More Vaca adventures

Monday morning we were off on our adventure. We headed north up to Montezuma's Castle. It is a 5 story, 20 room cliff dwelling.
They accessed their home by ladder. It was amazing. I was having issues with J wanting to walk on a retaining wall. No way could I handle ladders to the house!
Here he is pouting because I made him get off the wall. Oh the memories!

When we finished there, we headed off to Jerome, a cliff side mining town for the afternoon. Jerome had a huge boom population of 15,000 but when the copper mines closed in the 50's the town dwindled to 50 people. There are about 500 that live there now. There are about 50 retail places in town and they all want your money!
I saw on Food Network a place I wanted to try for lunch, The Haunted Hambuger! We got a seat on the deck and we had an incredible view. It was a great hamburger. I do have to say that it was our first introduction to a vacation without Kid meals. They didn't have a kid's menu- no big deal. 2- $9 hamburgers and 2- $3 Sprites, does not a kid's meal make! Paintboy decided on a $3.25 beer, he said the quarter was worth it- there was a lot of beer in our future. I tried a Prickly Pear Margarita- at $4 a bargain and very good!
Paintboy is a snacker. He often needs an icecream to get through the day. This is the first of many to come.

The town has a famous jail that used to be up the mountain. One day during a mining blast it slid down the hill. The town left it where it stopped and now people throw coins in for the Historical society. Of course, we had to empty Daddy's pockets before we could move on.


We headed north to Red Rock State park for a little hiking and views of Sedona. While hiking, C started complaing about the rash on his stomach from the raft in the pool yesterday. He is transforming into "Itchy, Scratchy." J kept picking up rocks. He is a real little Geologist, we have to buy or find rocks where ever we go. Now remember we are in the desert, we kept telling him to stop and he just wouldn't listen. Paintboy tried telling him about the "snakes that he might find".
No snakes- JUST a scorpion!
About 2 inches long.
Under a rock that my child has just picked up.
My hysterical child.
That now is terrified to move in case of scorpions attacking him.
Boy, did we have fun hiking back- Paint boy, Hair girl, Itchy Scratchy and Whiny Moany.
Welcome to our Vacation!