The Word On Travel – Page 4 – A Word From The Three Sisters

Our Trip to Arizona – Day Eleven

By Simran Jayasinghe

We are almost at the end of our trip! This was the last day of our stay at the resort and we were going to head back home the next day. We had been on the road for eleven days, but we were looking forward to seeing our cute dog Rocky again, who had been boarded all this time!

Mom and our grandma decided to treat themselves, and went to the spa to get a pedicure, and something called a facial. My sisters and I convinced our dad to go to the pool, even though it was not all that warm of a day. We went to the river ranch and played in the main pool. The pool has a water fall, and we sat under it, and also played marco-polo, a pool game. We also found a volleyball, and tried to play some pool volleyball. We were not very good at getting the ball over the net.

Where is this ball going! (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Just missed it! (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

I am ready, I will hit it this time (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We played until our mom came back from the spa. Then we went back to the room and got dressed to play tennis. The hotel room includes a complimentary hour of tennis. The day before we had booked a court for an hour. We were excited to play because we had never played tennis before. At first, my sisters and I kept missing the ball, but our mother ,and father who had played tennis when they were children, showed us how. Slowly, we got the hang of it, and towards the end, we got the ball over the net. We really enjoyed it! We played tennis for an hour. It turned out to be quite a warm day, and all that running around made us thirsty, so our mom and dad ordered three piña colada drinks. We sat and drank them by the pool, and were they yummy!

Biltmore mall Phoenix (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We went back to the room to relax and played Rummikub, Blokus, Chess, and cards. After we had relaxed a bit we decided to go explore a mall in Phoenix. We drove to the Biltmore Fashion Park. The Biltmore (mall), is a outdoor upscale mall, and we saw several stores that we hadn’t seen in a mall before. We walked around the mall for a little while, window shopping. Then, my sisters and I got very hungry and we looked for a place to eat, but nothing caught our fancy. Finally, we decided to leave the Biltmore and go to Olive Garden.

Olive Garden, One of our favorite places to eat (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Our whole family loves the Olive Garden restaurant. We love the breadsticks, and our parents love the Fagioli soup. Kiran, Svara, and I had the cheese ravioli from the kids menu. Our grandma, got the soup and salad combination. Our mom got the Chicken Scampi. Our father got the Braised Beef and Tortellini, and our grandpa got the Garlic Rosemary Chicken Breast that comes with mashed potatoes and spinach. For dessert, we had what is the best part of Olive Garden for us. This wonderful desert is called a dolcini. At Olive Garden, there are different flavors. Our mom and dad always get the tiramisu dolcini, but Kiran, Svara, and I just pick randomly. We really enjoyed the meal, and went back to our room with full stomachs!

Our Trip to Arizona – Day Ten

By Kiran Jayasinghe

After sleeping in until 10:30 (pretty late, huh?), we walked to the River Ranch again. Only, this time, we were going to play miniature golf. Well, really, we were going to play tennis, but every single court was booked up, so we decided to play miniature golf instead. There were eighteen holes. To get through all eighteen, took us about TWO HOURS! Can you believe it? We tried to get our dad to play another round but we had no luck.

The three golfers (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We went back to our hotel room, had some lunch and settled in for some board games. We played “Blokus” and chess, in which I won. The my sisters and I, also made-up a game using chess pieces, which we called “kingdoms”. We had fun coming up with the rules for this game and playing a few rounds.

In the hotel lobby area (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

After our games we took a stroll around the resort. We hadn’t explored the hotel yet. We walked past a couple of pools they have for each of the buildings in the resort, looked into Rico’s American Grill (a restaurant on the premises), and bought hot chocolate in the main lobby building. After we went back to our room our grandparents decided to take us out for dinner to celebrate our birthdays. Mom looked on the internet for interesting places to eat, and we finally settled on Aunt Chilada’s. Aunt Chilada’s has a rich history. The land that the restaurant is on has had some sort of business for over a hundred years! It used to be a place where miners working in the mercury mines and smelters stayed. Before that there used to be a general store. To learn more about the restaurant’s history, check out Aunt Chilada’s website.

Aunt Chilada's restaurant — Aunt Chilada’s Restaurant (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We, the kids, ordered cheese quesadillas, our mom and grandparents had burritos, and our dad had some kind of very messy, and very spicy dish, called the Jalapeño Steak Fajita (fa-hee-ta). It had a bunch of Jalapeños. I don’t know how he ate it! He said it was very good. I also tried the shrimp tacos, which can only be described by one word: scrumptious! Then we drove sleepily back to the resort. We took a warm shower, put our pajamas on, and collapsed into bed.

