Happy Birthday Mike!

For Mike's 36th birthday I whisked him away to Prescott. Marly and Chris stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Batchelor's while Sam stayed with her dad. We stayed in a nice suite with a balcony and jacuzzi (accept the bed was rock hard - you know how I need a nice bed to sleep so I can't recommend this hotel to anyone). The weather was cooler than the valley, but still a hot 102 degrees. At least there was a breeze and it cooled off at night.

We visited many shops along Whiskey Row and the Sharlott Hill's Museum where they had reenactments of how people lived in the days when Arizona was a territory, including cooking over an open fire. It was way too hot for that, but that is how they had to do it in those days. We visited the first Governor of Arizona's "Mansion" which was little more than a decent sized log cabin. I think the most interesting things I saw at the museum were the doctors instruments. I saw the utensils used for bleeding a person and a set of scalpels. Very scary to think of how they treated illnesses in that day. Another interesting part was the transportation building with a real stage coach and wagons. It think this is a great museum for kids, especially on the days they have live reenactments of how people lived. I wish the kids could have been there. We'll have to take them another time.

While we were at the 3 1/2 acres of museums, we were quite entertained by a group of "Scavenger Hunters" that were using GPS to search for something. We never saw them find it. Mike and I kept watching to see if cameras showed up. They were looking behind plants, in trees, in the pond, you name it! It was pretty funny to watch. They were a bit rude about it all and one guy even passed right in front of us with his head down reading the GPS. Another man with him said maybe they should go around us, but the first man said, "What do they know? they are 'Mugals'." I laughed because only a really nerdy person who has read a lot of Harry Potter would use that term as an adult. If you don't know what the term means, ask your local Harry Potter fan.

Outside the Prescott Court House, we saw a small group of protesters (about 5 people) called "Silent Women in Black" who stood in a circle holding signs. They were protesting the war in Iraq. It reminded us of Flagstaff and the many protests and other funny events we witnessed when we lived there. I guess Prescott fits under our "tree hugger community" label now.

In all, we had a great trip. Our pictures here are of us at the museum. It took us a few shots to get both of our heads in the picture. I'm sure we looked pretty funny trying to get the shot.

Love & Miss ~ Celeste