All Things Horsey

We live in a rural area. We are close enough to Manhattan that we always imagine ourselves taking advantage of city, but far enough away that we rarely do. Beyond the city itself, it can be hard around here to find some of the activities that we miss from our life in Cambridge. Grace would love to take swimming lessons, and John wishes that there were more opportunities for soccer. We find things to do, sure, but nothing that has really engaged the kids, nothing that they really look forward to each week, or that takes advantage of the area we live in. Nothing, that is, until we happened upon horseback riding at a charming and idyllic farm just down the road. And suddenly we are up to our necks in a world of all-things-horse.

The program is an amazing one, run by an extremely impressive 86 year old woman who has the kids doing anything and just about everything you can imagine on horseback. We feel so lucky that the kids get to experience such a complete program, where they spend hours each weekend with the horses, bringing them in from the pasture, grooming them, feeding them hay, tacking them up and riding them (not just arriving for a half hour lesson where the horses are already saddled up and ready to go). The older children teach the younger ones by example, and the older kids (I'm talking 10 and 11 year olds here) seem to spend their entire weekends just hanging out at the farm. John and Grace completely love it. And Grace gets to ride a miniature horse, which is pretty darn cute. John rides a pony named Honey.

We entered the program around Memorial Day, joining the group for a camp-out at a local barn...with all of the horses. For two nights the kids slept in a hayloft over the stables. For three days they petted, fed, rode and just generally loved the horses. When the kids weren't riding they all tended to congregate in one of the rings pretending "horse show" and being the horses themselves, galloping and jumping. Or they were down in the creek, looking for crayfish. Yup, I was pretty charmed.

Will got a chance to ride during the parent's evening ride:


The kids all hang out in the back of the pickup truck:


Hanging out by the horses:


Down by the creek:


Getting ready to ride to the pond to go swimming with the horses:


On the way to the pond:


Yup, bareback in a bathing suit:


Minnie, Mighty and Noodle:


Since our inaugural Memorial Weekend, the immersion in horsey life has continued. We took a break over the summer, but since starting back up in September, the kids have done the following (in addition to lessons on the weekend):

1. Been the token cute factor on the mini horses at a drill team demonstration at the Grange Fair (they had to dress up, which always gives John a deep sense of satisfaction, and they got to go on fair rides and to check out all of the other animals at the fair. They watched a pie eating contest, and John participated in both a bubble gum-blowing competition, and a balloon-blowing contest. AND they got to muck out the stalls when the fair was over!!! (See videos below):





2. Competed in the Lead Line class at the Peekskill Rotary Show. They won blue ribbons (although much to their chagrin so did everyone else). Once again, they needed to dress up, and they were pretty psyched about it (for me it was a total nightmare gathering up everything for the ridiculous costumes that they needed). Will and I kind of drifted through the event in an open-mouthed fog, kind of in denial that our lives somehow suddenly involve things like horse shows. But the kids had fun.







Cleaning the tack after the show:




3. A five mile trail ride to Graymoor (home of the Franciscan sisters and friars of the Atonement) for their blessing of the animals. OK, this was definitely my favorite activity of the season. First off, the day was gorgeous. After a seriously rainy August and September, we finally had a brisk, sunny autumn day, and I was very happy to spend it outdoors. Grace, who is finally able to ride without being led, rode the entire way herself on Minnie's back, as I walked along coaxing the somewhat lazy miniature horse through the difficult patches with a bag of carrots. John rode his pony (Bit 'o' Honey) far ahead of us, in the company of the older kids, and he had the joyous pleasure of experiencing his first jump when Honey spontaneously jumped a log in the woods. The girls (and in case anyone was wondering, it is ALL girls - John is the only boy) around him all congratulated him on keeping his seat, and he was THRILLED. And who could blame him?

4. Horse and carriage day at Boscobel. Boscobel is a lovely estate down the road, and I had been looking forward to this event. I imagined showing up just in time for the event, reclining in the cool October sun, and enjoying watching the kids with the horses. I didn't think that John and Grace would actually have anything to do with the event. Turns out I was wrong. The kids and I needed to show up at the farm at 9 am to help get everything ready. We then found out that the kids would actually be riding, and had to rush home to scrounge up some clean-ish riding clothes for them. We headed over to Boscobel at around noon, expecting to be gone by 2pm. Instead we spent the entire afternoon in the baking sun, sitting around and waiting for something to happen. Eventually the kids rode the minis around the lawn a few times in a procession, and then we needed to wait once again for the whole event to be over so that we could help pack everything up. I was hot and bored. Will was hot and bored. John was hot and bored. Grace, however, got into the car when it was all over and sighed with happiness, saying "That was so much fun." Does that make all of my irritable boredom worth it?

