marshal started getting tired so we left to go to another show and got some lunch. I ordered a hot dog. Yup. I'm a gringo. I did try a new soda though!


Yummy!

Seeing all the minerals and crystals make me appreciate the magnitude of God's brilliance. Our earth produces some of the most amazing things. God's art!



 
 
If you've never been to these shows you would probably feel a little creeped out. Vendors take over entire hotels and set up their goods for sale in the rooms. It's so weird.
 
The "showrooms"

Marshal had a lot of patience but he was starting to touch everything and it was driving me nuts. So we bribed him with some hot chocolate. It didn't help.


He finally got to buy some things ... but he had to narrow it down to 5 ... he wanted 20!


The funnest part for Marshal was the golf cart shuttle we got to ride on to and from our car. It's the little things in life!



Can someone explain why this McDonalds is guarded by a T-Rex? :)



We got home early and everyone but me went into the hot tub and enjoyed the view while I went through my purchases and started cataloging things.





Not too shabby.

And we were all tired...mom crashed on the couch. :)

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz