Must see

37.5  years

That's how long I have lived in the wonderful state of Arizona. I love the desert, the orange trees, the sunsets, the weather, touristy Wild West stuff, and being so close to family. I was getting tired of it all and in a rut until we planned on moving to Minnesota last month. Then my I Love AZ campaign  kicked into high gear and I was sad to leave everything I had taken for granted!

After we decided to stay in Arizona for a bit longer, I have definitely enjoyed all that desert living has to offer. One of my regrets was not exploring Arizona to its fullest. Even being a native, there were still places I hadn't been, yet we always said "Oh, we'll go there someday". That someday is now and we are trying to check off all the "must sees". Our first "must see" was the Bisbee mine tours. Chet and I had been to Bisbee, AZ with Suzanne and Pat when they lived in Sierra Vista (oh to be that close again!) but never with the kids.

First stop -the supposed haunted Bisbee Hotel. 

*little tidbit about Julia- she has some odd/not so odd fears. She is very fearful of natural disasters and wants to know about each location's potential for disaster like "Does Minnesota have tornadoes?". Somehow Julia knows about the Chilean miner accident from a few years ago (from where, who knows??) and was apprehensive to go on a mine tour even though we explained the safety of our tour. 

Julia is also somewhat afraid of haunted hotels- well, what kid isn't? Julia made sure she walked in the middle of our group, peered around every corner, jumped anytime a hotel guest or worker exited their room and definitely didn't enjoy the fun fact that one of the resident ghosts was named Julia Lowell. 

*Julia clung onto Chet the entire time.

 

 Putting on their best scared faces for the camera!

 

Off to conquer Julia's fear of mines. :-)

At the entrance of the mine- they are very serious about safety!

 

This is the mine train that took us 1500 feet into the mine. 

 The narrow shaft that we rode most of the way.

 Ending our trip with an ice cream stop in downtown Bisbee!

 LOVE old towns that look straight out of a history book!

 Bisbee is only 10 miles from the Mexico border- since the kids have not been to Mexico, we decided to take advantage of the proximity and show them Naco, Mexico from the fence that marks the border in this border town. It delayed our long 3.5 hr drive home but it was one of those "why not?" moments that are fun to enjoy!