Claire's Calico Corner: Jan 30, 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Family time in Flagstaff

Dear Readers,
We have just gotten home from a marvelous trip to Flagstaff! Even though Dad had to work, we still had a great time just being together. And Mom planned some pretty fun activities for us to do during the day!
Cate has been DYING to see snow. So, Dad has been planning for some time to take her up to Flagstaff on one of his numerous trips to take care of the kids up there. When we got there, the snow was a little 'harder' than we had expected...
But we had fun nonetheless!

The Lowell Observatory was really very fascinating.

The Lowell telescope was housed inside a dome, both of which were hundreds of years old. The dome was wooden and built by two men who owned a bicycle shop. They made it flat on top!

Also - you see the wheels there on the wall? Well, they thought they could put salt water underneath them, so that when the groundkeeper pulled the dome open, it would be less tiring. This worked great - for the first couple of days! After that, well, I'll just show a picture.

Those are some serious water stains!!

When Lowell died, he let his wife determine how to use his money. She decided to spend 40,000 dollars on a grave marker for him. Hmm, his telescope was only 20,000 dollars!

The grave...

The first time we went to Flagstaff, I fell in love with this adorable church. Mom was kind enough to stop the car, let me get out, and take pictures. So of course I had to share! I'm so grateful for a mother who understands such things...

We had to bring just a FEW books with us. Really, they were each a necessity for our one full day -two night trip. We may or may not be guilty of stopping at a Barnes and Noble while in Flag,too...

One of my favorite things was watching the scenery change. Though it is VERY hard to take pictures in a moving vehicle, as I suppose I learned the hard way, I kept trying to capture the change from desert to forest. Oh, I love living in Arizona! God is so creative.

We went to eat at a little mexican restaurant called Casa Bonita, and it was SO good. But, more than the food, I think we will all remember that restaurant with fond memories because of the laughs we shared there. We had such a great time together - I'm really blessed to be a part of this amazing family!