Maya in a Moment

Caught red handed

....er, make that blue faced. No Maya, those window crayons are NOT edible. Yikes.

 

 

Summer Vacation part two

Now here is something uniquely Colorado, and something Xander was SUPER excited about doing together: The Durango to Silverton Railway- a real steam locomotive!

The railway is purely for tourism and travels some backcountry in Colorado that is almost impossible to access otherwise.  We saw some of the most pristine and rugged land I'd ever seen, and did so in wonderful comfort.  In fact, we had three different cabins during our journey: The economy-class but covered family cabin first,

 

Half way up they upgraded us to a car all to ourselves in first class.  (The First class cabin was not intended for families, but since it was vacated by passengers offloading for a resort part way, the head porter saw an opportunity to make us grateful passengers and allow the kids a little more space for a short nap!)  Then, on the way down we were back in the family cars but mid-class.

I loved watching the kids watch the country roll by.  Xander especiallywas enthralled and enthusiastically shared his impressions

Most of the time I had no worries about Xander leaning out the window.  We were far enough back that the smoke and cinders didn't reach us much, and the windows only opened half way.

Of course, every once in awhile there was a pretty good reason to keep all heads and fingers INSIDE the moving train!  That rock is only 6 inches or so away!

I'm not sure why but I absolutely loved watching the train take on water - look carefully and you'll see the "spicket" that the staff has to reach up to grab and pull to the train each time.  I would NOT want to be up there in bad weather!

 

 

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The next day, it was time to head home, but we did so via the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  These are the tallest dunes in North America and just seem to come from nowhere! 

 

Once you're there, you look out at the sand and say to yourself "Now what?" 

 You pose for a few photos...

 

And then you start hiking... maybe the view at the top is different?

 

When you realize that it is 1 pm, and you'll never get to the top with two small children, you decide that some crazy jumping down the dunes with your 3 year old is WAY more fun than hiking up!

If you are a 1 year old, and see your older brother having fun, you want in on the action too. 

If Mom and Dad are too tired to keep jumping (and hauling the kids back up) you decide that you can slide down just fine all by yourself!

 Ahh.... time to walk back to the car, and head on home to Boulder!

 

 Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great vacation!



Summer Vacation - Part one: CB, Durango and Mesa Verde

We've lived in Colorado for 12 years now (wow!) and yet we still haven't seen a very large part of the state.  There are many reasons, but one of them is NOT lack of worthy sites.  Mostly, it's just that Colorado is a big place, and attractions have many miles between them.  Tough to do, even with great kids like ours.

 

So, it was a nice kick in the butt to have my mother and father come for a visit and suggest checking out Mesa Verde as a second big summer vacation (We'd already been to the Outer Banks this summer!).  With a full day's drive in each direction, it wasn't something we were likely to do again soon, and it made sense to rent a minivan and try to pace ourselves and take the "scenic" route... literally!

 

 

First up, a short night in Crested Butte, just to cut the driving in half.  We had a lovely breakfast in town and took a short hike to enjoy some beautiful weather and aspens, then made it to Durango in time for dinner.  Already a day and a half in, we were really glad for the space and comfort that the minivan afforded us! 

 

 

 

 

 

Mesa Verde on Sunday was amazing.  Of course we'd all seen pictures but there is really something that takes your breath away when you see the cliff dwellings in person.  As an engineer, I really marvelled at the simplicity and logic of the construction, and as a manufacturer and manager, I was doing mental arithmetic all day to figure out how much manpower it would take to build and maintain the small town of apartments and religious houses.  Each of the sites in Mesa Verde that we visited are slightly different and have their own special worth.  My favorite was actually the Far View sites, where we could get a lot closer and which are a good 200 years older than the more famous sites like Cliff Palace.  Far View House and Pipe house were my particular favorites.

Just goes to show how you never know what life will hand you!  On a snowy December day in 1888, while ranchers Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason searched Mesa Verde’s canyons for stray cattle, they unexpectedly came upon Cliff Palace for the first time. The following year, the Wetherill brothers and Mason explored an additional 182 cliff dwellings. Now there are over 600 sites listed in the park.  Here's Cliff Palace:

No one knows quite why the dwellings were abandoned, but they were home to many generations... in fact, there is evidence in several sites of hundreds of years of habitation.  I could see how it took a lot of teamwork and good governance to live and work and pray in such close quarters and in such harsh conditions.  We saw more than  a bit of teamwork ourselves- here's Xander helping Dad negotiate the steps...

and Dad helping Xander up the big ladders.  Xander wasn't  scared, but I was glad he had someone close enough to catch if need be!

Some single-person units.... who on earth would choose to live in this neighborhood and how the heck did they get in?

Don't worry, Mom wasn't breaking the rules, it just looks like it!  It was almost impossible to see the well preserved glyphs by peaking in the window, but a good flash on the camera really lit them up... amazing!

 

Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between A.D. 1211 and 1278

 

 

 

Next up?  Sand Dunes and The Durango Silverton train!