Grace leads Minnie Mouse down a path:


Grace hangs out with Minnie:


So much waiting around...and either Will is a giant or that horse is really, really small:


Hobby is a very, very good horse!


The kids love the horses, and according to Grace, the horses love her too. So much.
This horse thing is a monster. And it has swallowed us whole.

Bedtime for Bonkers and Noodle

Alex, Paul and Benjamin are sleeping over tonight. This intel came from Will, who put the two littlest monsters to bed tonight:

Benjamin (interrupting a bedtime story at the point when its two
squirrel-protagonists fall in love and marry): Uh, when I em a man I
wiwl hafta get married and maybe I wiwl marry Grace because ... she is my best friend.

Grace (satisfied and thoughtful): Yes, maybe he will fall in love with me.

Benjamin: Yeh! When I em a man I wiwl ask Father Christmas for
magic and maybe he wiwl shoot magic into me and then I will say I'm
gonna get married! And 'cuz he shooted magic into me I can make a house wifout having tuh build it! And then I wiwl be next-door neighbors to Mummy.

Will: You know, you don't NEED magic to do those things. Magic would make it all easier, but you don't need it. Do you think your Dad
needed magic to do all those things?

Benjamin (nodding his head with certainty): Yep.

Red Rock Canyon

Waking up to see what we had missed in the dark (or just had a very vague idea of) was fun. Our campsite was super-cool, and the kids were thrilled. We tried out our new stove (which is also awesome - so much more pleasant to use than the backpacking stoves I am used to), and had a really nice time just hanging out at the campsite. The kids scrambled over the rocks around the campsite, exploring absolutely everything.

Our amazing campsite:




The kids scramble on the rocks above the campsite:


After breakfast we went on a walk around the area. It was really fun, and everything seemed incredibly novel. There were lots of Joshua trees around, which are straight out of a Dr. Seuss picture book, and appear to be designed specifically to delight young children. We hung out in a little grove for a while, having a snack and doing a bit of drawing.

In the Joshua trees:


Grace writes in her travel Journal:


A Joshua "tree":


The explorers:


The kids warn Will about the dangers of cacti:








The glorious volvo (pictured from the side that still opens):


When we got back to the campsite we packed up and discovered that Will had somehow drained the car battery ("car dead yights") and we were a wee bit stranded. I left him with the kids and headed off down the camp road to the ranger station, hoping to find someone there to help. It was hot. Very hot. The sun was very, very strong. It was dry. I was thirsty. So thirsty. But yay! there were two rangers working when I arrived at the station. I related my tale of woe and they exchanged a meaningful look. Then one of them told me that they really weren't supposed to give anyone's car a jump. Silence. Blink. Silence. Blink. And then one of them told the other that he would "cover for him" if he helped me out - as though he were going off with me to buy drugs or something. The ranger dude told me that he would meet me back at the campsite. Long - hot - walk - back. So thirsty.

Sure enough though, he did get us sorted out, and we were soon on our way. Apparently without their kindness we would have been in a very tight spot. The ranger station has no phone or cell service, and the nearest phone is six miles away. Which would have made for a VERY long hot walk.

We piled into the car and took off for Death Valley. The scenery was pretty cool, and enroute Will was delighted to discover some High School Musical camp chairs on clearance at a gas station for just $7.99 (apparently the absolute maximum he was willing to pay for a camp chair, having earlier rejected the $8 barrier-breaking offerings at Walmart, Target, and REI). Is it possible for something to be so wildly ugly that it is actually cool?

We managed (even with the delay of the dead battery) to get to our campsite just before dark. We set up the tents in the falling light, and ate our veggie dogs and s'mores in the dark, with the kids practically nodding off in their fantastically hideous camp chairs. Ahhh, camping road trip with kids.