Our Trip To Arizona – Day Nine

By Kiran Jayasinghe

We woke up early in the morning, we were so excited! Today was our birthday! Well, actually it was just my twin sister and my birthday. We were turning 10. Our little sister’s 7th birthday was coming up in a couple of months. To celebrate all our birthdays, Mom had booked a horse riding session at the Ponderosa Stables in Phoenix.

Ponderosa Stables is located in South Mountain Park, the largest city-owned park in the world. The Ponderosa is a working stables and houses more than fifty horses. The owner of the Ponderosa Stables lives in Colorado and only visit this location once a year. Apparently he is about 84 years old and remembers the names of all his horses. He owns about 2,000 horses and several ranches. There were cowboys and cowgirls doing their daily chores, like cleaning up the stables and feeding the horses. We didn’t know horses were that big! We had never seen one up close before. A couple of cowboys and cowgirls brought out our horses, and helped us get up onto the saddle using a set of steps, but it was still pretty hard work!

Navaldo the cowboy (Image by the Jayasinghe Family).

Once we had all settled down on our saddles, including our grandma and grandpa, we set off down the trail. Our guide was a seventy-year old cowboy named Nivaldo. He looked like a true cowboy. He was at the front of the pack holding on to rope that was tied to my sister Svara’s horse. When Nivaldo started, all our horses followed. They were very well trained trail horses. We also had a cowgirl guide at the rear end, because there were seven of us and, also because there were three kids.

All seven of us on the trail! (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Who knew riding a horse could be this much fun! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Our ride was not at all what our mother expected. She was expecting a ride on a paved road. Instead, we rode our horses on a fairly rugged trail; through trenches, over rocks, and down steep hills. At one point one of the guide horses came next to mine, and my horse bucked. That was scary, but exciting! Apparently these trail horses do not like when another horse come next to them. They are trained to walk in single file. We, the kids, really enjoyed our ride and were really sad when the ride ended. Our parents enjoyed it too, but not as much we kids did, and I think they were relieved to be on safe ground!

Riding those horses made us hungry! (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Afterwards, we were treated to a cowboy style breakfast: eggs, bacon, and thick pancakes, all cooked on skillets.

After eating, we drove back to the resort. On the way we stopped at “Nothing Bunt Cakes”, a cake shop. Nothing Bunt Cakes makes the best cakes ever! The night before we had looked online to see if there was a store in Phoenix, and to our surprise we found one not far from the hotel . We were so excited! We bought a eight inch bundt cake and a small bunt cake each (they call them buntlets) to celebrate our birthdays later in the day. After we got back to our hotel room we relaxed a bit, and then we changed into swimsuits, and headed to the “River Ranch”, where all the pools and the Lazy River were!

Relaxing in the lazy river (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We grabbed floaty’s and floated slowly down the river – and when I say slowly, I mean really slowly! There really was no current; it was mostly just the wind, which was at that time, a very slight breeze. After floating around (or in my sister Svara’s case, playing around), we decided to try the water slide. Svara slipped down fast enough, but the rest of us got stuck along the way. I think because we were too heavy for the water! To top it off, we were able to enjoy food by the Lazy River: cranberry juice, chicken tenders, and fries.

After a most enjoyable time at the “River Ranch” we returned to our rooms very tired. We relaxed in the room and played some chess with our dad. At about tea time, we all got together to cut our bunt cakes to celebrate our birthdays. We put candles on the cakes and our parents and grandparents sang happy birthday. Then we dug into the cakes! They were delicious! Everyone ate at least one slice. The day had been a long one, but an extremely exciting one with new experiences. To cap it all off we had a relaxing bubble bath, we set up our beds, snuggled under the covers and watched “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”. The movie was exciting, and scary. What a great way to end the day! Once we hit the pillows, we fell into a very deep sleep.

Our Trip to Arizona – Day Eight

From Tucson AZ, to Phoenix AZ.

By Simran Jayasinghe

TucsonToPhoenix — Tucson, AZ to Phoenix AZ on the I-10.

