Cody is 4 today!!!
The birthday boy’s first photo as a four-year-old.
Scott cooked up a breakfast of Porridge with a Twist. I mentioned that I was having a craving for oatmeal. This does not happen at home. Once upon a time I liked oatmeal for breakfast, but during my many travels with Scott we sort of overdid the oatmeal thing. I know I’m camping when I actually request oatmeal. Also, I’m not sure if anyone noticed, but Scott has been doing all of the cooking thus far. He enjoys cooking when we travel. Since he is such a good cook I keep suggesting he take over more at home, but alas I will just have to treasure these moments while I have them. Did I mention he usually does the dishes too when we travel? We might just have to become vagabonds!
Cody requested “Call Me Maybe” this morning during breakfast. This became our “family” song on our trip to Ed and Kayla’s last year. It is not so much the words to the song as it just kept coming on the radio and Scott has an adorable head-bop that goes with the song.
Goodbye Abiquiu Lake! Brooke says this was her favorite campsite so far.
Our first stop for the day and Cody wanted to know where we were, “A Monster Truck place?”
“No Cody. A monastery.”
The trek out to the Peace Monastery of Christ in the Desert was thirteen miles down a very wash-boarded gravel road that often times was one lane overlooking a steep drop. It is listed as the most remote monastery in the Western hemisphere. Cody was holding on for dear life while drawing a picture for Pepe. We heard about this monastery from the Lonely Planet book and some locals Scott helped carry a canoe with yesterday.
Cody is not in this picture because he cried the entire ten minute walk to and from the parking lot to the monastery. Amazingly once we got into the chapel he turned the ear-piercing squeal into a muffled moan. The view from inside the church is impressive. They asked that we not take photos inside the church, so you will just have to imagine the beautiful canyon walls in a myriad of colors.looking majestic and awe-inspiring.
There was an artist who was painting as we walked past with our not so quiet cutie in tow. Imagine my embarrassed and apologetic smile as we scurried past, twice. There were amazing samples of other artists’ work inside the gift shop. One photo was of the church at night with millions of brilliant stars around it. The artist noted how humbling the magnificent sky is even next to the majestic beauty of the church. I had reflected on how humbling the star-lit night sky was just a handful of hours before at our campsite. In fact I stood mesmerized a few minutes before I carefully tiptoed over my sleeping children into the tent.
The next stop was the Ghost Ranch located off of Highway 84. It is actually the national conference center of the US Presbyterian Church. They have a museum of anthropology and paleontology. We only visited the paleontology museum. The New Mexico state fossil is the Coelophysis dinosaur. Fossils of the Coelophysis were found at the Ghost Ranch. This dinosaur roamed around during the Triassic Period, about 210 million years ago. I was impressed with how long Cody sat and listened, asked questions, and listened some more about the dinosaurs. Cody’s normal attention span is about thirty seconds, so he far surpassed this with the topic of dinosaurs.
This picture is of baby swallows anxiously awaiting their lunch. There were swallows nests everywhere.
Another recommendation from locals was the Santuario. I thought Scott was saying that we were going to a sanitarium. I was glad to find out it was a religious location, not a mental wellness facility. I was actually shocked Scott knew what he was getting into, and chose to take us. He looked at me like I was an alien when I mentioned going to church this last Sunday at Maverick Campground, so going to a monastery and the Santuario de Chimayo both in one day seemed a bit much to ask from someone who attends church twice a year under duress. He said, “I think you’re wearing me down hon.” One can always hope, but I’m not overly optimistic. I’m glad we went. It was a great experience.
Info about the Santuario: “The Santuario de Chimayo has dirt that is considered holy because in the spot where the holy dirt is found the crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found by Bernardo Abeyeta in 1810. Since then thousands of pilgrims and visitors have come to El Santuario searching for spiritual, emotional and physical healing. This pilgrimage is one of the largest in the United States.”
The architecture and landscaping structure were incredible. The picture on the right is a wall of photos of people needing prayers.
Once again they asked that we not take pictures inside any of the religious buildings. I loved their outdoor chapel.
We spent at least a half hour going through the stations of the cross. Brooke asked what they were, and thankfully they had descriptions because it has been at least ten years since I have gone through the stations of the cross. We had a great discussion about Roman numerals too. I couldn’t believe both the kids and Scott were patient enough to go through all the stations. That in itself has to be a minor miracle. The picture above and on the right is an altar with a picture of the last supper with Native Americans. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.
Next we headed to Rancho de Chimayo for a sampling of the food everyone kept raving about. If Scott were ordering the food would have been much more spicy. I ordered some food to go since the cuties were exhausted and just wanted to rest in the van. Even with the less spicy red chilies my eyes were tearing up. The food was everything everyone said it would be. Mmm…. Someday maybe Scott and I can actually have a sit down meal there. Chimayo is also known for it’s weaving. We aren’t into weaving, but I spoke with some ladies who were just head over heals in love with Chimayo’s weaving.
We did a drive-by of Santa Fe. Scott is contemplating this as a retirement location, but again the kids were tired to get out and tour. We will have to come again someday for a more in-depth visit.
Cody who couldn’t get out of the van because he was so tired, hopped out excitedly to see trains and a flashing railroad crossing gate. Scott on the other hand was incredibly excited that he stumbled upon an REI. The only REI in Santa Fe. He is known for his ability to find an REI no matter where we are. He bought a rear-view mirror for biking. His one and only tiny purchase and the accidental REI discovery made him smile from ear to ear.
Coronado State Park Campground. The shelters were much appreciated, especially during the later afternoon shower during dinner. The campground was right in the city of Bernalillo. Scott reminded us of the city campground in Anchorage, Alaska. City campgrounds tend to house more residential then recreational campers. We discovered there is a difference between recreational campers and residential campers (sometimes homeless) in Alaska. In Alaska hearing the stories from the homeless children was heartbreaking. Even Scott mentioned tonight that the kids shouldn’t go wandering. He normally lets them roam wherever, whenever. Everything was fine of course, but I was very happy to move on to a new campsite.
Brooke and Cody loved running up and down the rocky hill. They created another “river” next to the water source going down this hill. They cut at least a foot deep canal into the hill. After we discovered the destruction and discussed how it was not appropriate to cause such a great deal of destruction I made her talk about the science of why this “river” became so deep so fast compared to the “river” they created at the Maverick campground. She knew right away that there was a greater volume of water, but we also covered the difference in the soil types and in the elevation change of the land.
Scott baked up a cake for Cody and we topped it with a “stick” candle. This is reminiscent of Cody’s first birthday spent in the Yukon in Canada. Brooke started the stick candle tradition. She found Cody a stick candle in the Yukon since I had forgotten one. She was the same age then as Cody was when we started this trip two and a half weeks ago.
Brooke and Cody were competing to see who could take the best photos. Brooke took the three pictures right above with our older Elph Cannon. Brooke is upset that I don’t like to include pictures of myself in the blog, so I negotiated a picture in the blog as long as she took it with both of us in it. Cody became distracted with the photo games on his camera while Brooke kept taking pictures of the sun setting until it disappeared.
Storms swept over throughout the night causing me to get hot and cold on and off. As I was wide awake in the middle of the night I kept thinking, “The temperature here has more swings than the mood of a middle school student.”
