The Johnsons' Journal

We made it to Arizona and stayed the night in Holbrook, a tiny little town about an hour east of Flagstaff. We stayed out there because in the morning we wanted to check out the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.

Petrified Wood

The wood was petrified by being covered in silica rich silt in a river millions of years ago. The silica seemed into the wood and crystallized into quartz. The quartz crystals were stained with other minerals and thus made really cool gems inside the wood which is now as hard as rock.

More Petrified Wood

After checking out the petrified forest we headed west. We were thinking about getting to about the border of California and Arizona for the day. But as we drove we decided to save ourselves a night in a hotel and just drive to my parents house in Los Angeles. It was amazing how familiar it felt to see a California sunset even if it wasn’t over the ocean. Even driving on the freeway in California felt more familiar.

Sunset over California

We made it there late in the evening and had a nice night sleep in a bed in a real house. Its good to be home.