We woke up in Tucson and it was a bright sunny day. Today we were heading to Phoenix, the last stop on our trip to Arizona. Our mom and dad had booked a suite at the Hilton Squaw Peak Resort in Phoenix as our tenth birthday present. This Resort is arranged like a mini village with streets and crossroads. The whole Resort is 27 acres. When we checked in, the front desk gave us a map of the Resort to find our way! The resort has hotel rooms, suites, as well as Casitas, or small houses. In the middle of the resort is The River Ranch recreational area. The River Ranch has a pool with a waterfall, a recreational pool with a volleyball net and a basketball hoop, a lazy river, a waterslide, a tad pool (a tiny pool), mini-golf, tennis courts, and basketball courts. The Resort also has two restaurants, the Hole-In-The-Wall, and the Rico’s American Grill. In addition to these two restaurants there is also the Slim Pickens cafe, which sells finger foods like nachos and chicken strips, and the Cactus Rock Creamery which sells ice cream.

We checked in and went to our rooms. They were big! Each suite had a living room with a couch with a sofa bed, and a separate bedroom with two queen beds. Plenty of room for us to stretch out and enjoy the last five days of our trip. After we moved all of our bags from the van to the suite, and had relaxed a little, we felt like going for a swim. We had not been swimming during this whole trip, and we really missed swimming! We had heard that the Tocasierra Spa, Salon, and Fitness Center had a lap pool, and were very excited about swimming there. Unfortunately, the receptionist at the spa informed us that the lap pool was for adults only. We were so frustrated, it’s not like we were going to play around, we are USA swimmers after all! We eventually swam some laps in the recreational pool.

Don't burn my marshmallow! — Don’t burn my marshmallow! (image by the Jayasinghe family).

After the swim, we were hungry, hungry, hungry. For dinner, we decided to go to the Hole-In-The-Wall Restaurant. They had barbecue food. It was delicious but we thought the portions were a little small for the price. For desert, we got s’mores, and it came with a little pot with a fire in it so that you could toast your own marshmallows on the sticks and make our s’mores right at our table.

Our Trip To Arizona – Day Seven

By Simran Jayasinghe

We woke up in Tucson. This was our second day in Tucson, and it was Christmas day! We got dressed and headed down for breakfast. The breakfast at the Country Inn and Suites had scrambled eggs, sausages, french toast, cereal, yogurt, and a few other breakfast items. The breakfast is complementary which was very nice.

Striking a pose! at the entrance to the Arizona-Sonora Dessert Museum — Striking a pose! (image by the Jayasinghe family).

After breakfast, we went to the Sonora Desert Museum just outside the city of Tucson, next to the Saguaro national forest. The Sonora Desert Museum is a outdoor museum. It was established in 1952 by William H. Carr. The Sonoran Desert Museum is 98 acres. We went to see a show called “Live and (sort of) on the Loose!” This show talked about Gila monsters and rattlesnakes. During the show we got to see a live Gila monster and a rattlesnake! Both of them were trying to get off the table they were on. I guess that’s where the “(sort of) on the loose” part comes from. We learned a lot of interesting information about the two animals.

Next we headed off to the Raptor Free Flight show. On our way there we stopped at, ‘The Cottonwood’, a small snack bar that has hot and cold drinks, and ice cream, where we each got a ice cream cone. At the Raptor Free Flight show we watched different types of birds fly right above our heads! We saw two types of birds, Barn Owls, and Harris’s Hawks. The birds are not tethered in any way. They were completely free flying between some trees. We saw a group of seven Harris’s Hawks and one Barn Owl. These two types belong to the class of birds known as raptors.

Leaning on the Saguaro cacti! (image by the Jayasinghe family).

After the Raptor Free Flight Show, we walked on some trails, and dug for some dinosaur bones. At the Sonoran Desert museum we saw a lot of Saguaro Cacti. We also saw some Prickly Pear Cacti. The Desert Museum is almost like a small zoo as well as a park with a lot of trails. They had exhibits showing Mexican Gray wolves, a mountain lion, a black bear, a bobcat, and some other animals. Because it was Christmas day, all the animals on exhibition had gotten Christmas presents in the morning! We saw the empty wrap the animals had torn apart.

We stopped at the gift shop and snack bar, and our grandparent bought us a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate. After an exciting day at the museum we headed back to the hotel. We were getting hungry, but could not find a place to eat dinner since it was Christmas day. A lot of shops were closed! Finally we found Ghandi’s Indian Cuisine, probably the only restaurant open that day, and had scrumptious Indian food.

Click here to learn more about the Sonora desert museum.

