Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

Lily's hair got shorter and shorter during the year; she started by donating her pony tail in Minnesota! In Melbourne in January her hair got a lot shorter. Also, check out those freckles! The hair on my head has been getting scarcer for at least 20 years. Every haircut I've gotten in the last fifteen has been shorter than the one before it. For the last ten years I've been giving myself buzz cuts in the mirror, trusting Elise to tell me when I've missed a spot. Every few years the guard on the clippers has gotten smaller. During this time, I've missed barbershops and their casual banter. Elise once gave me a gift certificate to a place where I got a buzz, a beer, plus a hand and face massage but no chatter. I went to a place in our neighborhood and paid $30 for a buzz and a can of hipster beer but I was definitely too old and square to earn a conversation. Besides, even if I took a trim every two weeks (I prefer weekly), that would be an expensive habit....

On Sunday, after driving for nearly five hours and stopping at the Four Corners Monument (thus adding Utah to our state-count), we arrived at the Grand Canyon. With fading daylight, Lily and Henry were amazed and Ali lamented, "it's not a canyon, it's a mountain farm." I've never heard of such a thing but apparently it's neither good nor impressive, whatsoever. Four kids, four states Four kids, two grandparents, four states Two lovebirds, four states On Monday, we had a really good day of school. We introduced a bunch of new curriculum materials last week that had caught up with us in Austin. Today we introduced some more: Henry started a daily science program by covering a week's worth of fossils in about fifteen minutes. (I don't see how a teacher facing a classroom of 25-30 students stands a chance!) Lily started looking up the vocabulary words she has been highlighting in her reading using an online YA dictionary. She had so ...

Simply, Mesa Verde National Park is an extraordinary place and it has given us an extraordinary opportunity. Our purpose on this travel is to expand horizons and we have certainly done that here. We arrived here from Santa Fe on Friday afternoon, having driven from Santa Fe. It was really four drives in one: first, through the desert of northern New Mexico; second, descending from the plateau into Durango, CO; third, climbing out of the Animas Valley, through bright fall colors, to the entrance of the park; finally, winding up through the mountains to reach the Far View Lodge, so named because one can gaze upon Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Among other things, the landscape lends itself to remarkable sunsets. In mid-October, this begins at about 6:30 and lasts for about an hour. I've always loved sunsets. I used to decorate my apartment with a dozen or more large pictures of ones I had captured. This was the first opportunity in a long time. Saturda...