Spring Break Trip, Tucson Day 2

Tuesday March 15


Our first activity of the day was horseback riding at Double R ranch in Benson. It took a while to get every one horsed-up, but it was only an hour ride through the desert. My horse was Duke, and he was a pretty good horse. I hardly had to pull the reigns at all during the trek. Ian was led along as he was the last time we rode horses. Grandma had trouble with her horse, and Grandpa's horse kept going into the bushes. Elisa said her horse was slow, and Gabe said his horse behaved well. I was a little stiff and slightly sore after riding but not nearly as much as the last time.

Awaiting horse riding instructions

Haha the boys had to wear Barbie pink helmets!

Grandma on her horse behind me

Me and my horse. He was a good boy.

Gabe and his horse

After riding horses, we headed over to Tombstone for lunch. Unfortunately, the place we wanted to eat at was closed (at least to our party of 7), but they sent us to Crystal Palace Saloon just down the road. We had to wait in line for quite a bit, and they were out of half of the food. We ordered quickly before they ran out of hamburgers too. The food wasn’t too bad. I had a jalapeño hamburger, and I ordered Ian some fried shrimp. After lunch we browsed a shop, and the kids bought themselves some rock candy. We went through the back of the store to sit for the Wild West Gun Show at the OK Corral. It was a short (30 min) fun show. I guess I was too busy watching the show to take any pictures. After the show we went back in the shop, and Gabe bought himself a pressed penny holder keychain in the shape of a train. Our last activity at Tombstone was a Historama of the history of tombstone, narrated by Vincent Price probably in the 60’s or 70’s.

Lunch at the Crystal Palace Saloon

Rock candy

Heading out of Tombstone 

The town of Tombstone closed at 5:00pm, so we went back to our rental house—only to find that the house had not been cleaned yet again! Erik decided that we should stay somewhere else since we would have had to put sheets on yet again. We got a full refund and were able to find another Airbnb place, a much cleaner place not too far. It even had a foosball table. I found some Godiva hot chocolate in the pantry, which I promptly made, and a pack of mussels in the freezer that I warmed up on the stove. I thought they were pretty good, even though I was pretty much the only one that tried them. After getting ready for bed, I played some foosball with Erik, Gabe, and Elisa.

I left a review for the other house. I think I should have reviewed my review better, I'm not sure it was 100% grammatically correct. Oh well. I think I got my message across.

So much fun playing Fooseball!

The mussels I shared with Erik

I got a sunburn from the horseback ride. I didn't think to put sunscreen on my hands and arms.

Spring Break Trip, Tucson Day 1

 The next several post will be our Spring Break Trip 2022. We decided to finish up our 2020 trip since several of the activates we had planned got canceled. I made notes on my phone during the trip while everything was fresh in my memory.

Monday March 14

We spent the morning packing and cleaning; we left at 10:00. For lunch we stopped in Benson at the Horseshoe Café. Ian got the biggest hot dog I’ve ever seen! The food was good—not amazing but not bad either. A woman was selling oranges in the parking lot so I bought a bag to snack on for the week.

3 cuties waiting to eat.

My goodness if that isn't the biggest dang hot dog I've ever seen! 

After eating we headed over to the Queen Copper mine for a tour. Before going on the tour, we browsed the gift shop and hung around for about 20 minutes until it was time to don our hard hats, vests, and flashlights. We were then herded onto a “Man Car” that we awkwardly straddled as it took us deep into the mine. We got off and learned more about mining and looked at the old stuff and the dynamite holes. We even got to see the potty-car that the miners used. We got back on the man-car, and our last stop was a large room called a Stope. Pretty neat to see the old mine. I'm glad we got to finally go through the mine since it was closed when we tried to go in 2020.

Gabe found a pressed penny machine as soon as we walked in!

3 cuties waiting to go on the mine tour!

The tour guide fitting Ian with a hart hat. He wasn't much taller than Ian haha!

3 cuties all ready for the mine tour!

Riding on the man-car to the cave

Erik and Grandpa sitting on the crapper car. 

The mine tour guide sure seemed to enjoy his job. He did actually worked in this mine for a bit.

Inside the stope. The bottom pic is of spots they like to look for--full of minerals and metals. I'm not sure what its called. 

After the mine we headed to our Airbnb rental house in Sierra Vista . We had an unpleasant surprise—none of the beds were made (dirty bedding on the floor as we walked in), no toilet paper, and no cleaning of anything. It was clear that no one had bothered to clean. Erik contacted whoever was in charge, and they said they’d have someone come and clean while we were out that evening. We went to Culver’s for dinner. I had the cod fish sandwich and shared it with Grandpa. Erik bought a pecan sundae of which I ate about half and some pretzel balls to dip in cheese. Yum! The kids enjoyed their meal and ate all of it. They turned their tickets in for ice cream, but we had them eat their ice cream in the car since we had to get going to our Ghost Tour.

Erik thought the ghost tour was at 7:30 but was actually at 7. We didn’t find that out until we got a phone call. No matter, we just joined the 7:30 group. It was fun! A little chilly. No ghost “sightings” or anything, but I enjoyed hearing the stories of old Bisbee. This Ghost tour was very similar to the family Ghost tour we went on back in 2020, but with 4 or so extra stories and stops. Ian was getting tired and thirsty by the end, but he was a good sport through it all. Elisa seemed to enjoy it and Grandma didn’t. I took some pics in hopes of "catching something" lol, but no luck this time.

When we got back to the rental house, we were disappointed to find out that no cleaners had come. Erik was mad and gave the guy a piece of his mind. We had to sleep somewhere, so I found some sheets in the closet and put them on the beds. I had to use a top sheet for our king bed since I couldn’t find a fitted sheet, and I put a queen top sheet sideways to fit. I also had to clean two toilets as they were definitely not cleaned. In any case, I slept ok that night.

Random March Happenings, Part II (pre-Spring Break Stuff)

Here are more fun things that we did in the month of March, just before our Spring Break trip:

March 12

Erik and Ian having a good time on the trampoline

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March 12

For dinner, we decided to finally try Lychee Kitchen, which is a Chinese restaurant owned by our neighbors down the street. I think we all liked it okay. I ordered duck just to try it (since its not really an option at the majority or restaurants). It was interesting but I don't think I'll get it again. I enjoyed the walnut shrimp and Erik's Kung Pao tofu. I also ordered a Lychee smoothie; it was yummy and reminded me of eating lychees in Hawaii. 

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March 13

Cute Ian giving a talk in primary

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March 13

The kids played handbells for a singing time activity in primary. I could tell who has had music lessons and who hasn't!

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March 13

An early St. Patrick's Day meal, since we would be on our Spring Break trip during St. Patrick's day. I made corned beef, cabbage and red potatoes, and (not in the pic) Irish soda bread. Yum!

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