You've all heard of a babymoon I assume? That one last hurrah before the baby arrives and throws your life into a total tailspin, never to be mistaken for your old life ever again? Well, this wasn't exactly the typical relaxing long weekend away for the parents-to-be. Nope, it was definitely our spin on the whole babymoon concept. Since Adelaide has been really enjoying our camping trips over the past year, we really wanted to get one more in before the little mister gets here. We didn't start camping with Adelaide until she was 2 years old. While we're hoping to get back into in with #2 along for the ride much earlier, I'm still expecting it to be a little while. So with all that in mind and Jordan with a couple of free weeks in January, we headed West. Where else are you going to go in January and not freeze beside the desert?
Our first stop was Monahans State Park in West Texas, where we check out some dunes:
And we saw the first of many amazing desert sunsets:
After that we continued West...
^^ Looking for coyotes ^^
...and eventually landed in the Tucson area where Adelaide took in the zoo. The highlight of that, of course, was the carousel. Though the camel ride was a definite highlight as well (which took an amazing amount of coaxing on my part... coaxing, possibly bordering on threatening given we had shelled out 40 bucks for the special passes allowing her to ride the carousel and camel, and I'd have been damned if she didn't get on the freakin' camel!) You know, all the stuff you go to the zoo for...
This trip was my first time to see Saguaro cacti in real life, up close, and it was totally crazy. Like landing right the the middle of a Wylie Coyote and Roadrunner cartoon. It's amazing how huge they get!
We made it just into to California for a couple of nights of BLM camping. Much to my amazement, we saw orange trees. Just growing right alongside the road. Like, just growing oranges on them. (And pistachio trees in Arizona!) I don't know, maybe that's only amazing and beyond like, whoa to me. Whatever :)
While in California we were also faced with the difficult decision on whether to eat lunch at a local bakery/sandwich shop place with amazing Yelp reviews, ooooor hitting the Baja Fresh. I love Baja Fresh. We don't have Baja Fresh in DFW anymore. The last time I had Baja Fresh was years ago in Lake Tahoe.... ooooh man that black bean burrito... Alas, Baja Fresh was in a gas station, and so the local place won out. I think the possibility of some delish baked goods for dessert may have also swayed me (if you know me, that will come as no surprise :). There weren't any delish baked goods though :( But, the sandwiches were good. Excellent Pepsi too. ;)
Next up, our stop at White Sands National Monument where Jordan and Adelaide got in a few more dune slides:
That's right, I said sand. It was absolutely so cool to see that bright white sand in the middle of the desert. Definitely worth the stop!
^^ Also, this. Just because it's cute ^^
Food highlight: We stopped back by Blue House Bakery in Carlsbad, NM on our way home (which we found last year on our trip to the dunes out there, and hit up twice during that trip). Like, we went out of our way and designed a route specifically through Carlsbad and drove until like 9:00 the night before in order to be able to go there for breakfast. It's that good. For reals. I started with a cinnamon roll appetizer, followed by the bacon, egg, cheese and green chili croissant and a chocolate croissant to go. I'm pregnant, so I get to do whatever the hell I want when it comes to food :) And, Adelaide got to say hi to her old friend :)
I will say we/Adelaide struggled a bit, particularly around days 3-4 or so, after lots of time in the truck and not much time to run around and play or make any choices of her own really. The zoo trip in particular was trying. But after that, Jordan heeded my advice and started seeking out playgrounds for Adelaide and let me tell you, that made a world of difference. Once she got used to the fact that her schedule was out the window, especially considering I never even knew what time it was and she started getting some time to do her own thing, we were golden. Two weeks across 4 states. I think that'll get us through the next few months.
