Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Day 3: Mesa Verde


We went to Mesa Verde today, when we were going through the gate Hope asked about a military discount.  The lady wanted to know if Hope was a dependent, Hope said she was a war widow.  The lady started crying, it was a very touching moment.  She thanked Hope for all she and Ryley have done.  It was a sobering start to our day.
Hope, Emma and Tayler
 We went to the visitors center first.  It was a little weird, in the parking lot there were two police cars with lights flashing, parked behind a car and they were searching a couples car, I can't help but wonder what was going on there.  After talking to a couple of park rangers we decided we needed to take a couple of tours.  We went on the Balcony house tour first.  It was supposed to be the most physically challenging tour.
 This ladder was the first thing we did to get to the dwellings.  I'm not sure why but it made me shaky thinking about climbing it :)  But I did it and it was kind of cool.  This is the view from the bottom.
 This is the view from the top
 The Balcony house is called that because it is the only dwelling that still had a balcony, it is pretty cool all the things that the Pueblo Indians were able to do, without our modern technology and knowledge.
Kiva, were Indians held sacred ceremonies
 I remember when I was a little girl we went to Mesa Verde and we went to one of the dwellings where we could climb down into a Kiva, the kids didn't want to go looking for any more dwellings though so we just did our two tours.
 This is the path we had to take to get out of the dwellings.  We had to climb a ladder to this rock staircase.  It was a little scary, but not bad.

 The last ladder and then we will be back to the modern world :)



 Second tour for the day was the Cliff Palace dwelling. Pretty impressive!

 I had to stop myself from just snapping pictures, it was just cool to see and walk right up next to it.


 As you can see Tayler was just super happy, not sure what his deal was but it might have been the heat :)
 After the Cliff Palace tour everyone was hot and tired, so we went to a gift shop and got some lunch also.  It was nice and relaxing.  It started pouring rain, it was good timing two days in a row, as soon as we have been done in two parks it started raining after we were done with everything we wanted to do.  Hopefully that good luck sticks with us :)  We went back to Cortez and just relaxed, it was storming pretty bad so we just stayed in the room.  In the Hotel there was a sign to go to the Cultural center in town and watch some Indian dances.  It was free and close so we decided to go.  It was interesting but after about half hour we decided we were done and went out to dinner.
 These are the dancers that entertained us.  The young girl at the back kind of made me laugh because she was laughing through the whole thing.  I just thought that was funny.  It looked like her and I think it was her Mom talked through the whole thing.  I was glad it was free.
It was a great day, it was fun to make it back to Mesa Verde again.  I laughed and told the kid's that maybe I could go there again in another 32 years :)  I would be really old, wonder if I would want to do the Balcony house tour at 72.......hhhmmm food for thought.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Day 2: Grand Canyon

 Grand Canyon,  WOW!
 The views were  spectacular!  Everywhere we went and everywhere we looked we were just amazed.  It made the long drive yesterday feel like it was worth it.
 Shuttle buses from our lodge.

 Hope having a good time, notice those menacing thunderclouds in the background.  We were really worried we would get dumped on.
Tayler, Emma and Lora

 Feel the love!
 So beautiful!
Emma breaking the rules, I thought George might enjoy seeing his daughter taking after him and not staying on the paths.  We left the Grand Canyon and headed out for the Four Corners area.  On our way our car over heated and we spent a couple of hours in Tuba City, which sadly made us get to the Four Corners area too late and it was closed.  So off to Cortez we went.  We are aiming for Mesa Verde in the morning.  

Road Trip 2012

 Day 1:  As some of you are aware, Hope invited me on a cross country road trip.  I of course accepted.  We left Nat Soo Pah on Sunday.  We traveled down the 93, headed for the Grand Canyon.  It was hhhhmmm long :)
 We saw miles and miles of the above two pictures.  We sang songs, talked, laughed
 Slept
Indulged Mom with smiles 
 Yay Vegas is close, that means the Grand Canyon is closer.
 It's amazing how beautiful water is when everything is dry and hot.  Lake Mead just sparkled.
 We were going to drive right past the Hoover Dam.  I have never been there before so Hope drove us over too it, I think the original plan was to just drive over it, turn around and just come back, but we couldn't see very well and so Hope pulled over and we walked around taking pictures like crazy tourists.  It was very fascinating to see.   It was around 7 or so at night and 103, so we didn't stay long.  We still had 5 more hours to go.


We quickly got back in the car, cranked up the AC and headed toward the Grand Canyon.  Around 11:30 we pulled into the park and found our Hotel.  We stayed at the Yavapai lodge.  By the time we got all settled in we were exhausted. It sure felt good to get to bed.  Hopefully we don't do to many days like that or I might not make it!

Nat Soo Pah

 This year for our family reunion Russ and Jenni were in charge.  We went to Nat Soo  Pah in  Idaho, close to Twin Falls.  We got there Friday.  One of the main attractions was the swimming pool.  It was a flowing mineral spring.
 It is always fun to have water around during a reunion.
 I think everyone went home a little burned after spending two days in the sun.
 Marc and Judy rented a trailer for the reunion it sure came in handy.  Here we are preparing some of the yummy food that Jenni planned.  I took tons of pics and for some reason don't have any of Russ and Jenni, I think it is because they were super busy making sure we all had a really good time.
Doug and Jeri came Saturday afternoon and stayed for a bit, it was nice to see them.  
Lot's of cousin time 
 Good company, something cool to drink, what more could a person want
It came fast and it was over fast.  I had a great weekend.  It was fun and I of course once again look forward to next year!