The Desert Museum

I started writing this post weeks ago. And finally got around to finishing it today...

We went to the Desert Museum Friday with Cari and Grandma Knight while Jacob was at work.

 

The Desert Museum is less of a museum and more of a zoo. But it’s better than our local zoo, in my opinion. It has animals that are native to the desert around here. One of the first stops is the cave. It has a little shortcut that is fun for the kids and you have to climb up and around and down, so it's like you're really spelunking for a whole minute or two. It kind of freaked Annie out because it was pretty dark. 

At the other end there was a display about bats. They had these bat ears that are attached to headphones to show how the bat ears amplify the sound. Pretty cool. And they make for a funny photo.

 

We saw several animals while we were there. One of the first was the mountain lion. 

A pretty view from a bridge that crosses over to the coyote/javelina area.

Ahhh! Rachel's getting eaten by a coyote! Luckily she survived the metal coyote attack.

Then we saw some real coyotes. In the prickly pears on the left one is hiding in a ditch he dug out to keep cool.

 

The javelina were pretty easy to find this time, unlike most times before when I've been.

We saw a fox,

a bobcat,

and some bighorn sheep.

Rachel was dying because she had long sleeves and pants on and it was in the mid 70s that day, and felt even warmer in the sun. After a little talk she decided to have a good attitude and let us all enjoy our day there. We had some lunch at the restaurant there, went to the reptile house, then headed home. Here's the only photographic evidence that I was there, too:

The kids were climbing on a statue of a bunch of dolphins, which you can't really see. I never did figure out why they'd have a statue of dolphins at the Desert Museum. Doesn't seem very desert-y to me. But it was a fun day, topped off with some Eegees on the way home. 

The next day Cari was flying back to the cold, white North (Rexburg). But everything combined against her. My guess is that Rachel prayed that Cari wouldn't have to go home yet with a little too much faith.

Jacob and Cari woke up early to drive up to the Mesa Airport. Near Casa Grande Jacob said, "I think we better check the tires," started slowing down and pulling off to the shoulder when POP! The front tire blew. Naturally the spare was flat, but thankfully we both carry these tire inflaters in our cars that run off the car's power to blow up the tires.

After blowing the spare up to the right psi they were off again, still with enough time to make Cari's flight. But at the next exit Jacob pulled off to check the spare and sure enough it was already getting flat. They made their way to a Walmart in Casa Grande to get new tires, while I arranged a new flight for Cari for the next day. Shortly after I received the confirmation on her new flight, Cari got a text saying that her flight that day (Saturday) was cancelled due to mechanical problems and was rescheduled for the next day at 10am. Jacob got a whole new set of tires since they were all nearing the end of their lives, and they headed back to Tucson where Rachel and Annie were very happy to get to have Cari around one more day. 

But the adventure wasn't over. Before they got into Tucson another tire went flat. One of the brand new ones. They put the spare on and made it back home without any more tire problems, but were pretty tired of dealing with tires. I took the car to get the tire fixed while Jake and Cari took care of cancelling the flight I had booked that Cari didn't end up needing anyway with the other flight being rescheduled. The Walmart here told me the guys at the other Walmart must have been lazy or incompetent because they replaced the tires, but not the valve stems and did not balance them correctly, though they charged for both. They took care of everything free of charge and the next day Cari made it to her flight without any problems and Jake made it back without any tire problems. And thus ended our fun vacation with our fun visitors. It sure was a good Christmas break.