adventures in arizona: bisbee

dave and i took advantage of the mlk holiday to head down to bisbee, arizona. we dropped beniah off at my dad's in sierra vista and continued down to the historic mining town for what dave calls "marriage weekend". while we are always working on our marriage (date nights, watching sermons together, reading scripture, reading marriage books, and praying together) in the past we've taken mlk day to ourselves. the past couple years we haven't truly "gotten away" because of beniah, but this year my dad offered to take him for the night so we ventured to bisbee.

as soon as we got in sunday night i saw the bisbee B lit up and wanted to take a picture for beniah. he loves pointing out every B he sees. he says, "look mama, B like me!"

 it is such a cool town with rich history. we got there pretty late on sunday night, but spent all day monday watching a sermon series on song of solomon, discussing our marriage, and of couse, talking and praying for the kids. we stayed at the historic grand hotel in old bisbee. dave loved that we checked in downstairs in the saloon with an older man with a long grey beard. our room was very cool and the morning was complete with a delicious home cooked breakfast in the cute, cute lobby area. we talked with some other couples from tucson and the headed out for the day.

i stole this pic of the internet-the downtown was so cute. i don't know why i forgot to snap a photo. 

the famous 1000 steps. every year they have a race up these steps. we made it to step 89 and decided to call it quits. :) who needs a workout on vacation?

after our steps we headed to the old bisbee brewing company and sampled some of their in home brews. i personally loved the free popcorn and homemade root beer. yum.

after our stop in the brewery we head over to the queen anne mine tour. a must see in bisbee since mining is what put this town on the map. the sign said that in the late 1800s bisbee was one of the largest and most cultured cities between st. louis and san fransico! didn't realize arizona was so cool.

 i tried to get a picture was we trekked by on the train, but didn't angle the camera down enough. this shaft looked like a 45 degree angle down with tracks for the carts. i could not image trying to push heavy copper up that.

 a cute little boy asked where the miners went potty. the tour guide was happy to show this off. he asked who wanted the job of pushing the potty cart our of the mine every night..

 we were pretty deep in the mine, the website says 1,500 feet deep. our tour guide, a former miner, told stories of life working in the mines. it was definitely worth the expedition.

i loved that we parked the car in front of our hotel and didn't get back in it until we left bisbee the night after. maybe when b gets older we will take him back. i know he would want to see that big B on the mountain.