Arizona Day 4 - Caves and Canyons

Once again, there was no sleeping in on this vacation! Then again, why sleep away your vacation - time is limited, may as well make the most of it!

We were up and on the road this morning with 3 destinations on the agenda - Colossal Cave, Sabino Canyon and the Butterfly house at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. It was about a 45 minute drive to the cave so we had more scenery to enjoy. We were at the cave shortly after they opened and only had a a short wait until the next tour started. This gave us some time to enjoy the breathtaking view from the visitor center, as well as wandering through the gift shop.

Of course John had to find something to stick his fingers into...

And to sit on....

The Cave tour itself is about 45 minutes long and is about 1/2 mile long - all underground. It was amazing to see all the different rock formations created over thousands of years! That, combined with the fact that it is always about 70 degree's in the cave, it is always a perfect day for a walk! The cavern was actually a CCC project back in the 30's and it was in the early 90's that the park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was hard to get many really good pictures in the cave, but we did manage at least a few.

Once we made it out of the cave, we headed back to the house to drop Michelle off since her asthma as really bothering her. Then John and I headed out with Richard to Sabino Canyon - again, about a 45 minute drive. We have come to the conclusion that everything is about 45 minutes away from Michelle and Richards house!

Since it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we knew that it was going to be busy at the canyon, but we got lucky and actually found a parking spot right away! (Apparently Richard said is it not uncommon to have to drive around the parking lost for 15 minutes some days, just waiting for a spot!). There is a tram that runs up and down the canyon, leaving about every 30-40 minutes. If you opt to ride the tram, you get a 45 minute narrative along the 3.8 mile climb into the canyon. If you do not ride the tram, there is no fee to use the recreation area, with the exception of parking. Since we were limited on time, we decided to take the tram all the way up to the end and then walk part of the way back down.

Aside from the road that the tram follows, this area is virtually untouched. The strangest thing to see what that there was actually water in the river beds, ever though we were in the middle of the desert. That is only because it is January, and this tends to be the "rainy" season. Along the way, we were amazed by how many people we saw actually RUNNING through the Canyon. I guess if you live in the area, this is THE place to go to get in your workout. Granted I don't blame them. If I lived here, I would probably do the same thing!

After spending a few minutes taking pictures at the top of the massive Canyon walls, we decided to start walking down. We figured about what time we had to be at the bottom to make it to the Botanical Gardens on time and would base where we got back on the tram by that. Along the way, not only did we get some great pictures,

But we also had the chance to cool off by walking in the water that flowed over the road...

Took in some of the local scenery... (Yes, John too this picture, but they were flirting with Richard)

and got some exercise!

Of the 9 stops on the route, we walking all the way back down to stop 5 before catching a tram to head back down. We would have gladly walked all the way down, but finding dinner along the way to the Botanical Gardens would probably be a good idea!

Dinner at Quizno's again (this was the 2nd time in 3 days) on the way and we got the the Botanical Garden's about 15 minutes before the butterfly house closed. But this was the way we planned it. The guys were here to attend the after-hours butterfly photo shoot. They allow a limit of 5 people in to the Butterfly house after normal hours for the sole purpose of taking pitcures of the butterflies! You are allowed to bring in any equipment you want - tripods, flashes, lights... you carry it in and you can use it!

While they were in playing with the butterflies, I spend 2 hours just wandering through the gardens. It was really peaceful just wandering by myself. Since it was so late in the day, there were not many people there so it was really quiet. It seemed like every corner I went around, I found something interesting. Many of these I did try to capture in a photo, but some of the pictures just did not do justice to the peaceful scenery.

At one point, one of the staff of the gardens pointed out a Cooper's Hawk that was perched way up in one of the trees. If he would not have pointed him out, I would have NEVER seen the bird - he knew how to hide in those trees!

Meanwhile, John and Richard were getting up close and personal with the butterflies. Just how personal? How about nose to nose!

There was just too many awesome picture from today to try and narrow down just a few to post a few here. To see a better selection of the events from today, click here. This will take you to John's Flickr photo's, feel free to bookmark that site as new photo's are always uploaded there!

Goodbye to snow - at least for a few days!

Waiting to leave MN
Originally uploaded by FuzzyKryton

This morning we began our Arizona Adventure! We were at the airport by 6am - I think I was awake anyway!!

