VACATION: DAY 2 and STAMPIN' UP RUE DES FLEURS

Another beautiful 2 days on vacation!!  I am so not used to having all this sun and tempatures in the 80s, but loving every minute.  This evening I am in New Mexico, less than a mile from the Mexico border (looking at the border wall all aglow with lights right now).  We drove down from Tucson to my brothers house today and saw some gorgeous scenary on the way here.  I'll post a couple of pictures in my next update, because today I want to show you some more pictures of Kartchner Caverns State Park.  We were very lucky, because 3 people did not show up, to get tickets to tour the Caverns yesterday morning as it was booked solid until the 19th.  We had the most awesome tour guide, who gave us background information on how the caverns were created millions of years ago, how they were found, and so much more.  I am always so totally amazed at how many beautiful places there are to see right here in the USA -- one does not need a lot of money or go to another country to see God's creations!

Before the trip pictures, I actually do have a card to show you, using the new Rue Des Fleurs Stamp Set in the Occasions Mini Catalog.  I can't give you a list of all the Stampin' Up product used because I forgot to pack my catalogs -- sorry, but it is vacation time for me.

I made one like this at my last card class, but switched it up a little.  I love this card with the lacy Adorning Accents Edgelits Die and Vintage Embossing Folder.  I think this is such a beautiful wedding card.

A little bit of history, well worth reading so you have the background of the discovery of the caverns.

Shasta Ground Sloth -- bones found in caverns.  See below for story.

Inside one of the rooms in the Cavern.  The Rotunda Throne tour takes 1.3 hour and the Big Room takes 1.5. The Rotunda Tour explains the basic science of the cave and how limestone caves form. The Big Room's tour theme is Discovery: Past, Present, and Future. Tour guides also cover cave science and cave bats.

Later in the day we took a tour of the gardens around the Kartchner Caverns Visitor Center.  This is the Smooth Edge Agave Cactus.

The Butterfly Garden and a portion of the Center showing in upper left.  I never knew there was so many different varieties of Cacti.

It is so hard to show you in these few pictures how beautiful it is in person.  Plus, I was very disappointed that we were not allowed to take pictures inside of the cavern (the story behind that is way too long to put on a post, but very interesting as to why we couldn't). 

So now this girl is hitting the sheets as it was after 2 a.m. last night before I got to bed, and almost 2 a.m. now -- I need sleep!!

Until next time,
Sandi