AZ Stop #4: Pine/Jerome, AZ

Chris's boss has two cabins up in Pine, AZ that he loves for his employees to use.  So we took him up on the open offer and headed up to Pine after our trip to Vulture Mine.  Grandpa Frank met us up there too so that was extra fun.  At the cabin we had a blast just hanging out and playing volleyball, badminton, and "Nuke 'Em" over the net set up outside.  It was just great to be OUTSIDE getting fresh air and exercise in the cooler temps. 

Over this quarantine, we have done movie marathons where we watch one movie a night.  We've conquered all the Harry Potters and the all of the Marvel Universe movies in order.  This week at the cabin we began our "Conjuring" movies.  Not sure that this was the best place to begin these but we sure had fun trying to scare each other at night:).

On Friday morning, we headed over to Jerome, AZ.  This was something new to ALL of us and man...it was COOL!  Such an incredible little mountain/mining town with an amazing history and VIEWS!!!  W.O.W!!!!

This is a private residence but I seriously
would LIVE in this Addams Family home!
It's GORGEOUS on a hill all by itself!

We started in the town museum.  It's a beautiful old "Douglas Mansion" house that has been converted into a museum.  Amazing how well preserved some of the relics are.  This town was a thriving town of 10,000 people in the 1920s and now is home to about 400.  The boys had a little too much fun with the "potty cart."  Seriously...cannot imagine pooping along someone else out in the open...

There is a mine shaft (Audrey Headframe Park built in 1918) that you can actually stand over and look down into it.  The depth (1900 ft) of it is taller than the Empire State building in NYC.  When you looked straight down, there was definitely no bottom to be seen--only fog (super creepy).  Everyone had fun dropping rocks down into the grate to listen for them to hit bottom--not sure we ever did hear bottom...

We climbed to the top of one of the highest hills to visit the "Asylum Hotel & Restaurant" where the boys just mostly wanted to read through the "ghost logs" there in the hotel--complete with pictures!  YIKES!  

We ate lunch at the COOLEST little restaurant--The Haunted Hamburger.  Seriously, some of the BEST FOOD I'VE EVER EATEN!  Gourmet burgers and fries.  I only wished I could have saved room for some of their amazing looking desserts.  I would definitely eat here again.  Fantastic food and the funnest decor.

This is a bookshelf IN the ceiling!

Sights around town:  Some of the coolest shops around town with very unique products.  It reminded me a lot of Bisbee, AZ.  Some of the buildings in Jerome has actually slid down hill!  They mined the heck out of this mountain and they definitely more than their fair share of town fires due to the explosives used in mining which all contributed to landslides.  It was kinda cool to look down any mountain side there and see large chunks of concrete, brick walls, cars, etc...all from landslides.  A great example of this is the town "Sliding Jail" that is more slid more than 200 ft from where it originally started.

"The Sliding Jail"which slid more than
200 ft from where it started.

The best brothel around--actually the third
brothel because the first two were destroyed by fire.

"House of Joy"
Another brothel:)

Just a funny shop.  Took this pic for my dog:)

We had a great time in this historic little town.  Would definitely go back again.  We left there to go back to the cabin for another evening of volleyball/badminton/Nuke 'em.

So it wasn't Hawaii but we sure did enjoy our week of AZ exploration.  We learned so much about our great state and just had the best time being together.  Great memories made this week:)