Not really sure what the temp was this morning when we left home, but my guess is that it was about -4. People might call me crazy too, but knowing that I was going to land a few hours later in warmer weather, I left the jacket at home. When we landed in Tucson, it was almost 60! Now that is what I call getting away from the cold! No matter how "chilly" it gets here, you won't catch me complain! I don't have to see snow and I can walk out of the house with a long sleeve t-shirt on and not be cold!! I really had thought about bringing a knitting project along to keep my occupied on the plane, but with all the security measures, I figured that , just my luck, they would not let me take my needles on the plane! So I had to settle for the MP3 player and crossword puzzle books!

Today was a relatively quite day once we landed. Richard picked up up at the airport - many thanks to our gracious chauffeur! Of course since neither of us have ever really seen a cactus up close before, we had to take a picture of the first one we saw - right outside the airport! After a quick lunch with him and Shell, Richard was headed back to work. The rest of us went home and took naps - sitting on the plan doing nothing really takes it out of you!

Michelle got tickets for all of us to go to the Gaslight Theater tonight. This was a comedy dinner theater that was really cool. The seats we had were awesome too... up in the balcony overlooking everything!

By the end of the night, we were exhausted! Tomorrow is a new day!

Mini-Golf Challenge Results

Our weekend in the Dells brought about a small mini-golf challenge between the 3 of us. Each course that we had the option of difficulty, we chose the most difficult course just to add some extra excitement and challenge!

Results:

Timber Falls: Montezuma's Revenge
Par for Course = 47

Amy: 48 (2 hole in one's)
John: 55 (1 hole in one)
Darrin:54 (1 hole in one)

Timber Falls: Loggers Lookout (Red Course)
Par for Course = 43

Amy: 56 (1 hole in one)
John: 57 (1 hole in one)
Darrin: 68

Pirate Cove: Pirates Challenge
Par for Course = 46

Amy: 49 (1 hole in one)
John: 56 (1 hole in one)
Darrin: 56

Shipwreck Lagoon: Green Course
Par Course = 41

Amy: 43
John: 47
Darrin: 58

It was a great weekend for mini-golf! Darrin was determined to beat John and he did accomplish that in the very first course we golfed! It was great to finally golf the many mini golf courses that in the Dells! Next time Darrin is determined to come out on top!!

Vacation Day 4 - Time to head home!

WOW - where did the last 3 days go! I guess the last day of vacation has to come sooner or later! As our family tradition, we ate breakfast at the hotel today. They usually have a pretty good breakfast buffet and it makes it easier to just eat there in between packing to go home and loading the car.

Today was the only day that we actually brought the camera to the waterpark to get some pictures. We were even having fun with the video option on the camera with a few of the water slides etc...

that is, until the camera battery went dead. Guess that was bound to happen since we forgot to bring the charger for the small camera with us! We still had John's regular camera to use, but we were not about to bring that down to the water park!

Before we left town we had one last mini-golf course to hit... Shipwreck Lagoon. At first glance, it looks like a small course, compared to the other large courses in town. This is not the case! Since the course is built up on a hill, you can't see most of it from the road! Of the 3 courses, once again ,we opted for hte hardest one! I think we really challenged ourselves this weekend! Darrin ended up slightly futher behind John but that was mainly because of 1 hole!

Another Dells vacation had to come to a close... anyone want to go to work for me tomorrow?!?!?

Vacation Day 3

After breakfast at Cracker Barrel (or Crackle Barrel as Darrin called it) we headed to the Lost Canyon. This was one of the small local tours that was recommended to us by the lady at the hotel.

I highly recommend this tour for anyone who as time. It is a small tour, off the beaten path, inexpensive but so worth it. Our tour guide Tony was very informative and entertaining. The tour takes you right through the bottom of the deep narrow canyons just outside of town. The trails through the caverns are so narrow that when sitting on the wagon, you can reach out and touch the walls!

Of all the tours that we did while we were here, this was one of the best ones! Granted the other tours were good, but this being a smaller family owned company made it a little more personal!

We were able to get a few more photo's of the "missing" Lake Delton from right across the road from the Lost Canyon Tour office. Darrin still had a hard time really comprehending how deep the lake really was. He kept saying that it didn't look like the lake had been that deep. Untel we explained to him that the docks are still in the same place that they were and that the water probably came up to just below them. I think that finally put it in perspective for him ~ especially when he realized that with where he has been stanging, the water was probably about 1o feet deep.

After the Canyon Tour it was off to do soem more mini golfing. Today it was Pirate Cove - right next door to Timber Falls where we were ysterday.

Pirate Cove has 5 different courses to choose from and Darrin and John decided that we needed to attempt the hardest course. Considering this course was as difficult as it was, Darrin did very well! He kept right with John most of the way and I think he ended up only 1 stroke behind John at the end. Once the weekend is over I am going to post all the Mini-golf scores together - as a summary of our mini-golf tournament this weekend. Darrin decided that tomorrow he is going to beat John!