On the Road

We hung out with Lara in the morning and then took off for San Jose to get stocked up before heading out on our camping trip. We needed food and to buy some random supplies and a Sherpak Go car carrier to hold the masses of equipment that we have gathered for the trip. We ended up spending ages at REI (I don't know why I thought it might be possible to make a quick trip with Will to REI), and ages in Whole Foods (I don't know why I thought that I would be able to get out of there quickly either. We have been encouraging the kids to notice the things that are the same here and the thing that are different. An observation by Grace: Whole Foods looks the same here....but they have vegan donuts!

We finally hit the road at 5 o'clock. Unfortunately, it was raining and since we planned to camp, we needed to book it into the dry desert. We briefly considered staying at a hotel for the night, but the kids begged us to camp, so we pushed on, and pulled into our campsite at midnight, with the kids conked out in the back of the car. We quickly set up our tent and then got the kids up to move inside. John took one groggy step out of the car, looked around and said "Awesome." Indeed it was.

Landed

Lara has very generously offered to loan us her car for our trip. A boon for us (although the much beloved volvo is sadly a bit ghetto these days after an untimely meeting with another automobile, rendering the rear left door unopenable and resulting in a worrying grinding noise when going over bumps. Plus... the breaks squeal alarmingly, the tires are bald, the sun roof doesn't work, the a/c is broken, and using the car requires buying a carrier to go on top to hold our camping stuff. But still). Renting a car big enough to hold everything we need for our camping trip would require a $600 mini van rental. The fact that the car is technically a salvage vehicle doesn't bother me at all. Nuh-unh. Free ghetto volvo or $600 pristine mini van with air-conditioning and ample space. Free volvo.

One of the stipulations of the loan, however, is that Lara needs to use her car tomorrow for a doctor's appointment, and next Wednesday she needs to present it at the dmv to sort out its post-accident status in some mysterious way. Fortunately our plans are all too new to be written in stone, and we decided to spend the day in San Francisco while we wait for our stuff to arrive from Amazon.

While driving into the city we whipped out our guidebook, and decided that we would head to a point where we could hop onto one of the ever so famous San Francisco cable cars with the kids. We ended up parking under city hall, and did the following:
1. Ate falafels and sweet potato fries from a great food cart in front of city hall;
2. Used the very high-tech public bathroom buildings (a hit with the kids);
3. Hopped on the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf;
4. Sampled some sourdough;
5. Used the cool art deco bathrooms above the Boudin Bakery;
6. Took a boat tour around Alcatraz;
7. Found the bathrooms again;
8. Wandered through a spy supplies shop (BIG hit with John);
9. Took a street car back to the parking garage; and
10. Cruised through the massive public library (to find the bathrooms of course).

The day was fun. The kids had a blast. San Francisco was lovely, and I think we saw every public restroom in the city. John very much wishes that the San Francisco library was his hometown branch. He looked up at the building and said "Wait, you mean this whole huge building is one library? Wow, they must have every book I could ever want to read!" Nothing like a bit of travel to make one's own life look dinky.

The falafel truck:


Grace chomping on her falafel with the weird sycamore trees around here in the background:


On the cable car:


The kids (on the cable car):


Alcatraz:

Living for the Moment

Life threw us a lemon (no work for Will) and we have made lemonade by seizing the opportunity of some family vacation time (and hanging on for dear life).

Friday afternoon: Will finds out he won't get word about work for two more weeks.
Saturday afternoon: We book tickets for San Francisco.
Sunday afternoon: We dig out all of our camping gear, order what we don't have via Amazon prime (shipping to Auntie Ah's apartment in San Francisco), and pack frantically.
Monday afternoon: We get on a plane to Cal-i-forn-i-a!!

Yup, we are super-proud of ourselves for being so spontaneous. Let's hope we haven't forgotten anything too important.

Our new family Saga

Grace (with hopeful, baleful eyes): I really want a dog. Why can't we have a dog?

John: Yeah, why can't we have a dog. Tell us why! Tell us why we can't have a dog. We'd pay for a lot of it. We'd do a lot of it. I don't understand what the problem is.
Me: You know what the problem is. We have talked about this before.
John: OK, what's the problem?
Me: We go away too much to have a dog. What would we do with a dog when we went away?
John: Lizzy and Aaron could take it.
Me: Well, I don't know that they would, but let's just say they weren't around. What would we do with it then?
John: Suzi and Matty could take care of it.
Me: Suzi and Matty are moving to Oregon in a few weeks.
John (after a pause): Do we really have no other friends?
Me: Uh, yeah, not really - around here anyway.
Grace: It wouldn't be a problem for John Michael and Cosima.
Me: Do you mean that they could take the dog?
Grace: Yes.
Me: Grace, they live in Canada. That is a little too far away.
John: Well, I am sure that we could figure it out.

