Tuscon Trip, Day 5 & 6: Tombstone and Chiricahua National Monument

March 20
The kids got up early, like 6:00-ish early.  I was up a little early, too so I made pancakes and scrambled eggs from the dozen farm eggs the owners gifted us. We got dressed and headed to old a Tuscan, where we mostly walked around, but our main attraction was the Tombstone Courthouse.  It was an old courthouse transformed into a museum; there was a bunch of old artifacts and memorabilia and such from way back in the town’s heyday. They only were allowing max 10 people in at a time, so we had the place all to ourselves. They told us to get 6 feet away from each other, which was impossible and wasn’t enforced anyway so we didn’t think twice about not keeping our distance from each other.  It was neat looking at all the old stuff; we even go to see the gallows where they hanged criminals just outside the courthouse:

Gabe getting his last pressed penny of the trip

Looking at old stuff

Gabe with a reconstruction of the hanging gallow behind him

In jail!

Our last stop was a Saloon-restaurant called “Big Nose Kate”. The atmosphere was that of an old Saloon (obviously) compete with costumed, bosomy waitress, a bar, and pictures of naked ladies on the walls. The food was decent, I ordered the “outlaw” burger (with pepper jack cheese and pickles jalapeños) and upgraded to onion rings for a side instead of fries. Erik ordered a Rueban sandwich, Gabe got a hotdog, grandpa got a hamburger, grandma ordered a philly sandwich (I think?) and Ian and Elisa shared a pizza.

We all piled back into the car after eating and headed back to Chiricahua National Monument because it was blocked off last time we tried to get in.  We did a short hike and looked at the unique scenery, which mainly consisted of rock formations made from a volcano that erupted forever ago. Most formations liked like some giant had stacked rocks on top of each other, and some looked like an ancient civilization had built a city inside the mountain and the rock formations were the grand entrance to the city.  It was a long, long drive back to our rental house. I was dozing off most of the drive while the kids watched a Peter Rabbit movies from the back seat.

 

 

 

 The rock formations are much more impressive in person

 

 

 

 

We hung around the rental house the rest of the evening. The kids went in the hot tub and I went for a quick 1 mile run and read a book on prostitution in the old west, haha. The book was sitting on the shelf in our room, and it was a short, interesting read. I finished it that evening. We didn’t really eat much for dinner, but we fed the kids eggs. 

The owners had chickens, ducks, and bunnies on the property that the kids enjoyed seeing.

In the hot tub again!

Saturday March 21

We woke up a little earlier than most days because we had to pack up and clean. And that’s what we did for the first hour we were up--clean and pack, pack and clean. We got the kids all ready in their warm (ish) clothes to wear in the mine, but when we got there, we discovered that the mine was closed. Boo. Disappointed, we headed back home. All together a very fun trip, but we will definitely have to go back sometime in the near future to visit the Sonoran Desert museum again, and go to the theater, the caverns, and the mine because we missed out on them no thanks to the Covid-19.

Closed. Boo.

Ian took this picture of the floor of our van. Its always hideously messy when we go on trips!