A quick trip to Mexico

Today dh had a follow up visit to his dentist in Mexico and Caroline had a consultation for orthodontia. Here are a few pictures of interesting things we saw.

Pretty painted houses just over the border.

A sign with "International Border" on it always excites me.

If you look at the gray band on the mountain in the distance you are looking at the actual border.

Caroline waiting sort of patiently for the orthodontist. He was pretty late, but this is Mexico and I don't think schedules run the same as they do in the United States.

We are so accustomed to every.single.thing in the US being made idiot-proof that the sight of dozens of holes like right in the middle of the sidewalk was kind of surprising and definitely made me pay attention to where I was walking.

And I'm thinking this wiring might not pass code either.

We walked across the border, so while we were waiting in line to come back into the USA dh noticed this sign. We are pretty sure they have no idea there is a problem.

The close cars are going into Mexico and the far ones are going into the United States.

Heading into Mexico if you drive instead of walk.

Look closely and you can see a tail in this picture. About 20 miles north of the border there is a Border Patrol checkpoint where everyone has to slow down or stop and get a nod from the agent before continuing northward. One of the agents had a very energetic shepherd/retriever/?? on a leash who was obviously trained to sniff for drugs. They zipped back and forth between cars with the dog sniffing the left front wheel well of most of the cars and nearly all of them while the car was still rolling forward! It was very entertaining while we waited the 3 or 4 minutes to get our nod.

It was a pleasant trip and Caroline REALLY enjoyed having dh and me all to herself for the day.

A drive up the mountain

A couple of Saturdays ago dh and I joined the Mercedes Benz Club of our city and drove 30 miles up a nearby mountain. It was 97(36) degrees here in the valley and 67(20) up there. Delightful!

On the way up we stopped at a lookout and took pictures. This is overlooking our city.Aren't we cute?

At the top we stopped at a German-themed restaurant and had lunch. I had a veggie sandwich with German potato salad and red cabbage. Unfortunately we sat at a table with a man from the club who wouldn't stop talking! Dh and I love to talk and talk to each other, but we barely got a word in edgewise, let alone a chance to talk to each other. Oh well! We'll know which table to avoid next time!

Since dh's car is a convertible, we had the top down. I had a ponytail holder and a headband and kept my hair under control. I had sunscreened my face, but forgot about my upper chest. What a sunburn! First one this year.

It was great to get out with dh and enjoy the beautiful weather and each other's company.

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.