South West 5.09

The Clara

Across America

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We began our trek to the South West on Friday May 8th, 2009. My very nice grandmother drove Li, me, and Clara and James to Boston Logan Airport for our flight out to Tucson, AZ. It was a little dodgy as to whether or not Clara was going to make it on the plane, but after a little sweating, we were relieved when she got the all clear to come on board. James of course was welcome as my service dog.

The first leg of our flight, to Dallas/Ft Worth, TX was uneventful. The 2nd leg, um, not so much. We got stuck in TX for over FIVE hours! First the plane couldn't get to us from Oklahoma due to weather. Then because of mechanical problems. And finally because of a problem with the pilot. But eventually it showed up, just in time as we were the last flight out of Dallas that night and the last flight into Tucson. We arrived and met my Aunt Betty at around 1am, or more like 4am to us North Easterners! We were exhausted, but we were there, in Arizona so all was well.

We picked up our rental car for the week and much to our surprise, it was the smallest little match box car in the whole lot, a Chevy Aveo. Cute little car, with the stress on little. It was also Turquoise! Perfect for the south western motif. We also thanked our lucky stars for UNLIMITED mileage as we put over 2200 miles on that little car in a week. Also thank goodness for terrific gas mileage as that car got over 400miles to a tank of gas. Our gas expense for the week was so low we couldn't believe it! We paid more in 3 nights of hotels than we did in a week's worth of gas. Amazing.

After a day of rest on Saturday and running errands to do things like get dog food and sandwich fixings, we began our tour of the South Western states on Sunday with a drive out to Santa Clara, New Mexico and down to southern Arizona for a visit to Tombstone.

At a rest stop we saw this sign in the dog relief area! Beware of rattlesnakes, No Kidding!

Leaving Arizona going into New Mexico. Katrin stinks at photography so no "Entering New Mexico" sign, sorry!

Instead we got this Welcome to New Mexico sign. Don't Clara and Li look cute?

And here is Santa Clara! We just had to go there seeing how the short dog is after all called "Clara" (though she's noooo saint!). It was a tiny little town of about one square mile, but they had a nice place for us to stop and eat lunch at the not open museum of natural history.

After lunch we were off to Tombstone, AZ. Home of the Earp brothers and the OK Corral. We started at the Courthouse, where Li went in and saw the hang man's noose, judge's office and other sights.

Then look at this she actually Met the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday! See we have photographic proof! Ok well not really, they were actors, but nice enough guys to let us get a photo of them with shorty. We also met another actor at a 'saloon' spouting "Have a Burger, Watch a Murder." We said, "Er, no thanks!" to that one. We did some touristy stuff at Tombstone had some great ice cream then it was back in the car and home to Aunt Betty for the night.

Monday morning began bright and early (ok ALL of our mornings began bright and early, we didn't adjust to the time change well at all. And the sun rises early, early, early. Li was actually up BEFORE me every day, an unheard of series of events) and we were off to the Tucson Desert Museum and Saguaro National Forest. For this day Clara stayed home with Aunt Bets and James came along dressed in his cool coat with Musher's Secret on his paws to protect them from the scorching pavement. Both those items were well worth the money I paid for them, they both worked great at helping to keep James comfortable in the heat.

Here are some of the thousands of Saguaro Cacti we saw on our trip.

And of course the numerous random "Watch for Animals" signs. Ok we'll keep our eyes peeled, but then what? Do we run them off the road or be nice and try to avoid them? Come on we need more data and instruction!

At the Desert Museum they had many animals native to the south west and to Arizona. Here is the puma, who was Very interested in James, probably thinking "LUNCH!"

There was a raccoon washing his food.

Katrin's favorite animals were the Javalenas but unfortunately we didn't get any good photos of them.

While driving through the Saguaro National Forest we came across this sigh and just had to say "Duh!"