John: Why else can't we have a dog?
Me: They stink.
John: So?
Me: And they get hair everywhere.
John: So?

Me: A puppy would chew up all of the things that you guys leave lying around the floor. Toys, shoes, you name it.
Both kids: We would clean everything up.
Me: All the time. You would keep the floor completely clean?
Both kids: YES.
Me: Yeah, right. I don't believe you for a minute.

Me: Dogs also cost a lot.
John: How much?
Me (googling): Between $700 and $3,000 per year.
John: We can pay for a lot of that. You could give us a sheet of paper every year that says how much we need to give so that we can have a dog.
John: How much would a dog cost to buy?
Me: About $1,500
John: Hmmmm.
John: That's the kind of thing my $50 in the bank is for.

Grace, meanwhile is emptying out her piggy bank to show me how much money she is willing to contribute (apparently all that she has).

John: Grace, that is nowhere near enough money to get a dog!
Grace: Is that enough?
Grace (starting to weep): I really want a dog.....
Grace (after a couple of minutes): Mummy, could you see how much my money is?
Grace (after a few more minute): Could we PLEASE get a dog. PLEASE? Please please please.
John: Ohhhhwwwwwwwwnh
Grace: Please please please, just ever.

John (a few minutes later): I wish we had a dog.
Grace: Me too. I wish, wish, wish.
Grace: I wish, I wish, I wish we could have a dog.
Me: Grace, why do you want a dog?
Grace: Because.
John (grumpily): I think she needs a real answer Grace.
Grace: Because I like dogs very, very, very much. And it is fun to take care of them.
Me: How do you know it is fun? You have never taken care of a dog.
Grace: Well, I do feed John Michael and Cosima's dogs.
John: And you do take them for walks.
Grace: Yes.
Me: Grace what is it that you like so much about dogs?
Grace: Everything.
Me: Big dogs or small dogs?
Grace: Bowf, but small dogs are better.
Me: Why?
Grace: Because they're cuter!
Me: Yeah, but big dogs have better personalities.
John: Yeah, but little dogs are still cute.
Grace: Wewl, big dogs can shake more fur down.
John: Yeah, but it sounds fun cleaning up dog fur.
Grace: Wewl, they clean up under the table for you...
John: Yeah, we wouldn't have to use the swiffer so much.
Me: You would have to use the swiffer MORE to clean up all the dog hair.
John: Yeah, but the hard job of cleaning up under the table would be done.
Grace: Yeah, and we could take pictures of our dog and send them to people...
John: Grace! You don't know that we are going to get a dog!

Me: John, what do you think is better, a big dog or a small dog?
John: Small dog!
Me: Why?
John: I like small dogs, they're cute, they don't put as much fur down on the ground, and I just like 'em more.
Me: John, what do you think it would be so fun to do with a dog?
John: It would be fun taking care of it. It would be fun throwing balls for it. It would be fun taking it on walks. It would be fun petting it.
Grace: And we'll have to get a dog gate.
John (sharply, but secretly hopeful): Grace! We're not getting dog.
Grace (hopefully): I don't think that we're getting a dog.
John (grumpily): But I still don't understand why we can't get a dog. You still haven't answered this question properly.
Grace (happily): And I like dogs so much so much so much.

Me: Grace, do you know that Daddy - and I - don't really like small dogs much?
Grace (happily): We'll get a big dog then.
John: Grace, we're NOT getting a dog.
Grace: IF we get a dog.

Grace (ten minutes later, almost to herself): I really want a dog. That's all I want. More than a cookie even. More than anyfing. I just want a dog. A dog.
Grace (to me): Just PLEASE!
Grace (giving me kisses on the top of my head: Just please, please, please can we have a dog. Just PLEEEEAAAAASSE! Please! Please! PLEASE!

Me: Why a dog? Why not a cat or a hampster or a gerbil or a fish?
John: We can't get a cat, 'cause you're allergic to cat skin. Because a dog is what we like most of all - but we're OK with most of those things.
Grace: I will get any pet. But what I want best is a cat, but you're allergic to cats, so a dog!
Me: Whhaaaatttt? A cat?
John: We like any pet. We like any pet. It's just we like dogs best.
Me: Grace, I've never seen you interested in cats.
Grace: I am. I just never see them. I look at cats all the time....and they look back at me.....aaaanddd.....then they go away. I like fish, I like a gerbil, I like a hamster....The one problem with hamsters is their wheels squeak.