Our Trip To Arizona – Day Six

From Sedona AZ, to Tucson AZ.

by Kiran Jayasinghe

On Day 6, we left Sedona and headed to Tuscon, AZ. We drove south on highway 179. This is a very scenic drive and we got to see a lot of the red cliffs. Then we took interstate 17 south and finally interstate 10 south towards Tucson. We passed through Phoenix, and stopped for lunch there. We ate at Chick-fil-A. Though there wasn’t any snow, or anything else exciting on the way, we were pretty much ecstatic, because today, was Christmas Eve! Time passed quickly, and we reached Tuscon at about 2:00 p.m. Instead of heading for our hotel, we drove to the Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium on the campus of the University of Arizona. We arrived just in time for their “Holiday” show. The show explained why we celebrate Christmas. After the show, we ventured into the museum. We saw their math exhibit first. There were lots of brainteasers. One of our favorites were using seven different pieces to form a 3 by 3 cube!

Enjoying a math puzzle at the Flandrau Museum (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

That's a big crystal! at the mineral exhibit — That’s a big crystal! at the mineral exhibit (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Unfortunately, the museum was going to close in half an hour, so we looked at the exhibit that would take the least amount of time, which was the mineral exhibit. It was beautiful. We saw gold, silver, amethyst, sapphire, and even some petrified wood! We also got to see a fossil of a trilobite, which was a completely fantastic experience! Afterwards, we headed towards our hotel.

Our dad had reserved the Country Inn and Suites in Tucson for us. There were two of these hotels, and our dad had thought that we were staying in the one near the airport. When we got there he figured out that we were actually staying at the one closer to the city center! We finally found the hotel after taking a wrong turn twice. The hotel was decorated nicely, had an elegant look, and actually offered free fruit and cookies! They also offered free breakfast in the morning. The rooms were clean and smelled good. We rated it 4 out of five stars.

Our Trip To Arizona-Day Five

By Kiran Jayasinghe

P1090754 — The red rock “snoopy” in Sedona (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We woke up in rainy Sedona. It was really foggy, but you could still see the towering red rocks, or Moenkopi Sandstone, that Sedona is known for. Our mom had booked a Pink Jeep tour at 1 p.m. Since we had no plans we drove 5 minutes to uptown Sedona and walked around, for about two hours. Uptown Sedona has a lot of shops! We learned that Sedona was mostly a tourist city, and that was why there were so many shops! Most of the shops sold crystals and minerals, but we saw a Starbucks for the first time on our trip! I am sure there were many Starbucks cafes along the way, but this was the first one we had seen.

P1090739 — Pink jeep after driving on the dirt road (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

At 12:45 p.m., we headed toward the Pink Jeep store. At the store, a Pink Jeep Tour guide picked us up in a pink jeep and we headed toward the edge of the Colorado Plateau to visit the cliff dwellings of the Honanki people. The Pink Jeep was open on all sides. It was freezing cold, the temperature outside was about thirty five degrees, but with the jeep moving fast it was even colder, and it was raining! Soon we left the paved road and was driving on an unpaved, muddy, bumpy road. It was a pretty windy day as well. The jeep was pink when we started, but by the time we got to the Colorado Plateau it was completely brown with mud!

Entrance to Honanki Heritage Site (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Our tour guide parked the Jeep, and we walked on a dirt trail ( or rather a trail that was a dirt trail and now was a mud trail ) to get to the cliff dwellings. We all got splattered with mud, but, being able to see the cliff dwelling of the Honanki people was well worth it! We all felt like tiny insects standing there next to the cliff!

Honanki Cliff Dwellings

Located near Sedona, the Honanki heritage site is open to the public seven days a week. Our guide said that the Pink Jeep Tours have teamed up with the park service to preserve the dwellings. The dwellings sit under a ledge of rock jutting out from the Colorado Plateau, keeping the area dry. This is probably why the Honanki people chose to build their houses there. Archeologists think that people lived here about 800 to 900 years ago. Today, only some of the brick and mud walls of the dwellings remain. Our guide said that some of the houses were two stories tall, but that early white settlers in the area had destroyed some of the houses for the lumber. We also saw some wall paintings, clan shields, and handprints, that are thought to have been made by the original people who lived at the site.

Handprints on the cliff thought to be made by the original people of the site. (image by Jayasinghe family). — Handprints on the cliff thought to be made by the original people of the site (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

There were also some graffiti made by more modern people, and one of them made in 1926 even had a date! It would have been cool to touch some of the bricks they used for houses, but unfortunately there was a sign saying that if you touched anything that was used for the dwellings, you would be fined and have to spend 10 years in jail. Naturally, we didn’t touch anything. Besides, we didn’t want to damage the cliff dwellings!

