It was Veteran's Day so Lily and Gordon could play with us! We headed up to Bandelier National Monument with our friend to explore some local history. Now the friend we brought are a family with seven sons. This time only the Dad and five sons could accompany us, but we girls were out numbered! That doesn't happen too often in my family! The adventure started with us all climbing into their 15 passenger van for a two hour drive north. Because of the ages their were two car seats on every bench, requiring one adult to sit sandwiched between to toddlers. Me, being the smallest adult was awarded that honor, my hips fit, but my shoulders didn't. I'm sure I was walking funny when we first unloaded the car.
Of course we couldn't drive the whole two hours with out someone in the back calling for a potty break. And there's not much in between Albuquerque and Bandelier so we pulled into Camelrock Casino for the break. I was worried about going in, but the employee was gracious and directed us to the restrooms. Lily was a little too loudly asking if they were gambling, and didn't they know they weren't supposed to do that? It was funny, only a couple of miles further we found a gas station, we would have much preferred to stop there, but hadn't been sure we'd find one.
Now, Bandelier is a canyon with amazing beauty worth visiting on its own merits. The rocks make many dramatic formations that are startling and gorgeous. There is a small creek running through the valley the the kids loved getting to close to. The real treasure there is the ruins from an ancient civilization of cliff dwellers.
I can't recall how old the ruins were, but I was impressed at the quantity and the good condition they were in. While walking and climbing around we were imagining what it might have been like to live there. If we'd rather a room on the valley floor or the cliff wall. As we chased our youngest and tried to keep them safe we wondered if the ancients worried too about keeping their children safe with all the climbing they must have had to do.
This was a great trip and we want to go back since we didn't make it to see all of the sites available there. It's nice to explore and find such treasures not far from home.
P.S. It is incredibly nice to have Gordon not studying and able to come with us. I can look up and enjoy the scenery so much more when I have a spouse along sharing the parental load. I'm proud of him and all the hard work he puts into his studying, but I am SOOOO thankful when the test is taken and we get a break.
9 comments:
wow, it is great to see you were able to make it up there. Now you can see why I loved it so much. I wish I could have gone too.
You need to add a PS to the post that reminds our Thompson family that we will be going to Bandelier for part of the family reunion in June. Wahoo! Then you can see the parts you missed, too. :)
That looks like a place a person could spend more than one day exploring.
I was going to say that we should go there when I come visit...looks like it'll be taken care of at the reunion. You guys have found SO many cool things in your new state! I'm always excited to see the next cool thing.
What a gorgeous place to go.
OOOPS!!!!! i should have put my comment here......
DUDE! that looks like a government van that's bullet proof and has guns and stuff in there, you should have invited me :P
I want to go there too, the next time we come!
that looks really cool, we should go there sometime.
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