Flagstaff Happenings...

So what did we get to do in Flagstaff? Believe me, it was well worth the trip. Just to be able to have no schedules, no deadlines, no demands was fantastic!! We took games and puzzles and a folding table that fit between the beds in our hotel room. Spending more time there than we had originally expected wasn't so bad.

We did venture outside a few times, though. We went on a tour of the Arizona Historical Society Pioneer Museum. The Museum is housed in the former Coconino County Hospital, once known as the "Poor Farm" because many of the patients were indigent elderly men. Some of the rooms are still set up as exam rooms. The collections include artifacts related to the logging industry, livestock raising, and social life of the region. Their winter exhibit is "Playthings of the Past" which includes various means of entertainment through the years. They also have an iron lung on display. That is just an amazing idea that someone could live like that for years on end.

They have other buildings on the site which were associated with the hospital. Carol's new camera has settings that they had fun experimenting with and they took some cool pictures around the area. One of my favorites is this black and white they took of the barn which housed the horses and a milk cow in the early 1900s. There was a lot of snow that morning and they took a number of beautiful pictures around the exterior of the building.

We did change our mind about going to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Wednesday because of the weather. There was a storm expected in the early afternoon and we did not want to take our chances getting stuck so we decided not to go. The storm ended up not starting until the evening so we probably would have been fine.

Friday we did decide to go to the Rim, though. Duane was debating, but I said we were going. I was still on a cracker and diet pepsi diet from my bout with whatever had me on Thursday night, but that was something Duane really wanted to do and even though it was going to add a few hours to our trip home, I insisted it was going to happen. It was sooooo cold and the wind was blowing, but it was beautiful and the pictures were worth the time. We only went to a couple of the observation sites because the roads weren't that great. Carol and I got our for a few pictures, then we told Duane to take his time and we would have the car warm for him when he finished.





It was a great trip and I am so glad we went. It was a simple and memorable Christmas for our family!!