Tombstone, Arizona

Dh is much better about planning day trips than I am. He wants to go see things himself, but what he really wants is for the children to have good memories about the things we did together as a family while growing up. Being a Western fan, of course the first trip was to Tombstone.

There was a bit of western gear in evidence . . .

The day was really hot. It was 106 in our town and since Tombstone is at a higher elevation, it was a little cooler there, but still over 100 (38C). We loaded up our Omaha Steaks cooler (the one that our Christmas steaks from Mom were packed in for shipping) with lunch, cans of soda, bottles of water, and ice, put on sunscreen and headed out.

Tombstone is only about a hour from home, closer than I expected (keep on triangulating) and has lots of history. It's where the OK Corral is and its famous gunfight in the 1880s.

Today it is a commercial (oh, how commercial!) Old West Town and you can see gunfights and take tours of things like an underground mine, the old courthouse, the town via stagecoach or covered wagon, the biggest rose bush in the world, the OK Corral, and places like that. Everything except Boothill Cemetary costs. Bill and the kids did more of the tours while I walked around town and poked into antique shops, book stores, local art galleries, and fudge shops. ;-) Here is the artists' cooperative sales lady:

I bought that boot-shaped porcelain Christmas ornament she is reaching for. I bought some fudge in a shop (peanut butter chocolate as well as maple-walnut) and ate some of it while I watched the world go by from a bench out in front. The last thing we did was take a stage coach tour around town. Since there were seven of us and it was a real stage coach from the 1880s, it was pretty small and Kevin had the privilege of sitting up front next to the driver. Here is the stage coach:

As we headed out of town we stopped at Boothill Cemetary where some of the famous old gunslingers were buried. Most of the graves there are from the 1880s. The sign said the cemetary fell into disrepair and in the 1920s it was researched and new signs made for the graves. Lots of them are still marked "UNKNOWN" but quite a few have signs. Although the picture is blurry (*I* didn't take it!)and everyone looks tired, here is dh's favorite marker. I assume this is a modern copy of what was there at the time.