More Vacation Fun

A few more shots from our family vacation on the Oregon Coast: 

"Makin' a cake!" with daddy.

Sandy boys.

Beach bum. 

Never a dull moment with this kid!

Proposal Rock

Rolin wasn't much up for standing in the giant shark mouth. Can't say I blame him!

Breakfast at The Cafe on Hawk Creek. 

Sea stars at the aquarium. 

Magnet fishing at the aquarium.

Hurricane simulator at the aquarium. Rolin was...well...confused:

We had packed a picnic lunch, but, in true Oregon-Coast style, it was pouring rain during lunch time. We made the best of it in the car!

On our way back to Washington at the end of the week, we stopped at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Ore. It's a HUGE complex, made up of several buildings. The Spruce Goose is there, along with quite a bit of air and space exploration paraphernalia. It took us about three hours to get through what we could before they were closing up shop, but it would be easy to spend an entire day or two there, if you're really in to aviation and space (like any wife and mom of two boys should be, I (now) understand). 

Rolin got to ride solo -- meaning by himself and as the only one on the ride -- in this neat airplane ride. They had the area roped off as there was a field trip happening, but upon seeing little Rolly, the older gentleman in charge of guarding the area offered to let Rolin in for a little fun. He was all smiles the whole time!

We ended our week at Justin's grandma's house for an early Mother's Day celebration. It was fun to finally see everyone all in one place!

Out of Africa Adventures

When Justin's parents visited in April, we headed north to the Grand Canyon (you can read about that here). On the way home, we stopped at a wildlife park called Out of Africa. It is not similar to a zoo at all, except for the fact there are wild animals for your viewing enjoyment.

It's much more spread out and all animals are in an open space. Here are a few pics from our trip:

Rolin got to feed a giraffe!

Then the giraffe came on our bus!

"Yo, what's up?"

Rolin wanted to see this rhino up close, so I took him over there and lifted him swiftly up to pose for a pic on the rhino's nose (bridge?). That's when Rolin flipped out...it hadn't occurred to me he might think this statue was a real rhino. Oops! I felt like such a schmuck after I figured out why he was so upset. After some reassuring, he was ok with the rhino. Whew!

A highlight of the park is the tiger play area. Park workers get inside a huge cage with two live tigers to, you know, just play around with them as if they were house cats. 

Tug-of-war with TIGERS.

Tigers in the pool:

A pretty white tiger enjoying some sun. 

Grandpa was again a champ for carting Rolin around all day. 

Easter

Here are some shots from Easter. 

To celebrate our risen Lord, we went to church, ate hockey pucks, hunted eggs and dined with some new friends in town (where there was also more egg hunting). 

Luckily, Rolin had been trained the week before, by his grandparents, to be an egg-hunting master so he had a handle on what to do when it came time for an egg hunt. 

Rolly really liked that the little chick would cheep when he held it in his palm. 

I don't have a clue where this poor little chick is now, come to think of it. 

"A whole chocolate bunny just for me? Don't mind if I do!"

"Um, do you have another chocolate bunny I can eat?"

Scouting out eggs to make a plan of attack.

Find an egg, open it. Find an egg, open it. 

"I'd look at the camera, but I think I just spotted another egg. Gotta go!"

More egg hunting at our friends' house. 

Justin was so excited about being a hunting helper, he couldn't keep his eyes open!

"Dad! I demand you open this!" 

"Mom! Enough with the pictures already!"

Grand Canyoning

The day after the Tuzigoot and Montezuma business, we drove into the Grand Canyon National Park. Planning a trip of your own? It should be noted that it's best to do a bit of research on food options before going to the park without a picnic lunch. 

While we thankfully ate a large breakfast, our arrival was poorly timed, specifically in regard to walking certain distances between available food sources, times we would like to be eating and when these food sources were open (things close in the afternoon, folks). 

However, as I said, thankfully we all ate a large breakfast, so everyone was in good shape. That, and I had packed snacks for Rolin, which also doubled as adult snacks toward the end of the day. 

Details, details.

Lee and Rolin walking to the park from the parking lot. 

Justin with his sweatshirt on. 

Justin with his sweatshirt off.

It was a nice day for a visit -- clear, temps in the low 70s, a weekday so we weren't trampled by weekenders.

Because this is my blog, so I can say what I want to say, while grand, I was expecting more grandeur. I mean, it is a fantastically huge, colorful, mystifying work of art in the surface of the earth, but I think my eyes had been spoiled ahead of arrival by photographers' edited pictures.

I think another reason for my (I don't want to say disappointment, it wasn't that) lack of awe was because I was on edge and slightly terrified of Rolin escaping and slipping and falling, whether it be on his own or while he was on someone's back in the carrier. I mean, just a week or two before we arrived, someone tragically slipped and fell near where we were walking! I can't say I really stopped much to absorb the majesty of the Grand Canyon.

Don't get me wrong, it is pretty awesome. A few times I imagined being a pioneer, riding along on my horse, wishing someone would invent mosquito repellent already, and randomly coming across a completely impassable, colorful, enormous hole in the ground that no one had ever seen. But, after a while, everything started looking the same. And we had a long way to walk before we got to the (closed) restaurant, which would have cost us about $65 per plate, and 9 p.m. would have been the earliest we could get a reservation.