John: And we could take our pets on the airplane with us.
John: Like those dogs we saw on our way to Arizona.
Me: That was very unusual. People don't usually take their pets on airplanes with them - only usually when they are moving. And the pets normally have to go in the baggage hold. Can you imagine how scary that is for them?
John: Very scary.
Grace: Well we could just not go anywhere.
Me: Guys, we WANT to be able to travel with you.
John: What about Bear?
Me: Our next door neighbor?
John: Yes. We could leave our pets with them.
Me: We hardly know them...And if they wanted pets they would have them.
Grace: Well, all animals have heart attacks.
Me: Whaaat?
Grace: ALL animals have heart attacks.
Me: And think about the poor dog, and how it would feel to be left for a week. Think about how upset Cosima's dogs get when she leaves for a few hours. Can you imagine how upset they would be if she left for a WEEK?
John: Other animals might not need their owner, to not bite and things.
Grace: Mmmmnnnhhhh! I just want ONE pet! Ooooohhhwwnnnhhhh!

Me: I am willing to listen to what you say. I am willing to consider it. But that doesn't mean that I am going to agree. I think that there are a lot of good reasons to not have a pet.
John: Like what?
Grace (angrily): Like blah, blah, blah.

Me: Look, it is a really big responsibility. You are taking total responsibility for the life of another being. When you get a puppy it is cute and exciting and new and everything about it seems like fun. But as time goes on, the novelty wears off and -
Grace: You have a dog!
Me: Yes, you have a dog. And it isn't as exciting anymore -
John: It's MORE fun.
Me: But you still have to do all the same work. The dog needs to be fed, and walked every day, no matter how cold or rainy. When the dog gets sick it is your job to take care of it. If the vet says the dog needs a very expensive surgery you just need to find a way to pay for it. It needs to be bathed and brushed. And all of that for like 14 years. It never stops. And you can't just say you are tired of it. And when the dog gets old and starts to die, you need to nurse it until it dies. And that can be quite horrible. And where are you going to be John in 14 years when the dog is old and dying?
John: I dunno, in high school?
Me: No, you will be in college. Just as the dog is getting old and really hard to care for you will be off in college, leaving me to deal with it.
John: Yeah, well Grace will be around.
Me: And dogs smell.
Grace: So what.
Me: They smell like poop.
Grace: So what.
Me: It's gross. And you have to clean up poop after the dog.
John: We'll do that. That is a big part of taking care of a dog. We will totally do that. All the time.
Me: And they cost a lot of money.
John: We will pay for a lot of it.
Me: As much as a contribution from you would be valuable and important, it is still only a small amount of what Daddy and I would need to spend.
John: I'd pay a lot. I have a lot of money.
Grace: So do I.
Me: A puppy would ruin all of your stuff. You guys leave everything lying around all the time and I need to shout at you to ever get you to clean it up.
John: We would keep our room clean.
Grace: Yeah.
Me: Well I can see that you are thinking a lot about this, but I think that it is very easy to say that you will clean up and keep things tidy, but a lot harder to actually do it. And when you have a dog not only will you need to keep things clean, but you will need to care for the dog as well. I would really need you to show me now that you can keep your stuff tidied.
John: But I just want you to BELIEVE me!! Why won't you just BELIEVE me?!
Me: I believe that you believe that you will do those things. But from my experience it is a lot harder to stick to something like that. If you can show me that you are responsible enough to keep your stuff clean every day, then Daddy and I will consider getting you a dog.
John (with angry tears): But I will! Why won't you just believe me? You are not even saying that you WILL get us a dog, just that you will CONSIDER it!!!
Me: That's right. That is the cost of my consideration. If you want me to consider getting you a dog, then you have to show me that you are able to be responsible by happily and consistently keeping your stuff clean.
John: But I WILL keep it clean!
Me: Then you should be happy to show me that by doing it now. It is a habit, and you may as well develop it now. Because if we had a dog then you couldn't stop anyway. You would have to still find time to keep things clean, on top of all the other things you would need to do for the dog.
John (absolutely furious): Aaaarrrrgghhhh!!!! I would do it! But I don't want to do it NOW!!!

