Labor Day Weekend.

Fort Verde, doctor's house

Apparently, the doctors assigned to Fort Verde were also naturalists collecting specimens for museum such as the Smithsonian!

Montezuma Well cliff dwellings

Dinner - 5 cheese macaroni!! Intense!

V-V Heritage site petroglyphs

View from the top - Jerome

Mike found out at the last minute that his paper submission date was pushed back, so we decided to take a little trip. We went to Camp Verde just 2 hours north of Phoenix. The weekend was full of military forts, cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, and a little gambling. Sadly, it wasn't much cooler in the Verde valley but it was still nice and we can check several more things off of our 'to see' list. The petroglyphs were amazing! There are more than 1000 at the V-V Heritage site and very well-preserved. The chimney in the field is from an old ranch house that used to be on the land. Can you imagine? Just a short walk to the creek from the house and there is a huge wall of petroglyphs 400 or more years old?!

The cliff dwellings at Montezuma Well are pretty incredible as well. It is hard to imagine climbing up to these homes on ladders or ropes, but what a great view!

It was a great trip and we came home Sunday night to grill and watch movies in the pool. We don't have many pool days left and we have to make the most of them!

Roosevelt Dam

On Saturday Mike, Rebekah and I drove out to Roosevelt Dam. Mike and I have been talking about doing this since we moved here, so we decided to go for it. It is a gorgeous drive through the hills and the last 22 miles aren't paved! Pretty exciting. There were summer monsoons too, so the sky was awesome and the temps were a little cooler. It was a fun day!

Oh, the places we will go.

I actually went here several weeks ago, what an amazing place! Tumacacori is about 2 1/2 hours south of Phoenix, almost to Nogales. This mission was built in 1691 by Father Kino. Those of you in AZ know who I'm talking about...probably the most famous priest around. His name is everywhere. The story goes that General Pershing stayed at the mission sometime in the 1890's and carved his name into the wall. You can't see it anymore, but wow.

Anyway, I highly recommend heading down there and stopping in Tubac for lunch. There are great little shops and tons of food.