Plus, eventually Rolin didn't want to be in the carrier anymore. He wanted to run free. He wanted to show other visitors at the Grand Canyon that, yes, it is possible to walk the trail and cry for about 45 minutes straight.

Walking the trail, pushing Grammy and Mama forward with his screaming. Is he a future drill sergeant? 

Can you see the veins popping out in my hand? Death grip, peeps. Death grip. 

Justin, me and B2T2. 

Grammy making friends with another squirrel. 

Lee and Karen.

The view from the Desert View Watch Tower, nearing sunset.

We'll definitely go again sometime. Maybe when our kids have babies of their own (like, have to be strapped-in-a-stroller, can't-yet-walk babies), so I'm not responsible for fearless teenagers who think they can jump between rocks or scamper out to teeter on a cliff edge. Their spouses, not their overprotective mother, will then be in charge of threatening them with bodily harm if they're being ridiculous daredevils. If my kids are parents of their own by the time we go again, maybe I'll take some time to sit and stare at the world wonder.

Grand Canyon in 2042, anyone?

Tuzigoot, Montezuma Castle & Montezuma Well

Justin's parents came to stay with us in April, during their spring break. Justin had been wanting to see the Grand Canyon since we arrived in Arizona, and we figured the Thompsons would like to see it too, so JT planned out a trip up north. 

Thanks to a day-trip recommendation from Sunset magazine, we stopped in Cottonwood for some pizza at a joint the that came highly recommended. Unfortunately, the joint wasn't open for lunch, but thankfully we had landed on a cute strip of old Cottonwood, where the streets are lined with cute cafes and shops.  

Turns out there is a lot more than a closed-for-lunch pizza place near Cottonwood. It's also where you'll find the Tuzigoot National Monument, an ancient condominium-like village of 110 rooms built by the Sinagua people around 1000 A.D. 

Sinagua is a term given to this group of people with uncertain origins. It's not a Native American tribe, bit rather more of a mystery. Sinagua is a term coined by a scientist in the 1900s around the time they discovered some of the dwellings in the area, such as Tuzigoot. I believe Sinagua is of Spanish origin, meaning without water(?).

Tuzigoot from the bottom 

Tuzigoot from the side (plus the in-laws and my kiddo)

Tuzigoot from the top

A nest with eggs near Tuzigoot

Rolin was given a Junior Ranger badge while visiting Tuzigoot. I think qualification is based purely on cuteness.

"Hi, Lizard!'

Always trying to escape. 

PS -- the hillside town of Jerome is in the background. We stopped there with my parents two months earlier, not knowing this cool historical site was nearby.

After Tuzigoot, we went to see the famous rock dwelling called Montezuma Castle. As you can see in the pic below, it's a housing structure built completely into the side of a rock cliff. It is much more than what you see on the outside; there are many rooms and hallways that go deeper into the rock. Now, looking again, please note that we're standing at the base of the cliff...there are no stairs up to the dwelling, just a rock wall between the ground and dwelling base, about 150 ft. up. The historians and signs on site suggested the inhabitants used many ladders to climb.

This was again a dwelling place of the Sinagua people, utilized from around 1100 to 1425, when it was completely deserted.

We also stopped at a place called Montezuma Well (the coolest of all three places!) The funny thing about Montezuma Well is that the other two sites are packed with tourists, require a fee, have gift shops and rangers and the works. Montezuma Well has none of that, and it's free for everyone! (Note: We were able to get everywhere for free because Lee used his national parks perk card you get as a senior, but still...)

Lee was a champ and carted Rolin around most of the day. 

The well is about 11 miles from the castle. It's basically a giant sinkhole that's filled with fresh water, but no one, still to this day, knows where exactly the water comes from (obviously under ground, but one of the signs noted that many divers with equipment and cameras have tried to put cameras down a supposed source, but the cameras are shoved back out before they make much progress).

The Sinagua people built a few small dwellings in the rock wall around the hole, but nothing as grand as Tuzigoot or the castle.

Here's the well. The two arrows are pointing to two doorways into cliff-side dwellings.

Better shot of the doorways.

This dwelling was built near the water level of the well, down a couple sets of stairways. We weren't allowed inside, but you can see on the right of the pic that the dwelling area goes deep inside the wall (where is is much cooler). 

The heat was getting to me by late afternoon.

The neat thing about the well is that the water escapes through a natural tunnel in the side of the rock (limestone?) and out through a small opening in the back of a hill, which the Sinagua people discovered and made use of for irrigation by routing the water through a series of man-made canals. This is otherwise a desert, folks. There is not a lot of water around, so the well was very sacred, for drinking and irrigating.

This is the point where the water exits the well and heads outside the hill where it was then (and now) routed through canals for irrigation.

The canals have been reinforced as of late, but follow the original route the Sinagua made. This is at the bottom of the backside of the well (it sits on a hill). 

Making my way down one of the stairways to the water. If anyone is looking for a pregnant lady to jump in front of a nice scenery shot, I'm for hire until mid-July.