XC x 2 - Days 9-12

When the Family Reunion in St. George was over, we began our trek east.  Our first overnight stop was in Arizona, so we traveled by way of the Hoover Dam and took some time for the tour inside the dam (cue "National Lampoons Vegas Vacation" ...).  It was really cool to see the way it works and learn more about how it was built.  There were some great hands-on activities for the kids in the museum once the tour was over as well.

After our tour, we drove to the Phoenix area to spend the weekend with David, one of Ben's mission companions.  We saw lots of cool desert plant life during this leg of the drive.

"Welcome to Arizona."

It was great to hang out with David for a couple of days, but we missed seeing his wife and kids.  They were out of town for their own family reunion during our visit.  Bad timing.  :-(

We attended David's ward on Sunday and in the evening he took us to see the Mesa Temple.

We left Monday morning and headed through New Mexico to Texas. 

Arizona rest stop.

We stopped at this cool Mexican restaurant a friend recommended to us.  It was in Mesilla, NM and it was delicious.  The restaurant started out (in 1939) as a group of close adobe buildings, then they were connected, then they were added on to, so now it's a huge maze of halls and rooms and a courtyard.  They have lots of tropical birds and fish, too, which the kids really enjoyed.

Mmmmmmmm..... sopaipilla.......

We explored Old Mesilla a bit and happened upon some Billy the Kid signs.  Turns out, this is where he was tried and sentenced to death.  Interesting.

One thing we did NOT do while in New Mexico was stop in Roswell to see all of the Area 51 stuff.  We really considered it, though.  Unfortunately, it was a few hours out of the way and we decided it would delay us too much.  Next time, New Mexico.  Next time.

When you drive through El Paso on I-10, you're pretty much just on the other side of the fence from Mexico.  It was cool to be able to look out the window and see another country.

 

I thought the Texas-shaped waffle iron at our hotel breakfast the next morning was just about the most awesome thing ever, and somehow not at all surprising.

We stopped in a little town in West Texas to have a picnic lunch and found a little Kiwanis Park with a gazebo that offered some shade.  It happened to be right next to a branding shop.

We saw TONS of oil wells in Texas.

And I just liked this billboard...