John (angrily noticing what I am doing): Grace, she is writing a blog post about this. And I don't want her to. I don't like it.
Grace: Me neiver.
Me: Well guys, it is clear to me that this is important to you, and I want you to know that I am taking you seriously. So I think that we should share this conversation with the people who are important to us. Perhaps they will contribute to the conversation, helping you to understand why I think it is a bad idea to get a dog...and perhaps they will advocate on your behalf.
John: Yeah, OK.

As you can see, the kids have been in love with my brother's dogs for years.

Oh Noodle

A conversation between Grace and Benjamin while they are playing air hockey:

Grace (wearing fairy wings): We can play air hockey but I won't be very good with you. Because you know I am really good at this game. (Pausing) Is it really nice to see my fairy wings all the time while we play?
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Wow, this is really a fast-paced game!
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Did you know what paced means?
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Did you know what paced means? What does it mean?
Benjamin: Yeh. People.
Grace: People? No, it means glue! Paced means glue! So it's funny, right? A glue game! A fast glue game! Don't you think that's funny Benjamin?
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Wow! You are so good at this game!
Benjamin: Yeh. So good.
Grace: I really like this game.
Benjamin: Yeh. Me too.
Grace (being goofy with the puck): I'm trying to make you laugh!
Benjamin: Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Grace: You're so good at this. I actually don't want to play this.
Benjamin: Yeah, me nefer.

Uh Oh

John (to his dad): Hey, wait a minute. If I grew inside Mummy's tummy, why do I have your DNA?

Times Are Changing

In case any of you missed the subtle change evident with my last post, things have changed a little around here. We have lost Bobo Bean, and gained Clark Kent, Daily News Reporter. Sigh.

Mr. Kent will soon be beginning his own blog, chronicling the books that he has read. The blog address will be http://rocketreadingbyjohn.blogspot.com

Dum dum da dum

Our good friend Mark got married this past weekend to the lovely Leigh Anne.
John and Grace were THRILLED to be ring bearer and flower girl. They took their duties very seriously, and had a lot of fun.

Yup, it's true. I was so completely mesmerized by flower girl Grace that I forgot to move my video camera. I will admit that there was a time when I myself wanted to be a flower girl so badly that I could hardly breathe (it never happened for me). Ahhh, to live vicariously....

70 years ago...

...my Grandparents tied the knot. Makes my own eleven look a bit flimsy.



Something to aspire to. Congratulations to them!

Happy Anniversary Will...

Eleven years ago today:


...And Happy Father's Day Dad!

Settling In/ Going Home

My jet lag has finally worn off (of course it is the last day of our trip). This morning I woke up feeling human again. The kids slept in and I got to spend a few blissful hours alone. When everyone finally got up we made our way over to Macy's European Coffee House, which had vegan waffles (always a favorite with the kids) and all kinds of vegan baked goods that we stocked up on for our trip home.

After breakfast the kids had a long swim in the pool, then we gathered our stuff up and headed off for Phoenix. On our way we planned to stop for a late lunch at Beaver Creek, and then see the petroglyphs at V Bar B Ranch and the cliff dwellings at Montezuma's Well - all attractions down the same long dirt road.

Beaver Creek was a lovely little swimming hole. Our picnic was very pleasant (minus the gnats), and the kids had a bit of a swim. John watched the locals jump off the rocks into the water with anxious longing, but never quite managed to force himself to jump in.






Sadly, we were not able to corral the kids in time to get them to V Bar V Ranch before it closed at 3 o'clock. Missing it by minutes, the ranger turned us away at the gate. I had really wanted to see the petroglyphs, but the heat was blistering again, and after traveling down the road a few miles in the air conditioned car, no one was really willing to get out and make the trek on foot to see Montezuma's well, so we just passed it by and hit the open road toward Phoenix.

Once at our hotel in Phoenix the kids very sensibly went swimming again. John is now constantly diving for quarters, getting more and more competent underwater, and Grace made a sudden breakthrough with her swimming today. Witness the Gracie stroke:



John, however, has just been incredibly naughty lately, and has been demonstrating the poor judgment of, well, a naughty seven year old:


Here he is demonstrating how far he can swim underwater without coming up for air (the sound somehow got messed up so you are treated to musical accompaniment):




For dinner we drove to a south Indian vegetarian restaurant, which was quite good. Grace (predictably) ate more at that meal than any other, assiduously shoving spoonfuls of food in her mouth at a steady pace, and finishing her dosa in the car on the way back to the hotel. Tomorrow we leave on a 7am flight back to JFK.

