October 20, 2024: Lots of Space in Flagstaff!

We were staying at Meteor Crater RV Park, just before you get to the world’s best preserved meteor crater. We were able to have a slow morning, with a delicious “brunch” of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Arizona does not do daylight savings so it was, as the clock goes, an hour earlier than Moab and New Mexico. However, we decided to just stay on Mountain Time. 

We did some more (muddy!) laundry and found some new books to read at the site rec center. John zoomed around on his bike. 

After some school time and a quick lunch, we headed to the Meteor Crater.

John: faster than a speeding meteor!

The crater is almost a mile diameter and 2.5 miles around.

John even snuck down to the bottom! ;)

We took a picture with the oldest thing we’ve ever seen - a piece of the meteor which may be as old as 4.6 billion years ago!

We watch a short video and then helped save the Earth by blowing up a meteor heading for Earth in a fun 3-D adventure. We had to pass a security clearance and Elizabeth almost didn’t make it! (Don’t worry, she was cleared later!)

We “hung” around the observation decks for a little… 






Before heading into Flagstaff for an early dinner and the Lowell Observatory.

We found a fantastic Italian restaurant called FatOlives, and ordered too much amazing food. They gave the kids pizza dough to play with and even cooked their creations for them!

At the Lowell Observatory, we got to look through telescope and see some stats and even Saturn! We learned all about the 24 year old who discovered Pluto and how he did it. We finished up the night with a cool interactive lesson on spectronomy!

This is the telescope that discovered Pluto!

It was have our longest drive of the trip so far in the morning, so early to bed and early to rose!