Day Three So Far: Men in Capri Pants, Barbie in a truck

How's that title for ya? Are you cringing at the thought of it? You should be! I have no photos, mercifully...

First a little backing up:

1- Deer Play Chicken

I forgot to mention that yesterday, three deer crossed the train tracks just ahead of our engines on the return trip. I was on the observation car, which was the fourth car on the train going back (the engines move at the turning point.) I watched the deer cross RIGHT in front of our train and I have NO idea how that third deer made it across without becoming intimating acquainted with the engine, but it did. Damn lucky deer.

2- CS and photo taking...

The kid is so bipolar about the camera it's not funny. Either he wants NOTHING to do with the camera or he wants to ham it up and have us take 10 pictures of him. Our solution is: You don't have to LOOK at the camera, you just have to be IN the picture. So in other words: David, get used to more pictures like the Engine shot yesterday.

We began this morning with our free breakfast. I'm digging this warm breakfast thing. The boys had the omlettes again. I'm trying to be "very good". Have I mentioned protein yet? Ok, just checking. They didn't have oatmeal today so I had raisin bran. I had to decide, which is better for me: a sausage patty or a "cheese omlette." I go for the sausage patty. 

John was at the front desk again - he swears he went to bed last night. He gave me directions to the closest grocery store, an Albertsons, and we stopped to get a bag of ice for the igloo (we didn't want to drag it into the hotel to deal with it) and some picnic supplies. Holy HANNAH, Lunchables are expensive in this town. I paid twice as much for lunchables for the kids than I do at home. I grabbed simple deli sandwiches for the adults.

And with that we headed north east to Sunset Crater National Monument and Wupatki National Monument.

Do you know what the difference is between a National Monument and a National Park? (Without asking google of course...) Stay tuned to find out.

Sunset Crater was a lot closer than we expected it to be. We used our Annual Pass for the first time to get in! We stopped at the Visitor's Center and stamped our National Park Passports. Seriously the best NP souvenir ever. We love those things. It's just fun. All three boys have one and DD and I share because WE can share. We poked around the gift shop a bit and picked up some patches. Daddy Doc's been looking at gift shops for geology books so that we could explain some of what we're seeing to the boys. The problem is that he would really like a general geology book and these are all very specific to Arizona, so he hasn't gotten one yet.

We did some Grizwold stops for photo ops along the road. If you are not familiar with Sunset Crater, it's a volcano that erupted about 1000 years ago. The South Side of the mountain is still desolate of plants. There is VERY little plant life that grows there, even 1000 years later, through the volcanic lava field. The North side has vegetation, but not the South side. And throughout the area, there are lava fields and hills that have faces covered with lava rock, and very little vegetation. It's difficult to photograph much of what our eyes are seeing because, get this, the trees that ARE there are blocking a lot of the best views.

Each boy INSISTED he take a picture with the camera. Here's MG's. It came out pretty decent so I'm posting it:

Next we approached Wupatki from the south east edge of the monument.

This park is filled with ruins of Native Americans who farmed the area soon after the eruption. (Post-eruption climate changes brought rain to irrigate farming.) We visited two sets of ruins. The kids loved the first one because we were allowed to climb around and in and out of it! The doorways are tiny. But fortunately we all fit through!

(As we left this particular location, a family pulled up in two cars and their pre-teen daughter, probably around MG's age, took off, running through the plants to climb on a rock - Off the trail. Now. ALL OVER this place there are signs that say "Stay on the trail" and "Don't go here". So I called out to her. I said "Excuse me! No, you need to stay on the trail!" She was about 25 feet from me. Another family was approaching us on the trail and I commented about being a "b-word". The mom smiled and said "No, not at all! It works for me!"

When we got to the parking lot, I could see the girl was embarrassed and I looked at her and said "The trail's right over here, sweetheart!" I looked at her parents and said "I wasn't trying to be mean! I love kids!" The mom, or someone who appeared to be the matriarch was very nice about it. But the patriarch was giving me the evil eye.

Yeah, as he leashed his dogs (maybe if you'd been watching your kid instead of your dogs... Oh, wait, there are signs everywhere that say NO PETS, too!!!) MG started making comments about no pets. I quieted him down. I figured we'd pissed him off enough.

