Cadillac Ranch {Amarillo, Texas}

For my daughter's 16th birthday, I arranged a surprise weekend getaway for her with her best friend and her best friend's mom (one of my dearest friends).  Because we live in Colorado and our besties lived in Dallas at the time, we decided to meet up in Amarillo, Texas, which was halfway between our home and theirs.  

Amarillo wasn't the first city we would have thought of for a vacation, but this one was all about spending time together.  We played most of the trip by ear, but did plan out one fun thing to do--Cadillac Ranch!

Cadillac Ranch is located right off I-40 in Amarillo, on what used to be part of Route 66.  The 10 nose-down Cadillac cars were installed as a public art piece back in the 1970s and face the same directions as Cheops Pyramid.  

They're fun to see, but the glory of this public art is that the public can spray paint the Cadillacs!  At this point, I'm fairly sure the cars are more spray paint than actual car, but we knew we had to play too.

My daughter's bestie is the artist, so she made sure to bring plenty of spray paint and the girls had a blast decorating a few cars.  We even had a "Happy Bday Faith" and "Sweet 16" decorations.  Between painting and climbing on the cars, we really got some awesome BFF pictures too.

Other cool notes about Cadillac Ranch:
You can pull right off the service road to park without being stuck trying to cross a highway.
The gate is unlocked and opened all the time, visiting at any time of day is encouraged.
Trash bins are available for empty spray paint cans and lids to keep the area clean.

While we aren't sure when we will be back in Amarillo again, we do plan on stopping the next time we pass through to show my husband and son.  They'll need to leave their mark there too.