We were told by the cheerful candle-selling lady to try to raise the head of the reclining saint statue inside the church. She said people of faith were the only ones who could move him--large muscular men often could not, while children did with ease. I looked at Mr. Saint, noted his cracked neck and thought, "We are not popping the head off a saint in need of restoration."
Later the gift shop lady stuck her head out the door and asked if we lifted the reclining saint, we said that we hadn't tried. She called us "Chickens" and laughed. I'd rather be a cheerful chicken than a broke tourist :)
It was an ornate search-and-find when the kids walked in front of the painted walls and statues. I cannot imagine the time it took to put this mission together. It is time for another restoration, but I can't imagine how long that will take either!
The lady in the big gift shop (run by the tribe) told us that at lunchtime, ladies would come from the reservation and set up their fires under the ramadas (stick shelters like pergola) in the parking lot. They would make fresh fry bread for the tourists and mass attenders. Boy, were we bummed to miss that!! Lunch was still a bit too far away, but that didn't stop us from searching the horizon while we tried to snap some photos in the bright morning sunshine. I also tried to recreate a picture of my sister and I at the mission about 25 years ago . . . the reference picture would have helped, but it was still sweet of my girls to give it a go :)
After our visit to the mission, we headed north(ish) to meet Buck's mom and sis (Mr. R slept in the car :) at Old Tucson Studios. Again, I vaguely remembered enjoying this spot as a kid, so I figured our kids would enjoy it too. There were not very many people there on the day we chose to go--which was technically the only day we could go--so it was kind of like having the old western town to ourselves. The number of movies and tv shows they've shot at this location is approaching 1,000!
The Little House on the Prairie tv show was filmed at this location for many years. We always seem to work in a Laura sighting on our vacations :)
This TOTALLY counts as a school day--they are AT a school!! (Kind of ;)
Buck somehow made the mistake of standing too close to the live western show--he got roped in to being the drummer throughout the forthcoming snake-oil presentation. I told him, "You stand close enough to see, but not so close they choose you to be part of the act." Ha! Of the two possible shows he could have participated in on this vacation, my guess is he was way more comfortable with this one ;)
So many different sets around town--it just kept going and going and going! Of course there were plenty of opportunities to get the posse together and throw some baddies in the clink (Idk, maybe that's mob talk and not cowboy?) The only one brave enough to escape her fate was Jazzy, lol!
We took a little train ride around the property, nice that this was included in the admission price--and we got everyone in one picture, yay! Old fashioned cars were driven (I'm counting this toward both Gabby and Brennen's drivers ed. hours ;) and a carousel (which is WAY more uncomfortable to ride as an adult than as a child, lol) spun us round and round.
Big sets, little sets, cactus hugs!!
Jazzy was NOT a fan of the guys doing whip tricks on the dusty streets. She was terrified, poor thing! Caelan put her dog training skills to use and carried the pup like a baby through the streets of the old west ;)
We also made an important archeological discovery!! While waiting an exceedingly long time for his Caelan to complete her fudge purchase in a nearby store, Graysen drew this figure on the dirt of the road out front. Historians debate whether the ancient Arizona hieroglyphs were records of impressive hunts, religious rituals, or maybe even markings to tell other tribes of territory boundaries . . . they were none of these things. The hieroglyphs are in fact drawings by little brothers, bored out of their minds, waiting for their sisters to finish up their shopping. History's mysteries solved!! :)
We gathered up our posse and headed back to Buck's other aunt's house where two more aunts had gathered while we were away, whew! That's a lot of aunts! :) We enjoyed a filling bbq dinner together, and I roped everyone into a family photo--we just don't have many opportunities to make that happen!
There was a bit of a snafu with the hotel Buck's aunt booked for us on her reward points. Apparently they assigned us a single king with pull-out couch, which wasn't going to work for six people. It was 8 PM and we had to be up at 4 AM to catch our flight home. Not having a room was not a good thing! Because they were booked almost solid with a regional cross-country meet, we decided to split into two rooms for the night. We kept all the luggage and food with the ladies, and the guys basically just slept in the other. It all worked out, we got up entirely too early for vacationers, we dropped the van off at the airport, and we boarded our plane at dawn. We were home before lunch and now you are caught up on our adventures!
1 comment:
I'm so glad we were all able to get together for this....I do love my family time!!!
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