IN ANY CASE, yesterday was a tourist day off the beaten path in Winslow, AZ. ((Such a fine sight to see)) Tripadvisor plus an actual trip to the visitor's center gave us some ideas of what we wanted to do, in addition to seeing the meteor crater.
So first stop: Standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ.
As you can see, Kit is thrilled--THRILLED--to be part of this experience. I have no idea what happened and when, but from the time we entered the visitor center until we arrived here (a whole 15 minutes), he hated all of us and everything we were doing. BTW, you should be able to see everything about the song from the picture above. If not, here's a more direct one.
The little downtown area is quite cute. And, truly, there is an amazing hotel just a few blocks further called La Posada that is gorgeous and has an amazing restaurant. And it's really not expensive. Those of you who aim higher than the really cheap hotels should check this out as a break when you are driving down 40.
Kit is *thinking* about not hating us right now.
After we left Winslow, we drove just a few miles to the Homolovi state park. This state park is an active archaeological site that honors both the native Americans who built massive pueblos here but also the Mormons who lived--and died--here as part of their journey out west. We visited the cemetery first. It was amazing to think of the people who had lived here trying to be free and the losses they incurred.
Kit has lost his hate and is enjoying the junior ranger activities at the park
Not pictured here are the two children's graves that broke my heart. They were infants really. What loss that must have been for these families in the middle of the desert.
We also visited the pueblos. And I don't have any pictures of it. We were too busy exploring the site, honestly. Clearly, it is prohibited to take shards of pottery from the park. So instead, visitors (including us) would find the shards and then stack them on rocks for other people to see and enjoy. Just a note--these pueblos were HUGE. 2000 rooms for a population of 300 or so. Gorgeous views and a beautiful residence, build and live at around 1300 CE. Amazing what history is in the southwest that we on the east coast think wasn't settled.
Finally, we went to the meteor crater. I visited that site 25 years ago and it was/is one of the most important memories from that trip. It had the same impression on the family.
This is the best preserved meteor impact site in the world. It happened 50,000 years ago and it's amazing. Can you imagine what the first peoples thought when they saw that? That's a big ol' hole in the middle of nowhere. How on earth did that get there? It wasn't earth, people!! :-)
So today we head to California. Despite taking 7 days, the kids are going to experience some serious whiplash from being where there's so much space to the car and people density of Southern California.
Where's Day 6??
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