Vacation from Long, Long Ago :)

A few weeks ago...think its getting close to a month ago now...Ashlee, Josh & I went on vacation to Phoenix, AZ. We drove out there (well, I drove - they rode :)) we went through 14 states (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and finally Ohio!) in 9 days. This includes 3 that I'd never been to and I think 10 that Ashlee & Josh had never been to. It was ALOT of fun. Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures and the ones I do have on my camera were mostly taken by Ashlee. I was a little busy with the whole driving thing... :) I finally gave up on getting more pics from Ashlee so here are a few that I have. They aren't necessarily in chronological order but here goes...

Friday & Saturday were spent driving; we left about 5:30 am on Friday and arrived around 10:00 pm on Saturday (1am OH time). I may post a few from these days later on...

Sunday we spent hanging out at the condo. Needed to relax and stretch after all those hours in the car :)

Monday we drove over to California - through part of the Mojave Desert...again no pics...up into Nevada - to Las Vegas, then back to Arizona and stopped at Lake Havasu. The lake was beautiful!

Also at Lake Havasu is London Bridge...here are a few pictures from visiting the Original London Bridge...

We all squeezed into this phone booth :)

And the bridge....

On Tuesday we went to out to breakfast at a place featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives...more on that later. Then Ashlee needed to take a test for school so we went to the Phoenix Library. That place is Huge...it is 5 stories!! Makes Cincinnati's downtown branch look small :)

Then we tried to go to the art museum cause our tour book said Monday & Tuesday was free...we got there and it was closed...I think the tour book needs updated :) After that we just hung out at the condo (and the pool!) cause I didn't want to drive all day every day!!

Wednesday it was up to the Grand Canyon with a drive through Sedona on the way and the Painted Desert on the way back. Sedona was beautiful...all of the big rocks...I even saw the Snoopy rock. However, you have to buy a pass to stop in the parking areas and we didn't do that so all of the pictures were taken while driving...

Here are Ashlee and Josh on their first trip to the Grand Canyon. I do believe they were amazed at the size of it. Pictures can't even begin to do it justice, but here are a few anyways.

Trying to capture it in pictures...

Okay, I look really short in this picture...I promise they are standing on a rock :)

The watchtower at the Grand Canyon...I didn't realize that there was one there


Here are some pictures of restaurants that we visited. I have pictures of lots of food, but they are on my phone and I haven't sent them to my email yet...

We stopped here in Amarillo...yummy food especially since we just pulled in at the last minute. Definitely a family restaurant, there was a little girl probably 8 or 9 that was helping out as a waitress :)

Here are our stops that were featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. They were all so good and I would recommend all of them. Except of course that BBQ place in Kansas that was closed. Didn't think to take a picture of that one :)

Matt's Big Breakfast - Phoenix, AZ

This place was tiny!! Seriously, the little table outside is the waiting list, you write your name on it and when there is room for you the waitress comes out and calls your name. Thankfully it wasn't raining or too long of a wait when we went!! I've heard its usually lined around the block on the weekends!

Salsa Brava - Flagstaff, AZ

I didn't get a picture of the outside of this one. All of the restaurants had picture of Guy and a stamp on the wall that said "Guy ate here"...once again, pics are on my phone :( The food of course was scrumptious here too, Josh had a burrito that looked like the size of a football!!

Twisted Root Burger - Dallas, TX

This was probably my favorite...Loved the burger and sweet potato chips that I got here. Was definitely worth the few extra hours it added to the trip!!

Leaving Dallas was the worst traffic we ran into the entire trip. There had been an accident that required multiple air care flights so the highway was backed up pretty far. We were fortunate to be able to get off and go around the accident but the road we were driving on went right along the highway so we saw some interesting things people do when they are stuck...

Someone broke down and needed a jump...

Not sure if you can enlarge this picture, but if you can you'll see a man lying on the cement wall in the middle of the highway (behind the white car). No, he wasn't involved in the accident...only taking a nap it appears :)

And this one...not sure why I took it guess I just liked the name...Arkadelphia. Thought it quite unique ;)