After our fantastic pink jeep tour, we strolled through the shops in uptown Sedona again, and bought a few croissants and eclairs from the pink jeep cafe, since we hadn’t had any lunch. Our grandparent bought us beautiful bracelets and some Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory chocolate, which was delicious! We used to think See’s Candy was expensive, until we got to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The chocolate was about two and a half times more than what we would have paid at See’s Candy for one truffle.

After a long, but exciting day in Sedona, we were glad to get back to our room to relax.

Find out more about Pink Jeep Tours.

Our Trip To Arizona – Day Four

Flagstaff, AZ to Sedona AZ via Meteor Crater AZ.

By Simran Jayasinghe

Map of our travels on day 4 from Flagstaff to Sedona, AZ, with a stop at the Meteor Crater.

We woke up at the Hilton Garden Inn, Flagstaff. And guess what? It was snowing! We were really excited about the snow because we haven’t seen snow falling before. We went outside and enjoyed the falling snow for a little before we had breakfast. Then, we packed our bags and got in the van to head to our next destination, Sedona AZ. On the way to Sedona, we decided to take a detour and go to the Meteor Crater. From flagstaff we took interstate 40 east towards Winslow and followed directions to the Meteor Crater.

The Meteor Crater

The Meteor Crater is the worlds best reserved meteor impact site in the world. The impact happened about 50,000 years ago. It is one mile wide, and more than 550 feet deep. In winter, it can get very windy, but even though on normal days it isn’t that windy, it’s good to be prepared.

We went on a Guided Rim Trail Tour. The guide was really knowledgable and gave us a lot of interesting facts about the crater and its discovery. You can see directly into the crater when you are in the rim trail and the hike was a lot of fun. On the hike we also got to see some cool rocks including the Pulverized Coconino Sandstone. The wind was quite strong. We were scared thinking that our little sister would be blown away. Later we heard that there were wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour! We had fun even though the wind was strong.

On our way back from the Meteor Crater to Sedona, we went on this wonderful drive from Flagstaff to Sedona, on the Oak Creek Canyon Road (highway 89A south). Highway 89A has several sharp turns, and at first, our mom wasn’t too excited about the road, because she doesn’t exactly like windy roads, but pretty soon, the surroundings made her forget about the winding road, and she was oohing and aahing all the way. Actually, most of us did too. On either side of the road there were towering mountains, the trees were covered in snow, and there was a creek running beside the road. The landscape just captures you and it is really majestic. It is just indescribable.

We checked in to the Days Inn in Sedona. It was raining and there was a lot of fog. The rooms at the Days Inn were big, but they needed some updating. The room looked old and the carpets looked like they needed some cleaning. One of the heaters in one of the rooms did not work, and we had to ask the front desk to come and replace a couple of light bulbs. We gave this Days Inn two stars.

Click here to learn more about the Meteor Crater.

Our Trip To Arizona – Day Three

Flagstaff, AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

By Simran Jayasinghe

We woke up, at the Hilton Garden Inn, in Flagstaff hoping that it would snow, but, unfortunately it didn’t. We got dressed and went down to have breakfast offered by the hotel. And when they said ‘breakfast’ they meant it! There were scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes, biscuits with gravy, french toast, waffles, and cereal. They had various types of fruit, including, strawberries, blueberries, peaches (sliced and peeled), cantaloupe, honeydew, and grapefruit (cut in half). They also had whip cream to top the fruit. You might be wondering, if such a delicious breakfast could possibly be free. Well, it wasn’t. This breakfast was $10 per adult and $8 for children (under 12).

Map of our travels on day 3 from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, AZ

After breakfast we picked up some jackets scarfs, gloves, and hats. We headed out of Flagstaff to visit the Grand Canyon. We drove on Arizona route 180 (north) and joined route 64 (north) at Valle. This was a nice scenic drive which took us through both the Coconino and Kaibab National Forests. There was snow on the ground, and it looked like a winter wonderland. On the way, we stopped at the Nordic ski center, but we decided to try this out next time because we did not have much time. The drive from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon took about an hour and a half.