Back in the car we progressed to the Visitor's Center. We stamped our passports again and I saw that they offered  Junior Ranger Program. JR programs usually have a little workbooklet the kids fill out - often the questions and activities are designed so that the kids read the displays to help find the answers. When they've finished, the park rangers give them a button or a pin of some sort (varies from park to park/monumnent to monument,) and/or a certificate. 

I asked the ranger about it and he gave me two for the big boys and the "Under 6 program" for CS. We started to fill out as much as we could and the we went out to explore the large ruin at the Center. The L.L.Bean travel clock says it was about 90 degrees but there was a lovely breeze so it was warm but it was overcast and breezy. This isn't humidity. It's actually a strange cooler version of 90 degrees.

There's a natural "blowhole" there that alternatively acts as a vaccuum or a "blower" as atmospheric conditions change. MG tried a trick with his hat. I suggested he put the hat closer to the hole. (We'd lucked out - it was blowing while we were there.) Together he held the hat, I counted to three, and clicked the shutter:

But by the end of the trail, CS was DONE DONE DONE. He did NOT want to draw another picture to save his LIFE. The Park Ranger gave us his little pin anyway. She reviewed their answers with SBS & MG. Then she gave them the Junior Ranger oath and their badges.

DD found a Gary Larson book about a worm and picked that up. Everyone went to the bathroom and then it happened.

Out came a tall slender man.

Wearing capri pants.

Really. Can't make this stuff UP.

DD and I have chosen to believe that he is European, thus explaining his very strange and very WRONG choice in apparel. 

By the way, I assume y'all know how many foreigners descend upon this state, right? I guess it's probably national parks in general? So far today I've heard German, French and I think Eyetalian. There was a guy at Wupatki looking for a guide in a language he could read. It was kind of funny because he said "Oh, French will work!" So I don't know what his language of CHOICE was, but it cracked me up.

I'll tell you my Grand Canyon Story from 1981 until we get to the Grand Canyon. My parents and sister are all nodding remembering it right now, I'm sure.

But yeah, man in capris. :Shudder:

Now, remember how prepared I was with our picnic lunch? 

There were no shaded picnic tables that we could find anywhere. So we just climbed into the car and ate our lunch! It was awesome. The breeze was delightful. We had diet pepsi in the ice chest. The kids' lunches came with juice boxes. DD & I had some carrot sticks from the igloo. 

Well as we were setting this all up, Barbie came out of the visitor center, climbed into a big huge carbon footprint truck thing, and turned it on. She sat in that truck with the a/c running the entire time we ate our lunch and after we left.

Oh.My.F'ing.GAWD. Give me a freaking BREAK, Barbie!!!!!!!!!! 

There just aren't enough eyerolls for people like her. 

She was worse than the old guy in capris.

After our lunch we drove north through Wupatki back to AZ 89. There were some more ruins along the way, but yeah, uhm, we were done with ruins. We'd seen ruins. And our kids would not shut UP about the damn swimming pool at our hotel. I have no doubt that my parents are quite amused by this and are feeling that I'm just experiencing justice. But we headed back to our hotel with an indoor pool so they could swim.

We got here and I started to type this update. They put on their swim trunks and DD got his on, too. We all went down to the pool.

It's closed due to weather.

Half of the pool is outside and the "storm" is apparently too dangerous to allow the pool to be opened. 

Yeah.

On the day we made time for them to swim.

I'm borrowing one of the eyerolls I'd set aside for Barbie right now.

So as I type this, three little boys are sitting in/on a hotel bed watching Horton Hears A Who on the PPV system. We have a very good friend among our circle who is not only from AZ, but whose family has a vacation home in Flagstaff, so I believe I have narrowed down where we'll go for dinner tonight.

The maids were putting "Dear Priority Club Members" things in people's rooms - with free water bottles and snacks. (I saw them on a cart and it caught my eye...) They didn't put one in our room. I think someone at this hotel doesn't like me or something... I'm starting to take it personally. 

Well they may not like me, but they did make the boys' stuffed animals look cute:

OH! And the difference between a Monument and a Park? A Park can only be declared by an act of Congress. A President can declare a monument, so it's easier/faster to just be a monument.