The afternoon was more swimming and water at the hotel! Darrin could not decide which of hte water play areas he wanted to play at so he kept goign from part to part! It is nice now that he is older that he is off on his own. He does really good to let us know where he is heading so that makes it easier too.

Tonight we deicded that we didn't really feel like heading out to eat so we opted to order in. After looking at menu's from a few different places we decided to just order from Buffalo Phils since it was so close by. Darrin was watching the clock to see when the pizza would be there and announced that our pizza was on it's way - via a golf cart! Apparently, as a means to save gas, they deliver to the hotel with the golf cart instead of the normal delivery car. Makes sense to me!

Overall, it's been a very busy 3 days! I think I need an extra day to recover from everything!

Vacation ~ Day 2

As I type this, I am sitting in a very noisy Wiley's Woods at our hotel... Screaming kids, flying balls and air shooter (to send the balls flying even faster!). The day is winding down and I am ready for sleep! It was a busy day, filled with all kinds of adventures!

Breakfast was at our favorite Denny's Restaurant (50's theme with Elvis, the Blues Brothers and Marilyn Monroe out front). It never fails that after we get here, the place fills up. We have never had to wait to get a seat, but by the time we leave, there is usually a wait for a table! Today was not quite as but there was definitely a lot more people there when we left than when we got there! Darrin tried something different for breakfast - their sizzlin' skillets. Bacon, sausage, hash browns and scrambled eggs, served with Pancakes instead of tortilla's so he could make breakfast fajitas.

After breakfast, we headed into town to check out the new 4D theater. We opted to get the tickets ahead of time at the hotel as they were offered there at a discount. We were the only ones in the theater! We had our choice of seat... Darrin could not decide where to sit! A few minutes after the "show" show started, we realized that there was a problem... there was not picture to go along with the sound and other effects! At first we thought it was just part of the start of the movie... just to get you started on the other effects (smell, touch etc.) Finally we told Darrin to run out and tell her that there was no picture! The gal working the counter came back and tried to see what she could do. She was not sure how to fix it so she called next door for help. A few minutes later we were back in business. When the film finally restarted, it was a totally different experience! We now knew what was spitting at us, what jabbed us in the back and where that SMELL was coming from!

Then it was off to do some mini golfing at Timber Falls Adventure. We have driven past there every time we have been here, but have never been able to stop, since we are usually here in Feb or March. We decided to splurge and get the All Day Pass so we would have the opportunity to ride the roller coaster, bumper boats and Log Flume. We figured this would be plenty to keep Darrin busy all day!

Our first choice to make was which of the 4 mini golf courses we wanted to tackle... So we opted for the one right in the middle of everything! Since it was still early in the day we pretty much had the place to ourselves! Not something that we would have thought we would see in the Dells, but apparently this is the quietest time of the entire summer.

The rest of the morning was spent riding the coaster, golfing one of the other courses and watching Darrin ride the Log Flume about 15 times!

One of the highlights of the day was making a stop at Lake Delton... or should I say where Lake Delton should have been. After the Great Flood of 2008 as the local call it, all that is left of Lake Delton is a grassy covered lake bed. They have started working on rebuilding the area where Cty A passes, and the plan is to have Lake Delton back in business by next summer. Yesterday when we went on our Duck Tour, we went on a revised tour route since they could not go out onto the lake.

It is amazing to see NOTHING there, when last time we were here, this was an awesome lake! Overall though it was unbelievable that more houses were not lost as a result of the flooding and erosion. (yes that is Darrin in the photo, standing way out in the dry lake bed - he probably would have been in 10 feet of water if the lake were full!)

By mid afternoon we were ready to find the water! We spent the afternoon relaxing the the several pools at the hotel, both indoor and out. We discovered that the Great Wolf does not have an outdoor hot tub... bummer! Oh well, we will survive!

After a relaxing afternoon we decided to head out to find food. Tonight it was over to Knuckleheads and Buffalo Phils. Knuckleheads is a huge indoor amusement park, bowling alley and arcade. But not much options as far as food unless you like typical bar type foods. So we headed to Buffalo Phils, where we have eaten before.

Wiley's Woods was not the same anymore. Apparently the "game" part of the Play area has been removed! No more collecting points while you play in the 4 floors of interactive fun! The company that developed the software for then is not in business anymore and there was no software support available. Since they could not keep the level of enjoyment and quality of the game where it needed to be, they took it out. Huge disappointment as that was one of our favorite things about staying here!