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon National Park is in Northern Arizona. There are Visitor Centers on both the North and South Rims. The North Rim is closed in the Winter. The Visitor Center at the south rim is open 24 hours every day of the week. This is also the most visited part of the Canyon. Getting into the Grand Canyon parking lot took us a long time. There is a fee to enter the Park. The fee is $30 per car. We bought our pass at a gas station in Valle hoping it would make it faster for us to get into the park, but, it didn’t help. All the lines were full of cars. There were five lanes. We thought that they should have had a lane for people that had passes, a separate lane for people who were paying with a credit card, and a separate lane for people paying with cash. We also thought that the signs should be bigger and easier to read.

It was pretty cold at the Grand Canyon, so we were thankful that we had brought our jackets. We watched a 20 minute video about the Grand Canyon at the Visitor Center. Before going to Mather Point Overlook on the South Rim to look at the Grand Canyon. We went to the Bright Angel Bicycle Rental and Café (next to the Visitor Center) to get something to eat. We got a hot chocolate to share and a croissant each. Then we went to Mather Point which is a short walk away from the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. We walked a little bit on the rim trail to see different parts of the Canyon, and finally went to the Grand Canyon Park Store to get some souvenirs.

The Grand Canyon is 18 miles across (at it’s widest), 1 mile deep, and 277 river miles long. The Grand Canyon was carved out from the Colorado Plateau by the Colorado river five or six million years ago. The Grand Canyon is considered a very young Canyon.

Click here for more information on the Grand Canyon.

The Lowell Observatory

The Pluto Telescope (Image by the Jayasinghe family). — In front of the Pluto Telescope (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

On the way back from the Canyon to Flagstaff we went to the Lowell Observatory with hopes of stargazing. The Observatory is in Flagstaff situated on a hill to make it easier to observe the stars. The Observatory is famous for discovering Pluto, but scientists at the observatory have also discovered the rings of Uranus, the atmosphere on Pluto, as well as accurate orbits of Pluto’s two new moons.

The Solar System walk (Image by the Jayasinghe family). — The Solar System walk at the Lowell Observatory (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

On the day we visited they had set up the Clark Telescope to look at the moon. We saw the moon clearly, but by the time our mom and dad tried to look at it the clouds rolled in an covered it up. Then, we headed to the Pluto telescope and learned all about how Pluto was discovered. We went on the Solar System Walk (one of two small walks at the Observatory), and we went a little off the trail to play in the snow. In some places, the snow was at least six inches deep. We had a short snowball fight, and then we headed back to the hotel room.

Click here for more information on the Lowell Observatory.

Our Trip to Arizona – Day Two

Lake Havasu City, AZ to Flagstaff, AZ

By Kiran Jayasinghe

Lake Havasu City to Flagstaff Map — Map of our travels on day 2 from Lake Havasu City to Flagstaff.

Day two of our trip was sunny, but cool. We were driving to Flagstaff, but we stopped to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu first. The London Bridge was less than a mile away from the Days in where we stayed the night.

The London Bridge

The London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The bridge originally spanned the River Thames in London, and was designed by engineer John Rennie in 1831. It was Rennie’s last project, and was finished by his son. The bridge was made for horse drawn carriages and was not strong enough for cars of the 20th century. They needed a new bridge that was strong enough for cars to cross and the old London Bridge was put on auction. It was sold to Robert P. McCulloch who was the founder of Lake Havasu City. McCulloch bought the bridge to help bring more visitors to Lake Havasu. The London Bridge was disassembled, transported to Lake Havasu City by ship, and then reassembled in 1968. Each block of stone was numbered sothat putting it back together would be easier. The reconstruction was completed in 1971.

The Shoppes at London Bridge. — The Shoppes at London Bridge (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We looked around the world famous “London Bridge Shoppes”. There were several restaurants, cafes, and souvenir shops. We went to the Visitor Center where they have some photographs of the bridge being reassembled.

Seeing snow for the first time. — SNOW! Seeing real snow for the first time (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

After visiting the London Bridge we headed off to Flagstaff. We took AZ highway 95 North and joined interstate 40 heading west at Kingman. As we approached Flagstaff, we saw snow! It was so beautiful that we had to stop. This was a highlight since we were seeing real snow for the very first time. We made dad exit the freeway so we could play in the snow. The air was really cold, but that didn’t matter at all! When we got to Flagstaff, we were ecstatic to see that the city had gotten at least 6 inches of snow! We stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn. The room was very comfortable and clean. There were two beds, a desk, and a nice, roomy bathroom. The hotel itself was elegant with a fireplace in the lobby which was decorated for the season including a christmas tree. The hotel had an indoor pool and hot tub right next to the lobby. We rated the Hilton Garden Inn at Flagstaff a 4 out of five stars.