Dallas World Aquarium

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Charlene and I enjoyed the Dallas World Aquarium

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We met John and Michelle in Dallas and visited the Dallas World Aquarium. I was not sure what to expect since the reviews noted that it was not a typical aquarium. I came away quite impressed with the range of animals they had.

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This sign was at the exhibit of the cute playful otters!

I think the otters, monkeys, manatee, and turtles were my favorites. The crocodiles were absolutely enormous. For me, the highlight of the aquarium was the shark tank tunnel. We were inside a glass tube and the sharks swam over and around us. It was absolutely incredible!

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I absolutely loved the shark tank tunnel. I could have spent hours watching the sharks swim all around us. It was quite impressive!

Galleria Area of Dallas

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We had a nice time walking around the Galleria mall and I ordered my first Dos Equis beer. It was served with lime and tasted great after a day of driving. The Grand Lux Café was superb and we ordered two different pasta dishes. I had a chicken pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella. It was fantastic, but I could not eat the whole portion. John and Michelle will be driving her later this evening and we are looking forward to seeing them!

Fantastic Mexican Food!

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We stopped in Wichita Falls, Texas yesterday for lunch. One of the most wonderful aspects about traveling is getting to try new places to eat. Our typical criteria is to find an independent restaurant that is highly rated on an Internet website. We first found a barbecue place that we thought we would try, but they did not take credit cards. Too bad for them as they lost our business. We next found a Mexican restaurant that was highly recommended.

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The restaurant did not look super fantastic from the outside, but we knew we had found a wonderful place because there were many people inside with Spanish as their primary language and a table filled with local police. We figured if those two groups came to this restaurant, we knew we had stumbled upon a great spot. We were not disappointed.

 

The food was not the typical Sonoran Mexican food we loved in Arizona, but it was fantastic. Charlene and I both ordered pork burros in red sauce. The restaurant also had a wonderful salsa served with homemade chips. Soooo good!

Jake takes on the Big Texan!

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One of the famous landmarks in Amarillo is the Big Texan restaurant. There are signs promoting if for hundreds of miles in different directions. It is a busy place and serves nice food.

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Today, Jake visited the Big Texan and saw the many aspects to the restaurant. We had a chance to take photos all around.

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Jake Experiences Cadillac Ranch!

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We enjoyed being with Jake at Cadillac Ranch.

Today we were able to buy some spray paint and take Jake to Cadillac Ranch, one of the strange, but quite famous landmarks in Amarillo.

 

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Jake had fun writing his name, and it was perfectly okay to use spray paint on someone’s car!

Jake had fun writing his name and other key people in his life!

 

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Jake certainly loves his Mom!

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Jake loved sending a message to his Dad too!

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Jake loved sending a hello to sister Macy!

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Jake sent a hello to brother Ben too!

In true Cadillac Ranch fashion, when finished spray painting on the cars, you pass your remaining spray paint to other visitors who did know to bring any paint. It brings out the playfulness in everyone when you are able to legitimately paint cars with whatever colors or saying your heart desires.

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Jake and I had a fun disagreement about which way the sign was pointing!

Newport Beach, California

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We had s’mores on the beach and they were terrific!

I had to fly to Newport Beach to help with some training programs. It is a very beautiful area and I identified a RV park in a very beautiful area for a future trip.

 

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Beautiful area of the country

We had an evening on the beach eating dinner and then making s’mores after dinner. The scenery and weather were beautiful.

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Jake Discovers New Mexico!

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Jake is ready to drive the motorhome on the original Route 66.

Charlene and I had a special treat in that Jake was able to travel with us in the motorhome! He was impressed with the large windshield, but he really enjoyed sitting on the couch while we traveled along the interstate.

 

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The raspberry color was a perfect match for his shirt.

Having Jake with us was quite educational. We learned about the power of Raspberry Warheads. Jake sure enjoyed them!

 

We stopped in Edgewood, New Mexico and enjoyed a cool afternoon and evening sitting outside and watching the rain clouds move around us. The scenery was very nice and it was fun to drive along some of the original Route 66 highway.

