Denver- End of the Midgley Adventure Blog

November 29, 2010

We left Newport Beach, CA on the 26th and drove for 8 hours to Flagstaff, AZ.  The next morning we left Flagstaff at 7a.m. and drove 12 hours (yes, I drove the RV 4 hours) to Denver, CO where we met the Woodley's at Red Lobster (Mark's sister and family).  We spent the next 2 days watching our nephews play hockey, giving all the cousins rides in the RV, going to The American Girl store, twice.......Macaira couldn't get enough of this, visiting with Aunt Julie and Deb, and having a blast with family!  The boys went to a trampoline spot called "Jump Street" and had a riot playing dodge ball.  We fly out tomorrow morning!  What an amazing adventure!  We feel so blessed to have seen so much family and so many dear friends on our month long journey!  We will never forget all of the incredible experiences we have encountered and all of the amazing memories we have made.  God has so blessed our family and we are eternally grateful!

Signing Off,
Mark, Molly, Poff, Drake and Macaira Midgley

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends! 
God Bless you and we are so thankful you are in our lives!
Happy Thanksgiving!
:) Molly, Mark, Poff, Drake and Macaira

November 25, 2010

We spent the morning at Crystal Cove playing football with the Herrons and having a blast at the beach!  We then went back to Drew and Marty's and had our Thanksgiving feast around 3p.m.!  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and we ended the night with another bonfire at the beach!  We have loved our 4 day visit to Newport Beach and with the Herron family!

Martys school and spa time

November 24, 2010

We girls spent today shopping and visited Marty's school.  There is some great shopping in Newport Beach! 

Fishing in Newport Beach

November 24, 2010
The boys had an amazing day today fishing in the Pacific Ocean.  Here's a little science for you.  The second picture is a rock fish and the third picture is an octopus that the rock fish had eaten and the boys pulled out of the rock fish's stomach!  

Here are the girls on our spa day and no yucky fish!  Love it!

Newport Beach and the Herrons

November 23, 2010
We are having a blast with our cousins here in Newport Beach.  Drew and Marty's house is awesome....we arrived to a wonderful chili dinner.  Our RV park here is amazing.....by far the 5 star of RV resorts.  We love swimming, exploring the beach and the Pacific Ocean, and even took a ferry to Balboa island.  We had a big bonfire last night and the kids are loving being with their cousins. 

Sea World

November 22, 2010

We all had a blast at Sea World.  The shows were wonderful.  Poff loved feeding the batrays and going on the rides while Macaira and Drake loved feeding the seals.  It was a super day!

USS Midway

November 21, 2010

Today we awoke to much rain and decided to visit the USS Midway.  The USS Midway is the longest-serving carrier in the history of the Navy.  We spent 4 hours there.  The kids and Mark rode in a WW2 aircraft simulator.  They fought the Japanese and flew upside down and all over.  Macaira rode with Poff and Drake and Mark rode together.  I opted out of this ride and photographed instead.   We met a WW2 Marine Dive Bomber Gunner.  He flew over 150 missions and was fascinating to chat with.  We returned to our RV park, the kids played dodge ball and climbed trees.  It is much cooler in CA than we planned on.  We are off to Sea World tomorrow and then to visit the Herron's!  It has all been great!

Yuma Prison and San Diego (Drake's b-day)

November 20, 2010

We awoke at a retirement RV park in the morning.  The kids were super excited to swim and celebrate Drake's 10th birthday.  It was Saturday morning and the retirement community was hosting a large breakfast, of which we joined and all sang Happy Birthday to Drake with another gentleman who was turning 82.  It was great fun.  After swimming and playing shuffleboard, we visited the Yuma Prison.  This prison housed 3,069 prisoners while it served as the Arizona Territorial Prison from 1876-1909.  The original cells, main gate, and guard tower still remain. 

After Yuma, we headed to San Diego, CA!  The drive there was super tough.  It was really windy and we drove over some small mountains and got blown all over.  We arrived in San Diego to an RV park hosting a bingo game night.  We played bingo and celebrated Drake's birthday.  All 5 of us won at bingo and Mark even won for best dance after winning a round.  He did the sprinkler and it was great! 

Coronado Cave- by Poff

Today we took a trip to the Coronado Cave.  The Coronado Cave is 600 feet long and has a lot of corridors.  People are allowed to explore the cave without a guide.  We took a mile hike uphill to get to the cave.  We increased our altitude by 600 feet just on the hike.  When we arrived at the cave, we had to hike 50 feet down steep rocks into the mouth of the cave.  After that decent, we went exploring.  My mom was scared the entire time and said she would not go anywhere she couldn't see the mouth of the cave.  Luckily, we all had flashlights.  It was pitch dark in the cave, and my mom ended up coming with us to the end of the cave where there was no light.   Exploring the cave on our own was one of the coolest things we have done! 

Queen Mine Tour - by Drake

We went on a train in the mine 1,500 feet into the mountain.  Our first stop was at 100 feet.  We then took the small train to 700 feet (saw a big stope) and then to 1,500 feet into the mine.  The guide talked about what types of copper, gold and silver were found in the mine.  Our guide had worked in the mine for 21 years.  He showed us how they drilled 25 holes in the rock face and put sticks of dynamite into the holes. He used a slotted stick which lit all 25 fuses in order. He only had 10 minutes to run to safety before the first stick of dynamite blew!

Bisbee Queen Mine Tour & Coronado Cave

November 19, 2010

One of our favorite days yet!  We woke up early and toured the copper mine in Bisbee.  It was amazing.  Drake is going to type up a report on it.  We then drove to the Huachuca Mountains to hike up and explore Coronado Cave!  It was awesome.  Poff will post a report on this!  We then got pulled over by the border patrol on our way out of the cave!  It was scary......yet such a great lesson for the kids.  We had been talking tons about the border because we could actually see it.  The kids wanted to know why there wasn't a huge fence there.   When we got pulled over there were 2 cars (with sirens) and 4 patrolmen (one being a woman).  One even came into our RV and searched it.  There were also several checkpoints along the highway.