Home Sweet Home

We have reached the 15th and final day of our trip.  The goal today is get home as fast as we can.  Caleb started the day off right with a Texas shaped waffle.  It's good to be back in Texas.

The drive home was fairly uneventful except when Rodney saw a roadrunner actually running across the road.  We stopped at Subway in Jacksboro for lunch.  Overall, we've done well with our picnic lunches almost every day, but by the end we are now sick of picnics.

I am not usually ready to go home at the end of a vacation, but this time I am looking forward to being home.  This has been a great trip, but I am tired.  We talked this morning about what kind of vacations we all like.  We all decided that we really enjoy these vacations where we do a lot of traveling and see lots of different places, but we also really enjoy just going to the beach and relaxing.  I think balance is the key.  I don't know that we could keep up this kind of vacation every single year, but they are great to experience every now and then.  Maybe a slightly less ambitious one next time, though. ;-)

Rodney has once again done a great job driving.  He logged 3,403 miles and I drove 10 (he had a problem with his eyes at one point and had to pull over).  We visited 5 states, 7 national parks (sorry Mesa Verde), 2 Navajo tribal parks, and 1 state park.  We hiked for miles and went up and down in elevation over and over.  Our ears popped and our chips popped.  We traveled to the tops of mountains and the bottoms of canyons.  We got soaked while white water rafting and then dried out in the hot, sandy desert.  We hiked in hoodoos, ate fruit straight off the tree, walked into the crater of a volcano, stood on the edge of an Island in the Sky, and marched straight into the "beautiful city of God".  We made memories to last a lifetime.

As far as favorites, Colorado was our favorite state (besides Texas, of course!).  Our favorite place where we stayed was the tiny house in Escalante.  Rocky Mountain tops the list of national parks, with Zion a very, very close second.

After staying in 12 different places over 15 days, I am proud to report that we only lost one item: Rodney's baseball hat.  We also had what we needed when we needed it and not much more.  It would have been good to go ahead and pack those sneakers, but we managed just fine.  And I don't have a single sock to wash after a long trip.  We used up all the sunscreen and I still came home with weird tan lines on my feet from the Keens.

I can't wrap up this trip without at least mentioning my planning notebook.  Remember, I am a professional organizer now. ;-)  In case you ever want to repeat our exact trip, it's all planned out in this inch thick binder!  All those hours of planning paid off, though, and it was great to have all the info we needed right at our fingertips.

We finally arrived home just before 3:00 and unloaded the car.  It was good to be home!  After mostly unpacking and starting the laundry, we went to Ryan's house to collect our sweet Annie.  She was excited to see us. 

With all of us finally home, it was now time for bed.  Did I mention I am tired?  I slept like a log in my own bed for TEN hours and woke up feeling much better.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Maui.

Santa Fe and Lubbock

We woke up at Buffalo Thunder and Caleb immediately started asking if he could swim again this morning.  That boy really loves that pool.

A morning swim wasn't on the agenda today, though.  We went downstairs for breakfast and then got on the road.  We have 5 hours of driving today to get to Lubbock.  At this point in the trip, we are mainly just driving back home.  We did manage to fit in a little fun, though.  We stopped for about an hour in Santa Fe to check it out and get a quick flavor of the town.  We stopped in at Loretto Chapel first.

This is a beautiful chapel.  I remember going here on vacation with my parents.  This was the chapel used by a Catholic girls school.  It was the first Gothic building built west of the Mississippi.  It was common to build a choir loft in churches at this time that was only accessible by ladder.  Since most choirs were male choirs at the time the ladders worked just fine, but this chapel was used by a girls school and run by nuns so a staircase was needed for them to reach their choir loft.  The legend goes that the Sisters of Loretto prayed to the patron saint of carpenters to provide them with a special staircase that could fit in a small area of the chapel.  A mysterious man showed up after their prayers and completed the staircase and disappeared without a trace.  He did not use any nails or screws.   He also did not build a railing so that was added later as it was pretty scary to climb the stairs without a rail.

They have an audio recording playing inside the chapel telling all about the chapel's miraculous story.  We sat down in a pew to listen.

We walked around downtown Santa Fe a little.

We walked on the old Santa Fe Trail and ended at the plaza where many people were set up selling jewelry and other treasures.

After an hour of exploring, we were back on the road to Lubbock.  Caleb's top priority at every hotel is swimming so he and Rodney headed down to the pool.

Morgan decided she'd had enough swimming so we stayed in the room and she taught me how to draw Bingo the dog.

It has become our routine to arrive at our hotel, swim, and then take turns showering before dinner.  During this showering time, Rodney and the kids have been watching a show called Impractical Jokers starring 4 lifelong friends who challenge each other to do embarrassing things.  I haven't sat down to watch it with them, but there is always lots of laughing during this show.  We've been lucky that it seems to be on TV almost every day when we need it.

Since we are in Lubbock, we had to at least make an appearance on campus.  We stopped by Hulen Hall - future home of Connor Highfield, Red Raider.

Caleb had learned about the Blarney Stone at school this year so we had to show him the piece of it that is displayed at Texas Tech.  It is said that graduates who kiss the stone will be blessed with eloquent speech.

