National Monuments in Arizona

The last leg of our trip took us through Arizona where we made very quick visits to two Indian ruins and a friends house. We first stopped at Montezuma Castle, where there are cliff dwellings to view. The photo on the right is all that there is to see, really. So after 45 minutes we drove down to our hotel in North Phoenix.

The next day our only plan was to visit some friends in the area, but since we had a few hours to kill first we zipped out to Casa Grande National Monument. This Indian ruin was more impressive than the last, plus you could walk right up to it (but not go in). It is covered by a large roof to prevent further erosion. There was a nice museum with interesting facts about the history of the region, plus other smaller ruins from this once thriving civilization of the 14th century.

Our last stop (almost) before heading home was to visit some friends. They had to leave an hour after we got there, so there wasn't much time to talk. The long drive across the desert on New Year's Eve brought us to the Palm Springs area for one last visit with some people I had never met. I arrived at my house before the new year and before all the drunks hit the road. At midnight I celebrated the new year with a shot of Jack Daniel's and had two days to relax before going back to work. It sure would be nice to take a vacation like that every month.