Tell Me Thursday - Flagstaff

On Saturday morning, Bo took Nate to baseball and I took Lydia to a birthday party.  Before I left, I had been looking at cabins to rent, but they were almost 5 hours away.  While at the party, I texted Bo and asked him to look for a hotel in Flagstaff.

He did, and packed, so when Lydia & I got home, we were able to hop in the car and head to Flagstaff.  I had piles of laundry to do, and the boys had a bit of homework left, and . . . we decided to go anyway.

I'm so glad that we did!  About 1/2 way up there, the a/c in our van stopped working.  Thankfully, Flagstaff was about 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix so it wasn't so bad.  We were a bit concerned about the noise, however.

We were well on our way, though, so we kept going and arrived in the early evening. We stayed in the ugliest hotel room I have ever visited!  The place was clean, so I wouldn't call it a dive.  BUT!  The walls were red.  Very, very red.  And the bedding was black.  As was the dresser and tables.  And the epoxied bathroom floor. (As an aside, why do hotels/motels use carpet?  It is always filthy!  I'd much prefer a solid floor and I think it would be easier to keep clean.  Because, yes, while the place was clean, the carpet was filthy.)  The sheets and towels were just this side of threadbare.

It was cheap, however, and we were only staying one night.  (OH, I forgot -- there were striped curtains. Tan and cream and maroon.  Which were raggedly cut off at the bottom so they didn't cover up the air conditioner.)

We went for the sights, though, and after dinner we headed out to Lowell Observatory.  The boys were able to look at the moon through some of the telescopes, and we were able to listen to part of a lecture about the galaxy. We spent a couple hours there, and enjoyed it.  During our last visit, I purchased a membership, so we visited for free.

The next morning, we tried to find a place that might be able to look at the van, but didn't have any luck.  Bo looked around in the engine and decided that it should hopefully make the trip back home. We wanted to visit the Arboretum and the Planes of Fame Museum, but decided to choose one so we would make it home before dark. We chose the Arboretum, partly because I was pretty sure either our Boyce Thompson membership or our Desert Botanical membership would get us in for free. 

I was right -- and our Desert Botanical Garden membership meant that we could wander around without paying another admission fee. We all enjoyed the Arboretum at Flagstaff.  The weather was warm (not hot, not cool) and we were able to walk around outdoors and look at the many plants. (I'd include pictures, but they're on my other computer.)  It wasn't crowded, so the kids were able to wander freely (within eyesight) and they had a blast.

We headed home, and the van made it the entire way.  Thankfully, a good friend was able to help us get it fixed, and within 2 days I had icy cold air coming from the van.

It was a great weekend, and I love that my kids are great travelers. Thanks to our various memberships, the weekend was an inexpensive trip away from home!