Ok, time to find sleep!!

Summer Vacation

Now that summer is almost over and the kids go back to school in about a week, we finally headed off on a family vacation! Although we only decided to head to Wisconsin Dells, it was a 4 day vacation that we all had been waiting for!

Of course, the first day of vacation means the alarm going off at the same time that it does everyday for work so we can hit the road. Granted I did hit snoozed a few time, but we were still on the road shortly after 6am...

This was the first trip that we have made to the Dells during the summer months when everything was open! WooHoo - I get to go mini-golfing!! But that was going to have to wait until tomorrow since we ran out of time today (Plus is started raining). We were in the Dells by 9am and started our adventures right away...

Stop one~ The Ducks. Darrin was really excited that we were doing this, but bummed that when we got our package of tickets, it was for the Upper Dells Boat tour and NOT the Jet Boat Tour. So now it was time for the ducks! We had a great tour guide that filled us with fun facts about the area, the river, the animals and plenty of duck jokes. We saw wild stop signs, mini bears and many different shapes in the rock formations along the river (many you had to really use your imagination to see).

They did have to make a change in the route that the ducks take during the tour since Lake Delton is "missing' right now. We were able to see the location on Hwy A that is being rebuilt that washed away during the Great Flood of 2008. There was one point that we were able to see part of the dry lake bed, but not much. We are planning on going down to the lake tomorrow to check it out and get some pictures.

After the 1 hour duck tour, we hopped on the Duck shuttle to Downtown, headed for the Upper Dells Boat Tour. It was nice to be able to leave the car parked in the one spot and take the shuttle so we did not have to worry about parking! WooHoo! From where the shuttle dropped us off it was only a short walk to the docks. Darrin was disappointed that we did not take the Jet Boat Tour, especially when he saw some of these jet boats playing out in the water.

It was a perfect morning for a 2 hour cruise up and down the river! Along our river adventures we learned even more about the history of the area. We also made 2 stops along the way. The first was Witches Gulch. From the river, you would never even know this area was there, as it was at the end of a small inlet off the river. We docked there and were about to walk up through the gulch. Many of these areas along the trail were very narrow caverns that you could touch both walls at one time. Along the trail you find the Witches Bathtub, Witches Window, Whirlpool Chambers and more! The natural beauty of these caverns and chambers was awesome! It was only a short walk off the boat but well worth it! If it were not for taking this boat tour, we would have never even known this area was here.

Darrin and I also decided that we would not have wanted to be on the crew that went in and built all the walkways through the Witches Gulch - some of these areas were so narrow that there would have been no room to get any equipment in and all the work obviously had to be done by hand!

Our next stop on the tour was at Stand Rock. This rock was made famous by Photographer HH Bennett when he photographed his son Ashley jumping across the 5 foot gap out between the tall rocks. He was the inventor of the fast shutter for camera's that captured the image instantly. They now have a German Shepard that recreates Ashley's jump many times every day to visitors. This is actually the most photographed rock in all of the Dells.

It was during this stop that we found out that our Tour Guide Dana was actually just north of the Green Bay area! She grew up in Lena and was working in the Dells during her summers while attending college.

Over all our trip along the Upper Dells was great! It was a 2 hour tour that was filled with great information as well as interesting things to see!

It didn't take us long to decide where to head for lunch... back to the Riverwalk Pub that we visited when we were here 2 years ago! Located downtown, right along the river, the Riverwalk Pub offers some great food and even better views of the river that we were just traveling on!

We though about visiting a few of the attractions downtown after lunch but instead just walked up and down the streets downtown, stopping in a few shops, and of course stopping to buy some fudge! Then it was time to head to the hotel and get checked in (finally) and decide what to do with the rest of our day.

After enjoying the water parks at the hotel for a bit we decided to head out for dinner. The one place that we have been wanted to try, but have not been able to since it is only open during the summer was Crabby's - an all you can eat seafood and prime rib restaurant. So that was where we headed.

There was quite a variety on the buffet too! One of Darrin and I's favorites was the sweet and sour shrimp - shrimp with mandarin oranges and coconut! Over all though I would have to say that we were disappointed. For the price that you paid, the food was just ok. When I pay $80 for dinner for 3, I expect more than just ok food! That combined with the fact that you could not hear the "entertainment" Crabby's didn't really meet our expectations. We went, we ate, we probably won't go back again.

To finish out the night, we hit the arcade at the hotel for a bit. Gotta love some video games and skeeball to end out the first day of vacation!