aside from hating to be in any type of moving vehicle. we left San Diego on the 19th when Mike got off work. On the way, we stopped at Calico Ghost Town, near Barstow. Not much to say about it, other than it is definitely a cute place to take school-aged kids to pan for gold & tour mines. I really enjoyed the many photo ops they offered, including the saloon scene, a school teacher with student, an empty coffin, etc. We continued on to Williams and stayed in one of the two Motel 6 locations that happen to be about 200 yards from eachother.
The next day, I discovered that morning sickness had arrived. I was thrilled. Luckily, I brought my B6, so I felt fine after eating breakfast. We drove the hour-long drive to the Grand Canyon and spent the entire day there. We forgot to bring a backpack, and ended up spending way too much for one in the GC general store. Dargan discovered her love of snow. It was really fun to watch her roll, slide, dig, and frolic in the snow. We parked at the second paring lot and walked along the rim trail past the GC Village. It
was an easy, paved path that at times got a bit too close tot he rim for any sane person's comfort. I slipped on ice once, which was quite enjoyable, since I was holding back an excited dog and a bag of said dog's poop. Later in the afternoon, we went back to the car to listen to the Pats game and nap until the sun was at a better angle to take pictures of the 
canyon. That evening, we ended up eating at the local Denny's and falling asleep at 8 pm.The third day, we planned to drive east and do what we could. We went to the Walnut Canyon Cliff Dwellings, which was a bust, since hte main trail was closed to rock slides & snow. We froze our butts off along the rim trail and left. At least we didn't have to pay. we proceeded to drive to Meteor crater, which was windy as hell and about as impressive as a huge hole in the ground. But th
ey had a Subway, so we were content. The whole time, Dargan had to stay in the car, as she was not allowed on any of the trails. Poor thing. Since we had tons of time left, we drove to Sunset Crater Volcano, where we were able to let Dargan out to run around between the two National Parks. Unless you are REALLY into Native American history (and I mean unreasonably obsessed with it), I highly suggest avoiding the north park, and stick to the Sunset Crater Volcano end on the south. It's a loooong, boring drive that just brings you right back to the highway you were already on before entering the park. The south park, however, was quite pretty, and the black lava that housed snow in its crevices looked like a giant, tasty pile of crushed Oreos. Being who we are, we decided to go to the Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff for dinner. Gillian recommended it and I am glad she did. The pizza was tasty, and, according to Mike, as was the beer. And, of course, we were in bed by about 9.The last day, we decided to check out the Grand Canyon Caverns
on the way back to Cali. They are in no way associated with the Grand Canyon, except for the fact that *SOME* of the air in the cavern is sucked from the GC through a series of tiny cracks in the earth. Our tour guide was a tad...odd. Her humor was a bit dry and she reminded me a lot of my former boss at OfficeMax, who was just weird. I was impressed with the caverns, though, and the fact that they still have the rations deposited there in the 60's, when all dry caverns were disposed as fallout shelters in case of a nuclear attack.We finally pulled into Bakersfield that evening to visit family before Mike leaves for the next patrol. We pretty much did nothing, and came home Thursday, along a round-about route because of the snow closure at the Grapevine. And we are immensely glad to be home.
As a side note, I have my first prenatal appointment on Wednesday, the 30th. Mike leaves on Tuesday, the 29th at the crack of dawn, so unfortunately, he will miss the appointment. Oh well. I will post the results of the appointment soon.
