Family Tour '09

Our trek this year began in the Texas Coastal Bend, just outside of Corpus Christi.  We set out with two Sonars in the van and headed for Calvert, Texas.  Partner’s family had been harboring the middle Sonar for a week.  We scooped him up and headed off in earnest on our vacation.  

Somehow we managed not to take pictures of everything.  We completely forgot the camera for our visit with family in Amarillo.  We have to head back there again soon and stay a little longer.  We saw aunts and uncles and cousins, but not nearly all of them and not nearly long enough.  Next time we’ll take pictures.  

We spent a week in Albuquerque and behaved like tourists much of the time.  We visited the planetarium and botanical gardens, the tram and the Explora! museum.  We have to go back to that Explora! place again.  It’s a hands-on museum and everything is fun to play with.  Games, crafts, science experiments.  What an awesome place.  

X4 playing at ExploraDragon from Rio Grande Botanic Gardens. She needs a name.

This year the kids had to squish to fit in the giant carrot at the same time.  

Three kids in a carrrot, Rio Grande Botanic Gardens

We spent one morning riding the Tram up to Sandia Peak and had lunch at the High Finance restaurant.  Albuquerque’s elevation is about one mile above sea level.  Sandia Peak is another mile up.  Visitors can drive or hike up there, or if they’re feeling fancy, they can ‘fly’ up on the world’s longest aerial tramway.  

Sonars on the east side of Sandia Peak.Sandia Peak, east side view (down the ski lift)Sandia Peak, west side view (down the Tram)Of course, most of the time it was just as fun to hang out at Papa and Nana’s house.  They command a view of the entire valley and the west side of the Sandia Mountains.  Breathtaking is an understatement.  Sit out there for sunrise sometime.  There is no better place to clear one’s head.  

View of the Sandias from the back porch

On the Fourth of July, a lovely cool morning brought out many hot air balloons.  One landed across the street, to the delight of us all.  

Hot air balloons in the front yard

That night we toasted marshmallows and watched the many different fireworks displays throughout the city, all from the comfort of that amazing back porch.  

July 4th, toasting marshmallows in the chiminea with NanaA couple-thousand miles later, we returned home, ready to not be in the car, ready to sleep in our own beds, and filled with memories and ideas to fill our imaginations.  The vacation was Cliche American Family Road Trip at its best, and we can’t wait to do it again.  Next time we ride the Railrunner to Santa Fe!!

2008 World Tour--Special events

You thought I was joking about that boring you with details thing the other day, didn’t you?  

Here’s more boring details.  A few of the more memorable occurrences during our traipse across the Southwestern United States.  In no particular order, I think.  

Swimming with old friends.  Really lovely.  Especially when joined by a swimming pug.  Who can beat that? (excuse the post-swim hair)

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Planetarium.  Cool Fractal film in the planetarium.  The boys were completely convinced that the planetarium floor was moving up and down during the film.  (It wasn’t)  The natural history of the personal computer was a surprising bonus that we wished we’d had more time to explore.  

Family barbecue with a city full of fireworks.  With a view to die for, we ate dogs, burgers, peach cobbler.  From the porch at my folks’ house we could see the fireworks in Rio Rancho, the Balloon Fiesta Park, Isotope Stadium, Four Hills, as well as random personal displays all over the city (these unsanctioned explosions risked $10,000 fines in a heightened fire-risk year).  Completely worth the trip.  And we fell right into bed when it was over.  

Road Tarantulas.  More than 20 of them, on the highway between Pecos, Texas and Artesia, New Mexico.  I think I squished a few of them, but only because, big as they were, I couldn’t see them until they were right in front of the van.  I have to think they were driven to cross the road by the thunderstorms since, our our rain-free return home I didn’t see a single one.  

Driving through the Jemez Mountains on a rainy July afternoon, peeing in the woods, collecting Ponderosa Pine cones for souvenir gifts.  Sweet fun, especially with three curious kids.  

Meeting a “Known Associate.”  Ok, we didn’t so much “meet” him as pass him and smile and say hello in a gas station.  The front of his t-shirt declared him a known associate.  Of what, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but the back told me it was the Banditos.  There must have been some kind of biker theme on this trip.  Perhaps it’s the price of gas?  

Hand-crocheted Sonar covers.  We were surprised by a sneak-attack gift of handmade lap-blankets for the Sonars.  I say sneak-attack because they were left quietly, without immediate direct explanation because the maker feared the Sonars wouldn’t like them.  Little did she know that I have three of the most delicious craft-loving little people in the world.  Enthusiastically, they wrapped themselves in their wee love-creations as they watched fireworks under the cooling desert sky.  

Kilt-hose.  I might get to make some.  Maybe.  

Partner Sweater.  Cast on.  Did hood.  Started shoulders.  Two+ skeins worked so far.   

Check Engine Light.  We are assured that this is just a problem sensor, and nothing to worry about.  Unless it starts flashing, and then it’s bad.  But seriously.  No one wants to have the Check Engine light come on in the middle of a 2000 mile summer trip.  Especially when you’re as far from home as you can be.  

Albuquerque Aquarium and Botanical Gardens.  Part of the Rio Grande Biopark.  We did the zoo last year.  Go to see the mouthful of teeth on the Sand Tiger sharks and the model boats.  But seriously, do NOT miss the Children’s Fantasy Garden.  We were so pleasantly surprised by the dragon, and that would have been enough for us.  To turn and find the giant vegetables, well, that was just the best kind of icing on the delight cake.  What if we could all have a dragon and some giant carrots in our garden???  We will repeat this one next time for sure.  

Desert Sky Wind Farm outside Fort Stockton, Texas.  These gigantic wind turbines sort of appear suddenly, in the middle of a vast expanse of rolling desert nothingness.  They remind me of starched soldiers, marching across the ridgetops.  While unimposing in a way, they do help me understand how Don Quixote could mistake them for giant aggressors in need of conquest.  

And there was so much more.  We had such a grand and wonderful time and we can’t wait to do it all again next time.