Route 66 (And Other Arizona Views)

One thing we were pretty excited about on our trip was traveling a section of Route 66. The whole time we were on it I couldn't stop singing snippets of that song, "Well it winds from Chicago to L.A.........Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino.....yeah!"

I have been on sections of this historic route before, but Joseph had never been, so he was especially keen to take the drive. We passed lots of nifty kitschy stuff, like this:


I wish I'd taken more pictures of things...there was this one area where they had dinosaurs periodically along the sides of the road, and one was eating a lady torn in half. It was awesome.
At one point, we stopped to check out some memorabilia. Joseph ended up getting a mug with the "66" logo on it (he likes to collect restaurant cups too) and we couldn't resist getting Elora and Josh some cute kid-sized black biker jackets.

C'mon, what says road trip more than fake black leather with lots of zippers?

But what I was really looking for was a place with awesome desert scenery where we could stop and take a few pictures. I finally found it on the second day out from Kiera's. I do have to admit it was after we turned off the old '66 and started heading north through Arizona, on the road between Flagstaff and Page. But I figured it was just as remote and scenic, so its almost the same, right?

Late that afternoon, we found the perfect scenic overlook, at the perfect time of day. Doesn't this view remind you of the view in the movie, "Cars"?




During the entire trip, Elora had continuously asked if we could get out and climb on rocks, cliffs, trees, run across fields, etc. We kept having to find new excuses, like, "There is a fence in the way," "it's really cold and windy out," or " the cars will hit us if we get out here." Therefore she was understandably delighted when we finally said we were going to get out and walk around for a bit. She was more than ready to prance around and pose (in her new jacket of course) :



And Mr. Joseph was just as willing to have a stretch and take in the view:




However, poor little Joshua......well, poor little Joshua wasn't feeling that great. The day before, he'd been seriously sick, breathing shallowly, laying limply and unhappily in his car seat, and sporting a high fever. Luckily this day his fever was gone, but he was still recovering. Not to mention the fact that our unscheduled stop had awakened him early from a much needed nap.




So when Joseph helpfully arranged the kids on the perfect rock for our little photo shoot, Joshua started to really get upset (I love this picture though) :




The lighting was great, Elora was in a superb mood, not even Joshua's wailing would upset her:



But Josh kept crying,

and crying,

and crying,


and he cried a little more.



Finally, Joseph took him back to the warm car, while Elora and I played around for a few more minutes. She finally got to climb all those rocks:




and explore the local scenery.



"Mom, can we stay her forever?" (For color version, please see the sidebar.)




Eventually we had to go, so we took a parting shot... I wish we got more good ones of me :(
Is that so vain?




And when we made our way back to the car, Elora was crying because she wanted to stay and play.