Space Center and Cabela's!!!!

We set out yesterday morning to the Arizona Challenger Space Center and what a blast we had. It's inexpensive, there's so much to see and learn, there's tours, presentations and gift shop etc.

Curt and Jasmine sat in on the presentation they had about "Understanding the Nature of Light", they really enjoyed it and I was only able to catch bits and pieces because it was an hour long and Nicholas was NOT going to sit through it. I spent the time walking around the building, letting him play in the rotunda which is surrounded by this six-story mural depicting the beginning of the universe, dinosaur time, human race, flight and space flight etc. It's beautiful!!!

Here's a slideshow of the pics I took:

We left the Space Center and headed to Cracker Barrel for dinner, on the way there we came across a dust storm. Curt is used to them, everytime he got deployed to the desert he would tell me about the horrible dust storms they went through, but for me and the kids it was pretty much the first time. It's horrible but I got some good pictures of the storm moving in and it was just amazing watching the cloud move across the land........look at these pictures, the storm is coming in from the left.




Suddenly we were right in the middle of it, driving down the freeway and all you could see was brown in front of you, the cars were slowing down and there was so much dust around.




We made it to Cracker Barrel and had a wonderful dinner then browsed around the gift store. Seriously, is there anyone out there that can get through that store without picking up at least one thing??? Because I can't, if it was up to me I would bring the whole store home. LOL
We walked out with some old fashioned bottled sodas, some old fashioned candy and I picked up a Gooseberry Patch cookbook "Slow Cooker Recipes". You better believe that I'll be picking up the whole collection of cookbooks they have, not all at once obviously, but slowly LOL


I also picked up one of my favorite lotions from Dionis "Blue Ridge Wildflower", it's made with goats milk and it's just wonderful, I love it.

Right next door to Cracker Barrel is the Cabela's World Outfitters and it's basically a HUGE store for outdoors stuff, camping, fishing, hiking, hunting and whatnot.

"massive 230,000 sq. ft. showroom is an educational and entertainment attraction, featuring a décor of museum-quality animal displays, huge aquariums and trophy animals interacting in realistic re-creations of their natural habitats."

They're NOT kidding when they say this, it's really not just a publicity stunt to bring in people, you have to see it to believe it. There's the retail store, there is a restaurant which offers burgers and sandwiches etc but also some specialties such as Venison, Buffalo and Ostrich. There's a chocolate shop with so much yummy stuff and while you're walking around on the top floor (where all this is located), there's a small airplane hanging from the ceiling and all around you there's rocks with animals displayed on them in real life situations, attacking each other, or grazing or jumping over rocks.....it's just amazing. These are REAL life stuffed animals and we just couldn't believe the selection they had.

They also had an African Exhibit which made me feel right at home....the kids were jumping up and down and asking if these were all the animals they would see next year at the Kruger National Park. Now they're even MORE excited to go.



I have a LOT more pictures to share, but I'll do it another time.

This afternoon we're heading to the Glendale Main Library, it's HUGE, it's like being inside a Borders or Barnes and Noble, there's coffee shops and Booksales, Computer rooms and Youth areas and tons and tons of books. Can't wait.

I'll be back tomorrow with my Menu Plan Monday, don't forget to go on over to Laura's blog and add your name to Mr Linky if you're interested in sharing your own menu.

God Bless,