Slide Rock State Park, AZ

We spent a couple afternoons at Slide Rock park. You can't truly see from this photo, but there are natural water slides through the rocks that end in these big pools of water. Then, if you're not done having fun sliding, you can climb up on these small cliffs and jump in. The water was very chilly...45 degrees Fahrenheit and it was only about 70 degrees outside...but, being good Canadians, we put on our wet suits and jumped in for some fun anyway!

Except Braden...he thought he could do it without a wet suit...which only lasted for one slide...and then he changed his mind!!

Mike and Braden going out for a great ride on Templeton Trail.

Sedona, Arizona

On Monday, April 19 we arrived in Sedona. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were amazed at the gorgeous scenery here! Mike loves the fabulous mountain biking and our campground has been really enjoyable. The kids have had a lot of fun playing tether ball and ladder golf. I have enjoyed all the peace and quiet in this small campground and listening to Oak Creek as it trickles close by our site.

The boulevards are all made of crushed red rock...even the sidewalks are red here!

We went to Montezuma's Castle National Park. This is a photo of a diorama of the cliff house that has been preserved as seen in the following photo.

Amy and I decided we are thankful that we don't have to climb all those ladders to get home each day.

Willow Lake RV Park

The RV park that we stayed at in Prescott (like Biscuit...not like Scott) was right on the edge of these amazing granite rock formations. We had lots of fun climbing all over the "slick rock" which wasn't slick at all...in fact, it was quite grippy. We saw lots of little geckos and the boys even saw some snakes. God knew Amy and I didn't need to see snakes :-)
Willow Lake is in the background. The kids and I had fun biking along the shores of the lake the morning of Mike's race.
King and Queen of the castle!

This rock was perched precariously and looked like it could roll down the cliff at any moment. The kids had fun "holding" it up!

Prescott, Arizona - The Whiskey 50 Bike Race

Mike finished a 50 mile race on Saturday in under six hours. He has been training for the BC bike race which will take place a the end of our vacation. That race will take seven days, be over 550 km and 40,000 feet of vertical on single track off road trails. This race was just a little "reality-check" for Mike in his training. He wanted to do one race along the way so that he would know how his training has been going. He was happy with his endurance and now wants to work on his speed. We were proud of how well he did...and happy we didn't have to ride 50 miles in the heat and dust!!!

Oatman

Oatman in an original gold mining western town that has been preserved in the original buildings from the turn of the century. They still have the original wooden side walks, the hotel, the saloon, etc. Each day they hold re-enactment gun fights and block the Route 66 Highway that runs through main street.
The Boat Run in Lake Havasu also had the Harley Run happening along with it. There were thousands of Harley bikes and riders along the roads and at least a hundred of them were in Oatman when we were there.
One of the cowboys who robbed the bank.
But the sherriff got him....
And this is how he ended up!!!

Route 66

One of the days that we were in Lake Havasu we took historic route 66 to Oatman, AZ. It was a beautiful drive. These tall cactus plants were in full bloom and were beautiful.

Our little boat

This is the boat we rented...was a lot of fun to cruise around the lake to see all the big boats. We went down the lake to see Copper Canyon and then came back through the channel and under London Bridge.

The Boat Run, Lake Havasu

We rented a little jet boat to go out on the lake for our last day at Lake Havasu. The Boat Run was on the next day, so all the big boats were out on the water practicing. Even though it was a perfectly calm day, the lake was full of waves because of all the big, fast boats.

Most of the boats on the water were worth a quarter million dollars. Ones like this Gibson are too wide to fit on an ordinary boat trailer, so they haul them on their side!

When we were coming back through the channel toward London Bridge, each side of the channel was side by side huge, expensive boats. This photo doesn't do it justice, but it was a site to see.

Mike wondered if all these bikini babes came with the boat too!
This is first thing in the morning of the day before the Boat Run. They had a boat parade and it was covered by the media in helicopters.

London Bridge is falling down....

Lake Havasu is known for having London's original London Bridge (built in 1831 and closed in 1967) after which the song London Bridge is Falling Down is named after. The founder of Lake Havasu City, Robert MuColloch, in 1970 paid the city of London $2.5 million US for the bridge. He then had the bridge dismantled and each rock numbered, packed and shipped to California where it was then trucked the rest of the way to Lake Havasu City. There the rocks were unpacked and reassembled over a concrete bridge foundation which was officially opened as London Bridge in Lake Havasu on October 10, 1971.

An entire "English" village was constructed along the waterfront to add to the tourist attraction.
View of the bridge from the water.

English style housing along the bank of the channel.

Another view of the bridge...absolutely amazing that they could reconstruct the bridge and use it after it was closed down because it couldn't handle the traffic in London, England in 1967.

More Lake Havasu Fun

At Havasu Speedway they also had an arcade. Mike looked like a huge bee playing this virtual war game.
Amy was patiently waiting for the rest of us to get ready to head to the pool...Wild Magazine (thanks Bubba and Jenna!) helped pass the time.
Reading in the pool on a floaty...does it get much better than this?!
Amy was too hot to read outside the pool....she's already read six books so far! If you know Amy, this is quite an accomplishment!
Braden thought the pool water was too cold to float in, so he went in the hot tub instead.

Go-Cart fun

one night we went go-carting. What a blast!
Love the "skull caps"!

Lake Havasu

Our first night arriving in Lake Havasu. We stopped to check out this campground and caught this gorgeous sun set. We decided not to stay here as it was quite a way from Lake Havasu City. As a result, we ended up "camping" overnight at Terrible's truck stop. Always an adventure!!

Another beautiful sunset taken from Crazy Horse campground where we ended up staying for the week. We were camped right on the lake and had weather in the plus 30's the whole time except for one day when it cooled off to 22.
The kids passed some time having a noodle war one evening.
This is the view down the beach from our campsite.