More Sedona Scenery

I took these pictures while we were shopping in downtown Sedona.  Sedona is such a pretty place.  I would love to come back again sometime.

Slide Rock

We went swimming at Slide Rock State Park between Sedona and Flagstaff.  The scenery, waterfalls, natural rock waterslides, etc. were beautiful!  We weren't expecting the water to be so cold though.  It was even too cold for Richard.  We kept getting in and out to warm up.  The water comes from snow melting off the mountains.

The girls talked Richard and Honey into going down one of the rock waterslides with them.

We saw this blooming cactus on a trail beside the swimming area.  We also walked through the apple orchards.

Look how tall this blue spruce tree is compared to Richard! 

Verde Canyon Railroad

We took a four hour train ride through Verde Canyon yesterday.

The scenery from the train was beautiful!

They call the rock formation on the top right "Angel Rock".

Another picture that I took hanging out the car window on the way back to the resort.  :-)  Everywhere you look, you see pretty rock formations.

Tuzigoot National Monument

                                  Tuzigoot National Monument is the ruins where the Sinagua tribe lived from 1000 to 1400.  There were many examples of pottery, arrow heads, etc. in the museum area.

                                    

This is a model of what the pueblo style houses would have looked like.  The family in the upper room would have needed to climb seven ladders just to get to there room.  Imagine carrying water up there!

The ruins are missing the wooden roofs.

The houses were built side by side and on top of each other.  Each family had one room.  See how small Dad looks at the very top!

One of the rooms was restored to show what it would have looked like.

Lauren found a stone and trough in one room that would have been used to grind corn.

Dad always finds the oddest things.  We thought this lizard was cool that blends in with the tree bark.

Sedona, Arizona

Driving through Arizona this morning, we saw several hot air balloons.

The red rock formations here are just beautiful!  It is amazing how different other parts of the country look. 

We went to the Chapel of the Holy Cross on top of one of the mountains.  The view was wonderful!

Looking down the mountain, we could see this HUGE house.

California Sunset

We have had a lot of fun in California!  Maybe we can come back again sometime.  Here's one last picture from California: a beautiful sunset over the ocean.  Tomorrow, we will go to Sedona, AZ.

Dolphins and Whales

Today we went to Dana Point on a whale watching tour.  We saw dolphins, blue whales, and a sea lion.  It was a lot of fun.

The dolphins completely surrounded our boat.  We have seen dolphins in Florida before but never this many at one time.  They were beautiful! 

They were swimming right along with us, jumping and playing.

We saw a blue whale several times.  They said that it is so big that it's tongue is the size of an African elephant and a child the size of Jack could swim through the main artery going to its heart and never touch the sides.  WOW!  We only saw part of it when it would come up for air because it was feeding on the kreel.

Jack and Paw-Paw relaxing.

Fun in the pool... also VERY cold!