Down and Dirty!!

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We were very excited to start driving from Matt and Melissa’s cabin in a nice clean Razr!

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Matt and I were excited to pick them up!

Today we rented two Polaris Razrs and had the time of our lives driving through the Kaibab National Forest. The Razr is easy to steer, does not require gear shifting, and has seat belts. There are 4 seats and room for coolers in the pack. They are especially fun to drive as they have a tight turning radius, high clearance, and an amazing amount of power!

 

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We climbed this huge hill using four-wheel drive and the lower transmission case!

On the flat straightaway, our Razr went 60 miles an hour! It is amazing how fast you can cruise. The power was evident by how steep we could climb! We put the transmission in lower case and put it in 4-wheel drive and we climbed up an amazingly steep hill. The Razr just chewed it up like butter!

 

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Melissa took a fantastic selfie photo with Charlene!

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Melissa took a great photo of some excited people driving in the forest!

However, there is one key downside about renting a Razr for 8 hours: YOU GET UNBELIEVABLE FILTHY! I enjoyed getting each piece of dust on me, but after driving all day, typically behind the dust created by Matt and Melissa, you get filthy. We had such fun laughing at how dirty we became! I feel like I must be in middle school again. I cannot remember having so much fun getting so dirty!

 

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Look at those dirty girls!

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We got “dusted” and enjoyed every minute of it!

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There is so much dirt coating our skin, it looks like we have changed skin color!

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It was an adventure trying to wash off all the dust!

 

Great Wildlife!

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Today we joined Matt and Melissa and their family and visited Bearizona. Jacob, Macy, and Ben were the stars of the day. It was a tremendous amount of fun to be with them as we saw all kinds of animals.

 

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Great Horned Owl

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Lonesome and looking for a friend.

The raptor show was probably my favorite. I especially loved seeing the Great Horned Owl! The birds were quite impressive.

 

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Ben enjoyed petting the goat.

It was also fun to watch the kids in the petting zoo area.

 

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Matt found a friend for life!

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The love of a father and daughter is a very special thing!

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There were many deer to enjoy. This one was licking his lips for a tasty treat!

I also enjoyed seeing the bobcat and the ram too!

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The bobcat was on the prowl!

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The rams were impressive!

The Forest is Beautiful!

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We are getting ready to head out to ride in the forest!

I learned something valuable today. If you look up fun in the dictionary, it says the definition of fun is riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in the National Forest in Northern Arizona. It was so much fun!

 

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Northern Arizona is so beautiful!

I have ridden an ATV one previous time a number of years ago in Rocky Point, Mexico. That was wonderful riding in the sand. However, there is something extra special about riding in the National Forest near where I grew up. In high school we would often drive around on dirt roads near Flagstaff. I remember those trips fondly. Today was re-discovering that memory by riding on dirt roads that weaved around through Ponderosa Pine forests, meadows, and lakes. It was gorgeous and I kept thinking about so many memories growing up.

 

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Gorgeous scenery with the pines, lakes, and gorgeous sky!

We had a new variation by riding ATVs. Matt road his powerful ATV (that can go 70 miles an hour) and I rode Melissa’s (that can go about 40 miles an hour). We started out cautiously as I was learning how to balance around curves, shifting gears, and climbing over rocks. As I got more comfortable, we increased our speed.

 

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Matt is waving from the top of the forest look-out station.

As we were weaving through narrow, small roads, I had a big grin on my face. When we got going faster, I knew there was testosterone flowing through my veins as we cruising through washes, climbing hills, going over rocks, and taking in the different landscapes.

 

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Amazing views from the look-out tower!

One of the most surprising aspects of the trip were the number of elk that we saw. One group had to have had at least 30. We saw a large buck with a huge rack, standing in the sun, just watching us. It was magnificent!

 

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After riding I was filthy. My beard was no longer grey, but tan from all the dust. My face was dirty all around my goggles!

The time flew past. We were gone for about 4.5 hours, but it sure seemed much shorter. I hope to do that again!

 

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Macy, Matt, and I enjoyed some delicious hamburgers after our ride!