That morning we were back at Aunt Betty's by 11am due to the heat. We then had good authentic Mexican food for lunch and spent the remainder of the day lounging about getting some rest. It was supposed to be a vacation after all.

On Tuesday we were up again at the crack of dawn and off to the Grand Canyon! We drove by the Casa Grande National Monument and stopped for a photo op.

They had this huge saguaro that demanded a picture. See how tiny James and I are compared to it!

Soon we were in the Red Rocks of Sedona. The rocks were gorgeous and they had a nice over look for picture taking.

Oh and of course we cannot forget Nod. Li has this thing where every trip we take she buys a critter for the car dash. This time we welcomed Nod to the family. He's a gecko with turrets. Poor thing. He fit right in with Bob the Moose, until Obi ate Bob so now there just Nod nodding along with a number of small stuffed animals and a Holstein cow.

And here we are at the Grand Canyon. And boy is it grand! We took a tour bus around the south rim at sunset before settling down for the night in one of the on site cabins. Poor Clara learned it was "No Dogs Allowed" so was stuck in the on site kennel. She would like to know what makes that black dog James so special that he didn't have to go in the kennel? James is a service dog, he gets special privileges, sorry Clara.

This was a photo that I really wanted to get for my art. I paint oil paintings and thought it would be lovely on canvas. Li was terrific and got the perfect shot.

This photo a woman offered to take for us, and then she informed us, "I'm terrified of heights, I can't believe I'm getting close enough to take this photo." We thanked her profusely for braving her fear just for us.

Even James enjoyed the view. I think this was one of his favorite parts of vacation. The other being able to play in the Pacific Ocean. Water and retriever makes all things good.

Sunset at the Canyon. It was gorgeous.

The next morning before leaving we got some photos of another portion of the Canyon and then we were off to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

Clara says, "See James your too BIG to do this!"

This is part of the painted desert. The colors of the rocks and dirt were really cool. This was my favorite part of vacation.

And here is a piece of petrified wood. This was called "The Bridge"

Some of the petrified rocks were rather large. There was one area where you could get out of your car and walk around and see the rocks and take photos. They had a strict rule of not taking anything out of the park, and staying on the trails, but some people were being very disrespectful of the park and it was disappointing to see. The only way parks like this can exist is if we respect them and follow the rules, keeping the natural wonders preserved.

By Wednesday we were back to Tucson and Thursday we were off to San Diego, California! Diego means "James" in Spanish, so it's not all about Clara folks. Thursday night after checking into our hotel, we went down to the Midway to get some dinner and check out the place. There was this really neat carousel that had all sorts of hand painted animals in it.

After a night at the Motel 6, we dropped Clara off at yet another kennel (let's all hear it, poor Clara) and we were off to the San Diego Zoo. This was not the best zoo we've ever been to in our opinion. It was crowded, the path ways were not spacious, the lay out of the zoo was not user friendly, and the tour buses were way too loud that could be heard no matter where in the zoo you were. We give it a 2 out of 5.

Then we picked Clara up and went to the dog beach. We were amazed at how dog friendly San Diego was. So unlike where we live in MA. It was culture shock! James and Clara both had a blast on the beach. James kept trying to steal other people's tennis balls, but people were nice and their dog's shared. Clara got her feet wet in the Pacific so has now been to the four corners of the US! A Maine beach, a Florida beach, a Washington beach and now a California beach. Pretty cool for a dog!

Also in San Diego was the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier that has been remodeled into a museum. There was this statue out on the pier.

And a tribute to Bob Hope, the singer, also on the pier.

We decided to take a tour of the ship, so here is Li on the deck.

It's true, you should really obey this sign, those props and rotors are very dangerous!

Across the bay was another aircraft carrier, numbered 76. We're not sure what her name was.

And finally on the deck of the USS Midway was cut outs of service men and women who worked on ships like the Midway and what the different uniforms meant.

Saturday we drove back to Tucson and Sunday we caught our flight back home to Massachusetts. A fun time was had by all.

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