Dear Tessa,
As you might recall, your dad & I did not celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary on our anniversary. Instead we were at Sky Harbor airport watching our youngest board a plane and leave for the Peace Corps. So on March 19th your dad & I finally got away to celebrate our anniversary. I dare say that we are the only people in the world who celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary by spending the day in Oatman, the night at the Hualapai Mountain Resort and the following day "walking the sky" and accompanied by our replacement children: the long legged, rather patchy, black poodle and the short legged, somewhat piddly, wheaten terrier. (I could be wrong, but I doubt it.)
So here we were, driving on the old Route 66 road, and we are alone on the road,
maybe we saw one car driving the opposite direction. We think we are the only ones making the trek to Oatman, and then we arrive in Oatman, where, lo and behold! Oatman is full of tourists. And not just local tourists, but foreign tourists, Japanese with cameras and Australians riding Harleys. Amazing! But I was so sad, I saw tourists, but no burros, only plastic replicas of burros. And then I saw them! Everywhere, in the street, on the sidewalk, taking a nap in a parking lot.
And then burros started coming up to us. Apparently the dogs were as much of a novelty to them as they were to us.
We bought pellets of hay to feed the burros, but they weren't as interested in the pellets as they were the dogs.
And then we saw the fuzzy baby burros.
Oh Tessa, they were so cute, but they had something stuck on their foreheads.
I got closer, and they had a post it note smack on their foreheads.
It said:
STOP! Do not feed me anything! (Apparently the babies should still be nursing from their mothers and it spoils their appetites when they eat too many carrots.)
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| The babies really liked the dogs. |
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| And Cole, |
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| Manly dog that he is, |
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| Hid behind your father. |
The next day we went to the Grand Canyon Sky Walk. Before we left, we learned that dogs could not accompany you on the sky walk. (Apparently, they don't make booties for dog paws.) So we went to the Kingman, AZ Petsmart, where the dogs' had a spa day and we continued on to the Sky Walk.
It was rather a long trek through an amazing Joshua Tree forest before we got to the west side of the Canyon and the Sky Walk.
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| Joshua Tree Forest |
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| Big Joshua Tree |
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| Did I mention that it was a really, really big Joshua Tree? |
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| The Sky Walk |
Although you may bring no objects with you on the Sky Walk (like cameras) there are authorized photographers available to take your picture. And they pose you......
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| I'm not sure, but I think your dad is sleeping. |
The photographer told me to pretend to push Mark over. I think he thought I was taking my role too seriously.
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| This is supposed to look like we are floating on air. |
The End.
Love you lots,
Mom
