Painted Desert Inn

What a beautiful place. I just love pueblo style buildings and this one was truly awesome. It was a restaurant way back when. Look at their menu--notice the prices!!!

Painted Desert!

This is just too beautiful for words! Miles and miles of "painted desert."

Wupatki

We made another side trip to visit Wupatki National Monument. I just loved all the red clay--reminded me of terra cotta slip! So beautiful but I wouldn't want to live there!

I Found Stamps!!!

Aren't they cool? They are really for Zip--he picked them out. I was so excited that the Santa Fe Railway Gift Shop had stamps!!!!!!

Brighton Bling

When we were at the Grand Canyon, I overheard a lady talk about Brighton at the El Tovar Hotel. Hmmmm, we were just there at the gift shop, and I didn't notice any Brighton stuff.
Well, the next day, we walked the Grand Canyon rim and walked by the El Tovar Hotel again and sure enough, a huge display of Brigton purses, wallets, watches and bracelets.
How did I miss it??? I looked at all the bracelets and picked this one out. It can be worn with the "bling" showing or not showing. One side of the heart has "bling stones" and on the other, it's a bit more plain--such a kewl bracelet, don't you think? I LOVE IT.

Too Funny!

This is what we do at the Grand Canyon!
Zip is pretending he's falling and I'm doing the "duck" on the rim!
We can be sooooooooooooo silly!!!

So Beautiful!

It's so beautiful, isn't it?
The last night we were there at the Grand Canyon, we made it a point to watch the sunset.
The first time we planned this, we failed rather miserably. The hotel we stayed in, Maswix, is supposed to be less than 1/4 mile from the canyon rim.
On our first attempt to watch the sunset, we walked from our hotel, but we couldn't find the rim. Yeah, I know--it's a huge rim, how can we miss it?
Well, we were lost. We had walked the wrong way and was going away from the rim. When we finally got to the rim, the sun had already set. Rats!!! We missed the sunset.
So the next day (our last day there), we planned way ahead! We caught the bus to Hopi Point, after overhearing the bus driver say to somebody else that it was THE BEST place to watch the sunset. HA! We thought. Now we can't get lost--because we'll take the bus to THE BEST place to watch it.
The sun was going to set at 7:36pm or thereabouts, so by 6pm, we were on the bus to Hopi Point.
It was THE BEST place too!!! It was very windy and cold but the sunset was so beautiful.
After we got back to our hotel, we went to the cafeteria there and had hot chocolate! Hmmmmm, so yummy and warm to the tummy!
It had been a great Grand Canyon day!

VLA

After leaving Santa Fe, we took a side trip to visit VLA!!! It means Very Large Array. Not HUGE! Not BIG!!! But VERY LARGE!
And they were too. There are 27 dishes in the shape of a "Y" that make up the Very Large Array radio telescope.
When the dishes are spread along the three 13-mile arms, they simulate a single dish 22 miles in diameter.
We watched a video and saw how much more detail can be seen with these things.

Me--I was only glad that the gift shop was open on Sunday. I even told the lady who worked there that I would have been sooooooooooooo disappointed, after driving 49 miles out of our way to visit VLA, had the gift shop NOT been opened. I thanked her profusly too.
It was a very kewl gift shop--aren't they all!!!!! I bought a New Mexico scrapbooking kit, with all kinds of New Mexico stickers and paper, and die cut frames!!!! Plus a bunch of other goodies too like a new windbreaker jacket and an aqua Tee-shirt that says (in small letters off to one side) "I need my space!" I love that!

I've resisted the urge to buy any Tee-shirts for me so far because I have so many and I don't really wear them anymore! But this one just grabbed me and I had to buy it. Zip bought a new shirt too -- all the items came with their logo of course! Had to also buy a key chain, a pen (that lights up!), and of course, postcards.

We did the walking tour and got to stand right under one. Boy, they are not kidding when they say it's very large.

The movie "Contact" was made there (you know the one, right? with Jodi Foster???).
Oh, we also saw two rabbits on the road with VLE (very large ears). I can only imagine how well they hear! They could be employed by the people at VLA, who knows.

I'm glad we took the time to vist VLA--they had a really nice gift shop!!!!!