Correction, some of the Southwest deserts. Hee-hee! Have you ever taken one of those China Bus Tours/Go To Bus Tours? It's those super cheap tours that takes you to different places by bus with the hotel and most entrance fees included!!! Let me just say too, that the hotels you stay in are not bad at all. Well, we took this one tour that would take us from the China Town in Los Angeles, CA all the way to AZ and NM! Talk about a long drive huh? The tour is nice but, the downside is you'll be on your butt for a long while! Hehehe!!! Oh yeah, I should also mention, that the guide conducts the tour in multiple languages. Luckily for us, the tour we were on was only done in 2 languages, Mandarin and English. Hee-hee!
Anyways, this was our first stop on the bus tour, Phoenix, AZ! This is the capitol building, and guess what we saw? Another replica of the Liberty bell!!! Well, this is the second replica I have seen... hehehe! (First one I saw was in Honolulu)
We didn't really do much here but take photos and a brief lecture from our guide about Phoenix... We were here like, 15 minutes, 30 minutes tops. So does this still count as me having been to Phoenix? Hee-hee! Well, I have been at the airport here in Phoenix at least a couple of times before for a connecting flight... =)
From here, we had a long drive to our hotel for the night in Tucson, AZ.
Our next stop was the White Sands National Monument, NM. On the way though, we were lucky enough to be let inside the White Sands Missile Range to gape at all those planes/missiles!!! We saw the Patriot missile used in the Gulf war! The place is really cool!
Here we are at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico! I have to show the sign somehow, so here it is. Tee-hee!
The white stuff you see is not snow, but really, really white sand! (Guess where the place got its name? Hee-hee!) Don't forget to stop by the gift shop to purchase those round sled thingies to slide down the dunes! That purchase was worth it! It was fun sliding down the dune! The not so fun part is getting to the top though, my feet kept sinking in the sand while trying to get to the ridge!!!
The next day, on our way to Carlsbad, NM, we stopped here at the visitor center of Guadalupe Mountains. I didn't realize before that there's a lot of hiking/camping trails here in New Mexico/Texas! Hehehe! From the brochures we were looking at, it looks like there's quite a few trails out there. The mountain you see at the back is part of the Guadalupe Mountains!
More Caves!
Who doesn't like caves? Here we are at one of the most famous caves around, Carlsbad Caverns! The caverns is impressive!!! It is big, so it's just fitting that they named the biggest area in the caverns, the "Big Room".
For some reason though, I think I like the stalactite and stalagmite formations in Luray Caverns and Shenandoah Caverns better... For me, the formations here at Carlsbad Caverns were not as impressive... Looking back on it, it's probably because there's less lighting there to highlight the formations... Don't be discouraged with my impressions of Carlsbad Caverns. I know some people who have been there and they were really impressed with the caverns! I, am also still very impressed with the size of that caverns! It's Ginormous!
Is there somebody standing in the distance? Here, we saw a lot of one of my favorite cactus, the saguaro!!! I love the protrusions on it, it looks like arms!!! Hehehe!
We stopped by the Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ to see other types of cactus in the area. (What? It's not just saguaros growing here? Hee-hee!) Disregarding the nice cactus specimens they have there, the view was just amazing! Different cactus and brushes on the foreground against the mountains and endless blue skies in the horizon! The deserts here are just beautiful!
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