Trip to Flagstaff: part 2

While in Flagstaff, we visited an arboretum that also had a "birds of prey" exhibit. It was very cool to see owls and other birds up close. They had them fly back and forth over our heads to show how silent they are...it was freaky because you could feel the wind, as they almost touched your head.

They wanted to touch the bird sooooo bad. You can see how Abigail is holding her hands :)Hannah took this shot of the sun coming through the colored leaves....I think it is quite good!The second night we stayed in what used to be the forestry service cabin. It was a really cool old cabin built out of stone; there was no electricity (but it did have water) and it was out in the middle of a huge field surrounded by gorgeous views in all directions. That night we roasted marshmallows and could see the milky way. Flagstaff is a very "dark"city, as in very little "light pollution"...because of the Lowell Observatory that is there....so the sky was incredible!
The lights were all propane, and it took me awhile to figure out how to light them, I was afraid they were going to catch on fire! (ok, all you camping people can laugh now :)...It brought back really fond memories of the log cabins we stayed in in Canada with Gamie and Papa when I was little ....but of course I wasn't the one lighting the propane lights then!
This gives you some perspective....it reminded me of an old homestead...very "little house on the prairie". The girls had lots of questions about how people used to live...how did they heat their house? what about water? how did they get food?....we had some good discussions about things that I think they had never considered before.The view was like this in all directions, and from all the windows
Here was the bathroom and shower, that was my only issue...when I had to walk to use the bathroom at 3:00 in the morning in the freezing cold and pitch dark...yes, I am a complete wuss!We went on a great little hike, there were groves of aspen, and areas that had been burned by a fire a few years ago. This picture of the bare trees below is from Hannah again.

Abigail learning to take photos...

We drove up and around to the north of Flagstaff on forestry roads and had some amazing scenery. There was a point where we thought we could see the start of the Grand Canyon in the distance....but we weren't sure.

We spent some time in downtown Flagstaff, it is a quaint little old town, then went to the train station and also finally to the Lowell Observatory. We happened to get there right as a tour was starting and we decided to join. I was concerned... as I hate tours so much, but this ended up being very informative and quick. The Lowell Observatory is where Pluto was discovered.

There was a great old train station that is still being used....so we watched a few trains go by and the girls kept trying to jump over the shadows from the box cars.

Here is the one of the observatories...it is the one Lowell had built and where Pluto was discovered. Yes, these are tires, they used them to turn the roof...it still functions!

This rotunda was built as a small museum.

One of the many instruments in the museum that they used to use to track the sky by hand. It was incredible that anyone would have that much patience before computers!