Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

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...

We all have ideas about our parents from before we were born. A few of my ideas come from stories their friends and siblings tell but mostly they come from the photo albums on the bookshelves of my childhood home. From the albums, I have always known my parents love driving in the western United States (they and I grew up in the East). So when my dad asked when and where they might join us, this seemed pretty obvious. So it was that on Tuesday, September 8th, after driving about 3 hours from Fort Stockton, Texas, we arrived at Guadalupe Mountains National Park and found my parents standing next to their rental car and waving. The kids screamed louder than the last time I cancelled dessert. El Capitain marks the highest point in Texas and the signature feature of Guadalupe Mountains National Park The girls and a Madrone (tree) Ali and Cate bonding with a park ranger Matching animal tracks was part of earning the junior ranger badge at GMNP Junior Ranger Success!...