We walked around a little and then headed to dinner.  It was nice to spend some time in Lubbock at the end of our trip.  We aren't home yet, but we do still feel at home here in Lubbock.

We went to Fazoli's for dinner.  If you can't tell, I love Fazoli's!!!

We ended the night by watching the movie The Great Outdoors in the hotel room.  It was a great way to finish off a great family adventure.  Tomorrow we will be sleeping in our own beds.

Durango and Buffalo Thunder

Remember how I mentioned on day 1 that our trip could be described as ambitious?  Well, our ambition has finally gotten the best of us and today we are going to skip our 8th and final national park.  We had planned to check out Mesa Verde NP this morning.  While this park does seem very cool with ancient and elaborate cliff dwellings, sometimes you just have to get real.  Ideally, we would have driven to the visitor center last night to obtain tickets to one of the guided cliff dwelling tours for this morning.  While the park is only 11 minutes from our hotel, the portion of the park with the cliff dwellings is an hour from the visitor center.  Add in the 1 hour tour (or an hour of looking on our own) and the 1 hour return drive back to the park entrance and we already have a busy day considering our hotel for the night is 4 1/2 hours away.

We also wanted to check out Durango as we drove through and we wanted to get to our hotel pretty early because tonight's hotel is BUFFALO THUNDER!  More on that later.  

Sooooo....we decided to have a "lazy" day and just tour Durango and then head to the hotel.  We did wave to Mesa Verde NP as we drove by.  Maybe next time, Mesa Verde.

We got to Durango around 10AM and instantly fell in love with this charming downtown area.

We parked near the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge railroad station so we walked over to check it out.  It looks like a fun thing to do if we ever come back.

Then we basically just walked up and down the main street shopping, looking, and taking silly pictures.  It was still cool outside and not crowded at this hour so we had a lot of fun.

We stopped at the Strater Hotel that has been in operation since 1887.

Morgan in the lobby of the Strater Hotel.

Caleb went back in time to an age with phone booths!

Caleb and his new girlfriend.

Almost every single business in Durango had some sort of sign thanking the firefighters.  There have been a few really terrible forest fires close to Durango in the past few months and the city is very appreciative of these brave men and women.

We stopped for lunch at the Balcony restaurant.  As the name implies, it is on a balcony overlooking the main street.  By the way, bunny ears on your little brother are hilarious.

Not a bad view for lunch!

We're on vacation so we stopped for chocolate.  We have a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store in Frisco that we have never been to.  But we're in the Rockies now so here we go!  It turns out that this is the original location!  The cashier told us that they have a big chocolate factory nearby where they make all the chocolate that is sold all over the nation.

With our bellies full, we headed on down the road.  We stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom and saw some hummingbirds!

As we were waiting for Rodney come out, I saw a guy come out and get something off his bike.  I told the kids that he looked like he'd been riding that bike a long way.  When Rodney came out, he told us that there were 3 of these bikers and that they are on day 21 of a cross-country bike race called The Great Divide.  They started in Alberta, Canada and will finish in Antelope Wells, New Mexico (over 400 miles from where we saw them).  Rodney wished them luck and left them alone.  He said they did not look like they were up for any chit-chat.  I don't blame them!

Next stop: Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino near Santa Fe.  When we were booking hotels for this trip, we looked up hotels in Santa Fe and this place popped up.  It is about 30 minutes north of Santa Fe, but it looked like just what we would need at this point of the trip - a big resort pool and a fun experience.  The kids have been so excited about this stop and have been asking every day "Is today Buffalo Thunder"?  What a great name, by the way.

We arrived and the kids were instantly impressed at the size of this place.  Rodney got us a room upgrade so we had a giant balcony overlooking the pool and a bigger room with a couch and fireplace.  Fun!

When we arrived, Rodney followed our usual routine of going inside to check in and bring out a luggage cart as I gathered what we would need for the night.  He came out empty-handed this time and said that this is a full-service resort so you can't just grab a cart and load your own stuff.  We determined we didn't have that much and we could just carry it in ourselves rather than using the bellhop service.

Once we were settled in, we left the room to explore the place.  Caleb found a buffalo head to pose with!

This is a nice resort decorated in Southwest style with lots of Native American art everywhere.  We walked around the whole place, checking out the restaurants, spa, pool, and even walked through the casino.  It is a big place and definitely the fanciest place these kids have ever stayed.

Soon we got down to the real attraction of this place - the pool.  The kids had a great time!

Rodney and I enjoyed ourselves also!

We eventually got cleaned up and headed downstairs to the Iguana Café for dinner.  It was very good and the kids were getting along so well!  We like to document these rare getting-along moments.

The kids had spotted an arcade during our exploring and we told them we would stop by after dinner.  Caleb checked out this giant sculpture as we waited for Rodney to get quarters.

Sadly, this was the worst arcade we've ever seen.  It looked pretty good, but it turned out almost every game was broken.  Caleb played a hunting game and then Rodney showed him how it is done.

They also got the basketball game to work and then we decided to get out of there.  We determined that their arcade is just a kid's version of their casino - it's all designed to take your money.

When we got back to the room, the pool was all lit up and it was time for bed.  Good night, Buffalo Thunder!