After that we left Sedona behind and began our journey tp Phoenix. We made many stops along the way. Pur first stop was in Jerome.

Jerome is an old ghost town that used to have a billion dollar copper mining industry. It was an amazing place, a town built into a gigantic mountainside. My brother was going to try to climb the massive mountain on his bike but that idea was vetoed due to the steep treacherous climb to the top. Despite this the town was extremely quaint and different from most places I have been and was a nice little adventure plus lunch.

There were two strange notes of interest while we were in town. As we drove to the top of the mountain we were turned around to a fatal car accident. This sent us back into town were we then realized that the cop all over the town were there not due to the accident but because there had been a mental hospital patient who had escaped here and they were searching for him. A strange day but interesting nonetheless.

After our exciting time in Jerome we headed to Tuzigoot National Monument where there were some more indian ruins.

It was here again we spotted the mysterious Gabriel up to his mischievous self.

The strange specimen followed us around the park and was in no manner camera-shy.

The ruins were interesting and there was quite the storm brewing overhead. We were watching as the angry clouds were gathering and lightning was striking off in the distance.

Next n our list was the famed Montezuma’s Castle. A well-known cliff dwelling ruin national park. High in the rock walls there was a series of old adobe cliff dwelling homes nestled into the mountains face.

Another impressive set of indian ruins. Sadly we didn’t have time to go see Montezuma’s Well and instead moved on to Phoenix for our next adventure.

The storm down here in Santa Cruz sure does stir up some gnarly waves. At the lighthouse the waves were bouncing off the rocks and making huge waves that crashed into each other. It was pretty epic. This photo doesn’t do it justice.

When in Hawaii, my family and I visited Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park. I must say it was pretty disappointing to most of us. It took us three hours to drive there, then it started pouring rain. And I mean POURING. So I had to quickly put pants on because of course I was wearing a dress since it is Hawaii and I am horrible at predicting the weather. So we had  to make a mad dash from the car into the Visitor Center, which kept routinely losing it’s power which made things very hard to buy when tha cash register keeps shutting down. I forgot my passport book as well (you get stamps from national parks all over the country.. I have had mine since eighth grade) so that wasn’t as fun. I had to safeguard my little tiny piece of paper which I had stamped and would later put into my book, which was nearly impossible since I didn’t have a jacket, was wearing a dress with pants, and had no were to hide it from the downpour.

I think you see where I am going

The most disappointing part was the fact that the lava wasn’t flowing. The whole thing we drove three hours to see, wasn’t happening today. Can I explain my disappointment.

But you have to push through, so instead we went to go see this really interesting crater. There were also some nice steam vents along the way. Can I also say how hard it is to take pictures when it is pouring? I was running around getting soaked with my camera shoved in a plastic bag whipping it out to take pictures then stuff it back in.

The crater was very cool, but it still didn’t quite fill the void of the unseen lava. But I did get quite a few good creeper photos there. I also learned quite and interesting bit about Hawaiian Mythology which is one of the only types of Mythology I haven’t looked into. Pele is an interesting woman… goddess.

Next was a stop at the Lava Tubes which is basically a giant tunnel underground. It was very impressive. We also had a lot of fun with the mad dash back to car out of the pouring rain. The area around the park was amazing. It was just like a rainforest with giant ferns, and so much green all around you. It really was a beautiful place.

After the disappointment I had a lot of fun at the park. As we left the park the rain got even worse. I love rain but this was scary, we couldn’t even see the road it was coming down so hard. On our ride home a huge storm followed us. Thunder storms chased us along the mountain road back to the hotel. The storm lasted until noon the next day. But that is a different story.