Today we spent the morning... swimming. It was hard not to swim in such a nice pool and the girls loved it. It also took a little edge off their energy. The water was always just about the right temperature and the air was almost always a little bit cooler. Most of the times we swam, the air temperature was 75 degrees, which seems a little bit cool for swimming, but the water more than compensated.
After lunch we met up with the photographer to get the family picture made. I found the photographer through Google. He was a nice fellow and took us out to a scenic spot that had the red rocks and mountains in the background and a juniper tree for the foreground. This was his special picture taking tree that he used in many pics. We haven't seen the results yet, but I suspect that he got something that is workable. I think he took 90 or so pics in 20 minutes using all kinds of combinations of us around that tree.
After the picture, we went to Jerome, Arizona, which was a mining boom town in the late-1800's and early-1900's. I tried to explain what mining was to the girls, but I could never communicate the concept. So, we went to the Jerome Mining Museum. It was actually a neat place to visit and I think it helped the girls understand a little more, though they were still looking for rocks they could buy with their money. The thing that I found fascinating about the museum was the scale model of the mountain they had. The mountain had the town in place on the side and then underneath it had the network of mining tunnels to scale. I think it said that were 200+ miles of mines under that mountain. It was really neat how they dug down and then sent tunnel out like spokes on a wheel from the main vertical, then went lower and did it again, and again, and again. They said at the peak of production, the companies were profiting a million dollars a month from the minerals extracted there. Eventually the town took the companies to court and sued b/c the mountain was settling (town sliding). The companies ended up paying each resident $58K as I remember. The history of the place is amazing.
After this, we wondered through the town, which is basically stores and homes along a series of switchbacks up the mountain highway - mostly hermit-like artists. Jerome is also the home of the Haunted Hamburger that Rachel Ray visited in here $40 a day show. It was truly a hole in the wall place, but it had a beautiful view of the Verde River Valley and they had awesome food.
More tomorrow.
Rodney
1 comment:
I'm loving the updates, Rodney! Thanks for posting!!
Carrie
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