Weekend in Arizona

On Saturday we were off to see my sister Wendy in Arizona. As soon as she and my 3 year old nephew Colton picked us up from the Phoenix Airport, we were off.
As we headed south, our first stop was in Tempe. We stopped for lunch and headed off to the Tempe Lake. They had a big local event going on on the lake/river. The best was the Cardboard Boat Race. Kids who had built there boats at school out of cardboard, and brought them to the lake to race. The results were based on who could finish the fastest with out sinking. Some of the contraptions were quite interesting and pretty funny.
After the scenic ride, we ended up finally at my sisters house in Florence. Approximately 1 hour between Phoenix and Tucson. Right in the middle of the dessert. Since Jonathan and I were so tired, we decided to cook out at her house that night.
The next day, we awoke refreshed and ready for a full day. On a whim, we decided to head about 2 1/2 hours south to the Mexican border town of Nogales. The town straddles the border of Mexico and US. We weren't sure if we could get in, but thought we would try. Once got there, we got out and walked. We didn't know where we were going, so we just followed the crowd. We finally reached the walk through border entrance. We could see the border patrol letting people in on our side, but we didn't see anyone on the Mexican side monitoring who was coming in. So, before we walked through the turnstile, we decided to ask the US Border Patrol what we need to get in to Mexico. He Responded "Nothing. But you will need a Passport or ID with Birth Certificate to get back in to the US side." UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. We were so glad we asked before we walked on through, because we didn't have either on us. Just our drivers license. So, we just spent our time walking around on the US side. There was plenty of cheap shopping. Before Jonathan and I left on this trip, we decided we wanted some good Mexican Food. So while we were wondering around Nogales, we were looking for Mexican food. Wouldn't ya know it, we were in a border town and not a single Mexican Restaurant. So we settled for the Baskin Robbins.
After a couple of hours of walking around Nogales, we decided to head back north. We ended up at a restaurant called The Cow Palace. This was definitely a themed restaurant, with everything you could imagine on the menu. Across the road was another place called the Longhorn Grille (in the pics below). Even though we didn't eat there, we had to get a picture.
We hopped back into the car and our next stop was in Tuscon. We stopped at a place called Old Tuscon. This is still an active movie lot. A place where they film old west movies. Unfortunately we got there an hour before closing time, so we didn't get to see all the shows for the day. But we did get to see one show that was a wild west bank robbery. After that we had to hustle through there to see everything. We rode a train through the park, rode some antique cars, and took lots of pics. At closing time, we just happened to be at the horse stable. They have HUGE horses that they were doing trail rides. There had to of been at least 20-30 horses in this stable. But at the end of the day, the employees hop on horses and prepair to guide the other horses to the barn for the night. It ended up being a running stampede through the town with all the horses following the guides. That was definitely my favorite part! We only managed to get pics of the horses before they left. We had already put the camera away, when the stampede started. We then headed farther north back to Florence.
This, unfortunately, is where our story comes to a screeching halt. Monday, was supposed to be our last full day there and we had a full day planned. But, at about 330am on Monday, I woke up out of bed to see Jonathan with his head hung over the toilette. At about 12 noon, that is the same place where I ended up. We both managed to catch a stomach virus. (no we didn't drink the water at the border) We were both miserably ill and on vacation. That brought all the plans we had for Monday to a stand still.
On Tuesday, we were headed back to the airport and only feeling a little better. Going home is the only thing we wanted to do but we were dreading the flight back. Our first flight was delayed so much that we wouldn't have made our connection. So the Airline sent us through Chicago to get home. With all the mishaps for the day, we still managed to make it home by midnight, within 3 hours of our original time. However, when the alarm went off at 530am, that is when the pain was felt. Jonathan had to drive 3 hours to work out of town and I managed to drag myself into the office.








especially beautiful view through the windshield

Border wall in Nogales
Border wall. Notice the people just watching through the wall on the other

side.
Walk through border entrance. Luckily we didn't go any further.
Santa Cruz County Historical Courthouse in Nogales
Even though we didn't eat here, we couldn't resist this shot.

Old Tuscon. An old movie studio where many western movies have been

filmed.
Old Tucson horses. Just before the stampede
Sorry, we had to have this shot.
View of the state park that Old Tuscon was located
View from Old Tuscon