Wapatki and the Sunset Crater

Junior Ranger badges take a lot of time to complete. When it is hot, baking hot, they take even longer. When the sun is glaring and it is baking hot and even the breeze (which was more like a steady gale) is hot, Junior Ranger projects seem a lot less fun.

Although we had all agreed that we were going to leave early this morning to get out to see Wapatki (the ruins of a Sinaguan pueblo) and Sunset Volcano Crater, somehow we didn't quite get on the road until 10am. I, for one, was ready from about 7am - so it was not my fault that we were caught filling out paper booklets in the blistering heat. Not. My. Fault. And I will have to admit that I was more than a little grumpy about it.

Our first stop was at the visitor center at Sunset Crater. The kids picked up their ranger booklets, and we spent more than an hour working on them at the visitor center - which contained an amazingly well put together little museum. The junior ranger booklets are also very well designed, and require the kids to really delve into the exhibits there, and to think about what they are looking at. They looked at seismographs, charted the locations of current volcanic eruptions, discovered why most volcanoes occur along the earth's plate lines (and why the Arizona volcanoes aren't), and listened to the recordings of all the different local Indian tribes' story explanations of why the volcano erupted (bringing home the concept that the earth shook and then exploded into liquid fire one day, and these people had no ready explanation for it - talk about bizarre!).

Of course I had known in advance that we were going to see a volcano, but I guess that I was actually completely unprepared for seeing a volcano. I am not sure what I was expecting, but the monument was a lot more impressive than I thought it would be.

Grace, with her new Indian necklace:


Lava flow, with Sunset Crater in the background:


Sunset Crater (the youngest volcano in the area):






The ahah (as in "Ah ah, that hurts my bare feet") lava:


The San Francisco peaks (these erupted about 2 million years ago):


We left Sunset Crater hours after we thought we would, and cracked open the emergency nut reserves on our way to see the Wupatki ruins, which are a few miles away from the volcano, along the same road. Somehow we took a wrong turn though, and ended up at Wukoki - the site of another ruins - but much less visited. Although I was super cranky and Mum was hot and hungry (a dangerous combination), the kids insisted on running over to check it out. Good for them I say, because it was one of the coolest things that we saw on the trip. Standing alone amidst amazing topography, this ancient pueblo is majestic and mysterious. Who the heck would have settled in this area? Did they think that the whole world was as unforgivably barren, dry and shadeless? Granted, anything else is a long walk away, but still! Who were the first people there, and WHY were they there?

The ruins:






Half-size doorways:


The landscape:


We did finally make it to Wupatki, but I will have to say that we were just going through the motions at that point. At least I was. Remarkably, the kids were still driven by ranger badge collection lust, and they managed to do the bare minimum required to get their badges for this monument. This involved spending ages in the air-conditioned museum attached to the ruins (filling out their paperwork), and then hoofing around the ruins in the scorching heat for the barest minimum of time. Of course they were neat, but frankly, I was far beyond my cultural saturation threshold by that point, and the junior ranger books were redundant after the others that they had done. I mean, how many times can you get excited about the fact that the ancient puebloans ate corn and beans? Annnyyywaaayy, this is what the old pueblo looked like:


Pueblo and kiva (ceremonial building):


Kids in the kiva:


Not a cliff dwelling, but these people still took advantage of the rocks in the landscape:


When we finally got back to the hotel the kids had a swim while I took deep breaths in the hotel room. We went out for pizza to this great hole in the wall called New Jersey Pizza. The pizza was fantastic, and they do vegan pizzas as well. After dinner we headed over to the Lowell Observatory, home of Pluto's discovery. We looked through what I thought were two large telescopes, and saw the moon (craters!) and Saturn, which was neat, but in all honesty kind of hard to distinguish mentally from a picture on a postage stamp. Then we stood on line for an hour and a half to look through what turned out to be a MASSIVE telescope (it took up an entire building), to look at the M5 globular star cluster in deep space. We looked through a lens and saw something 26,000 light years away, but they could have glued a picture to a TV screen and I would have been none the wiser. Still, I must admit that it is a pretty cool even as a concept that we saw something that far away. Astronomers as explorers, hunh.

The M5 looked like this: