Scott stayed up until close to midnight chatting with our new neighbors Carlee and Alex. Carlee just graduated with a degree in nutrition. Thus I found it humorous when Scott offered them some healthy marshmallows over the stove (fire ban). Alex is going into Occupational Therapy with one more year of undergrad to go. Carlee is headed to Australia to work for a year. She said there is a special one year work visa for students who have just graduated to encourage multiculturalism.
Scott wrote while I was Wal-Mart shopping in Espanola: Since the marshmallow appetizer never materialized, as the kids were more interested in riding their bikes, we drank beer and ate Oreo’s instead. Carlee is considering blogging her adventure and I hope she does. Hmmmm…can you say Australian road trip? We talked a long time about enjoying the precious years during and just after school and some of the crazy antics that I did during those years.
Back to April: I went for my last run in Cimarron State Park around 7 this morning. I appreciated the cool morning mountain air and the peaceful surroundings. I stretched back in the trails behind the pond.
After we packed up and ate breakfast, Scott headed out on his road bike at 9:00 toward Taos. While he biked the kids played and cleaned up the river they created for 30 minutes. Then we worked on birthday cards and mailing pictures. The kids were fighting over who could put on the stamps and return address labels. Who knew sending mail could be so entertaining? I need to make a conscious effort to work on mailings more. Then I gave the kids a washcloth scrub down in the bathroom and changed their clothes. Yes, this worth mentioning because, no, it doesn’t happen every day. I put their clothes straight into our mobile washing bucket Then we headed off to try to catch Scott.
The kids busy cleaning rocks at our watering spigot this morning. They cleaned at least thirty rocks. They were thoroughly bummed when I made them put the rocks back in the ground and try to smooth out the river system in our campsite. Brooke was very concerned, “We might need to buy a bag of dirt to fix our river because I’m not sure where all the dirt went.” Scott reminded Brooke that the big holes could be filled back in with the rocks.
Scott intended to get in a couple hour ride while the kids and I enjoyed the last few hours at the Maverick campground. The plan was to intercept Scott between Eagle’s Nest and Angel Fire, but he ended up riding the entire 40 miles to Taos. Scott said, “The climb out of Angel Fire was tough, but the long downhill into Taos was a blast.”
The switchbacks were a challenge in the van, let alone a bike. I’m pretty sure I would have pulled over for a picnic thirty minutes into that bike ride. If I ever do that drive again I want to count the number of curvy road signs there were. They would have saved a whole bunch of money if they just had a sign that stated, “Don’t expect any straight road for the next forty miles.” The roads were impressively picturesque. We met Scott in the Taos town square around 12:30. I have a feeling he traveled down some of those hills faster than I did.
We stopped at the Rio Grande Visitor’s Center on our way out of Taos.
They had a giant model of the Rio Grande. We had a great discussion about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks thanks to the rock samples they had out. This connected later to the special glass we saw at the Bradbury Museum. The glass was created at the Trinity site, where the first atomic bomb was detonated. The glass wasn’t a rock, but it was another piece of history found on the ground. The Rio Grande visitor’s center also had samples of petroglyphs. Cody wanted to know why someone drew on the rock. I started to explain and he was off to the next fun artifact before I finished my first sentence. Preschool teachers are very special people.
The Rio Grande River and surroundings.
Our next destination was the Bradbury Museum in Los Alamos. Scott read about the museum in the Lonely Planet, but a camping neighbor also suggested it. I was worried it wouldn’t entertain the kids with the entire focus being atomic energy and the history of atomic weapons. The museum is free so we thought if the kids learn anything it would be a win-win.
Brooke was really into this security gate. You had to swipe a badge and put in your hand to make the gate move. She opened the gate and spun around at least a dozen times. She would have stayed there for hours if I let her. Cody spent at least fifteen minutes playing on a computer that detailed the location of nuclear research and storage of nuclear materials throughout the United States. He couldn’t read one bit of it, and yet he stayed in the same spot for fifteen minutes straight. I attempted to explain what he was looking at, but he was just happy clicking away. Cody and I also took a computer quiz on our knowledge of radiation. I had no problem with protons, neutrons, and electrons, but I was a little lacking in my knowledge of the different types of radiation and its uses in sterilization in the medical industry and in strengthening plastic.
Brooke was viewing and feeling a Braille book on constellations. We have been enjoying Sky Safari on my phone quite a bit before bed, so it was nice for Brooke to be able to “feel” the constellations. Brooke had made a puzzle like the one above at the Maker’s Fair in Chicago. The different shaped blocks fit together to make a 3 x 3 x 3 cube. Cody’s puzzle should have been a cross or a square. He was happy with a fish. He was thinking “outside the box,” or should I say square.
Cody finished his museum tour with the blocks. He created a road with a bridge. The kids’ area was filled with a lot of logic puzzles. I won’t include them all, even though I thoroughly enjoyed them, but I will leave you with this last puzzle. How can you move the three pieces around so that the princesses are both riding a tiger on top of their rectangle? The answer picture is at the end of this post. I will make no claim to having figured it out. A seven year old showed me. She impressively solved every puzzle there was within seconds.
After the Bradbury Museum we headed to the Los Alamos local park for a dinner of chicken and black bean quesadillas. The park was unlike any we have ever been to, and that’s saying a lot coming from us. The park included: a dog park, a pavilion with four picnic tables, typical park equipment, a climbing wall, swings, and a mini-golf course. The mini-golf course was BYOE – bring your own equipment. Normally we would not have our own mini-golfing equipment with us, but since Wendy, our first stop on our trip was overly generous and gave the kids their own golf bags, they pulled out their bags and their putters. The only downfall to the park was that a mom had reserved the pavilion for her daughter’s birthday. She was kind enough to allow us to use one of the picnic tables to cook up our dinner, but we were definitely getting some strange looks.
Abiquiu (rhymes with barbeque) Lake Campground was a recommendation from Carlee and Alex at Maverick Campground. Site number 35 was a recommendation from the camp host. It provided a perfect view of the lake and the surrounding landscape. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the sunset. I spared you all the half dozen photos and just put in my one favorite. I literally took the picture from inside the tent as I was blowing up the sleeping mats and laying out the sleeping bags.
Brooke was scavenging for dead wood to have our first and probably only fire in New Mexico. There are so many wildfires that most of the national forest in New Mexico is shut down completely. We finally had our marshmallow roast. We have discovered that we can’t buy the marshmallows more than a day before we use them as they start roasting themselves in the car before we even open them.
“Mom. Mom. Mom!” Cody shouts. Most times I can’t even get a yes in between the Moms.
“Yes Cody?”
“This is YUMMY!” the marshmallows were a hit.
Scott splurged and bought a two inch in diameter blue tooth speaker. He put some music on while we roasted marshmallows. Brooke, who dances in her sleep, hopped up on her stage, the picnic table, and began to dance. Her favorite song of the night belonged to Lindsey Sterling. Scott’s biking buddy Al introduced us to Lindsey Sterling.
When I put the kids to bed Cody asked if I could clean up some of the dust inside the tent. The wind was pretty strong that night and despite being tied to several trees and anchored to the wood platform under the tent our tent was a large kite.
Did you figure out the puzzle? The idea of the puzzle was to get rid of our preconceptions and think how to solve problems in unique ways.
