As many of you know, my two girls and I set out on a 5 week cross-country adventure. We left on July 8th. We drove 2,400 miles to my hometown of Phoenix.
I have shared a few pics on Instagram and on Facebook, but I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit more of our journey. It has been a great trip! I’m so glad we decided to go for it.
These are pictures from the our trip out West as well as our time in Phoenix. Tomorrow we begin our journey back East. We will be on the road for 8 days this time. Stopping to see some family and the American Girl Doll store in Atlanta along the way.
I will warn you, this post has a lot of pictures. I hope you enjoy!
Got the car packed. Everything fit! Time to leave…only an hour late.
Yay! We made our first state line!
My girls convinced me I NEEDED to start a collection of the Starbuck You Are Here mugs on our journey.
2nd day and 2nd state line.
Day 3 and 3rd State line.
Pop’s Soda Ranch on Route 66 in Oklahoma. This place was so fun! Such a great stop on a long road trip.
A 66 foot tall soda bottle. It lights up with LED’s at night.
Pop’s Soda ranch has over 500 varieties of soda in glass bottles. Apparently the fries are really good, too. I couldn’t eat them because they use peanut oil. My kids raved about them.
The restaurant and shop are beautiful with soda on display all around. Photography eye candy!
Pumpkin and all those soda bottles.
The hardest part was picking out which of the 500 types of soda to try in a float. This was my girls first time to have an ice cream float. They are fans now!
So much fun to photograph at Pop’s Soda Ranch
This is in Shamrock, Texas. It is the gas station that was used to base something in the movie cars. (Haven’t seen the movie so not sure what). It is a great pic, but that is about it and was a bit anti-climatic in person.
Day 3 – 4th state line! Texas had no visit center near the border. It was 100 miles away. We found this sign in Shamrock, Texas right around the corner from the Conoco gas station. It works for a state line pic.
We arrived at our hotel in Amarillo, TX really late on Day 3. We at pizza in our hotel room at 11pm!
We slept in the following morning because we had a short day. We started the day with a one hour trip to the American Quarter Horse Museum for Miss Pumpkin! She was quite happy!
Have you ever heard of the Cadillac Ranch? It is outside Amarillo, Texas in a field. You see all these cars in the field.
As you approach, you see that you can spray paint the cars.
Another family leaving as we were arriving gave us their leftover spray paint. My girls got to spray paint the cars.
Snowflake was a bit bothered by all the spray paint trash and at first didn’t want to participate. Once she did, it was hard to get her to stop. She had fun! Wish we could have packed out some trash though. We ended our time here by paying it forward. We gave the spray paint we had left to another family.
Day 4 – We made it to New Mexico! The girls are holding their dolls. Pumpkin is holding Saige the AG Doll of the Year 2013 who is from New Mexico.
The lady at the Visitor Center at the border told us about this Blue Hole that was a perfect stopping point.
This blue hole goes down 110 feet at which point there is a series of caves. We of course could only see it from above.
The water was 67 degrees…COLD! Perfect place to get out and stretch our legs, watch some diving and learn a little something.
Another mug for my collection. The other states we traveled through didn’t have them…boo!
We spent our final night on the road in Albuquerque. In the morning, we road the Sandia Peak Tramway. It was fantastic!
We got lucky and got a spot right up front on the ride up the mountain. Amazing views!
Top station of the Sandia Peak Tramway
Amazing views from over 10,000 feet elevation.
Gorgeous flowers at the top.
Hiking, too! I think we could have stayed all day.
Neat tree ‘skeleton’ at the top of Sandia Peak.
For the ride down the mountain, we waited extra to be the first in line and get the best front row spot. Totally worth the extra time for the amazing views! Then on the road again…one last state to go!
We made it! My home state and the final state in our journey out West.
We made it to my brother’s house. Went to a local bar/restaurant our first day to watch the World Cup finals with his family and the German exchange student staying with them.
A little hiking in the cool pines was a must before heading to the heat of Phoenix. Both of my girls worked on Girl Scout badges as well.
We found this on our hike. All the girls held it before we released it.
Cousins hiking together is always fun and filled with lots of talking.
My girls picked out of our Summer Jar (post on my blog) to have a tea party. We had a tea party with the cousins! Made M&M scones…yum!
We had the most fun tea party! Totally not a classic proper tea party and so much fun!
Having grown up in Phoenix, I knew we needed to enjoy our outdoor time in the cool pines. We had a picnic one evening and enjoyed some fun with family.
Fun in the trees!
Sisters
Such a great pic of the cousins in a tree. I cllimbed the tree as well to get this viewpoint.
Jojo – the German exchange student staying with my brother. Such a sweetie and so much fun!
Another mug for my collection.
Another pick from our Summer Jar – paint a small pottery piece together.
Pumpkin went from not being able to swim to diving off the diving board within the span of a week.
We were down in Phoenix now. Swimming is a must in Phoenix in the summer. I think my girls have turned into fishes.
Diving board contests are also lots of fun! My brother pretty much always wins.
We managed to fit in a few swim lessons for both girls. They improved so much because they had plenty of time to practice.
Roller staking with Momo (Grandma) and cousins is sure to be fun!
In-n-Out…need I say more?!
My girls sure love their baby cousin (2nd cousin). What’s not to love…she is adorable.
My Uncle is always good for some fun for all ages!
Another pick from our Summer Fun Jar – do each others nail.
We thought this would be a great indoor activity. It is the Butterfly Wonderland. It was great and it was hot and humid…
See how humid? The foggy pic is because of the humidity. A gorgeous butterfly landed on Pumpkin.
Decisions, decisions…a little retail therapy at Nordstrom Rack.
We are headed back East now. I’m going to be sad to leave the gorgeous mountains of Phoenix and my family. I miss the West very badly and long to live closer, but alas it is not meant to be for me yet, so we will head back to our East coast home.
If you want the latest on our journey, be sure to follow me on Facebook or Instagram as that is where I post the most pics. Thanks for reading…hope you enjoyed our fun summer trip!
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What an amazing journey! Your road trip looked like so much fun. Glad you were able to see your family and have some fun. Wishing you safe travels back. p.s. Did you have to do all the driving?
what a great family vacation! i didn’t know about those starbucks mugs, they’re actually really nice. and the shoes on the left…no, the right. both!
b
Aren’t the mugs neat?! So glad I let my daughters talk me into getting them. I’ve had fun drinking my way through our trip via a cup of tea each morning. 🙂 I ended up getting both the black shoes in the picture. Saw another Nordstrom Rack when we were in Atlanta…so tempted to check on shoes there, but we were all too tired and the car was getting pretty full. 😉
I LOVED your pictures. Since I don’t think I will ever get across country, I really enjoyed seeing the sights. Safe home.
Than you! Glad I could show you some sights you may not see in person. I need to put together a part 2 post from our drive home. Eventually.