travel

DC for July 4

| patmcg

We took our annual-ish trip to Washington DC to see the girls’ aunt Cindy and uncle Tim.  First a few photos…

 

And a few highlights…

  • After meeting Tim & Cindy for dinner on the first night, once we were back in our rental car, Molly asked, “Who were those people?”
  • We visited the Spy Museum, which was very cool.  Claire was a little freaked out that spies are real and kept asking if they are good guys or bad guys.  The answer: both, but even bad ones leave kids and normal people alone.  Molly liked to push whatever buttons she could find, climb stuff, and watch the James Bond video over and over.
  • Molly was wondering why we sold our car at the Austin airpot, bought a new one at the DC airport, then bought our old one back when we cam back to Austin.
  • We also got to see the Lincoln Memorial, which was Claire’s first choice of sights to see in DC.  She had learned a lot about Lincoln in school and also from talking about history with me and Kit.  Plus, and perhaps most importantly, the Lincoln statue was a featured hero in the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
  • We also walked by the White House, but the girls were too hot and tired to enjoy it or even really notice it.
  • Over the course of the 2-day, 3-night trip, we also saw our friend Andrea in Silver Spring, Tim’s and Cindy’s friends near Mt. Vernon, and met our other friends at a Whole Foods in DC.
  • We saw the official National Mall fireworks out the car window as we drove home from Mt. Vernon.  What could be more American?
  • At one point, Claire was in tears asking us to slow things down, as she was getting tired of “freaking around”.
  • Molly was wondering if it was “still America” when we got back to Austin.  It did seem like a lot of trouble to go on that airplane for a long flight and still be in the same country, I guess.  We would later decypher the “still America” thing meant the 4th of July holiday.
  • The day after we got home, the girls were tired and grumpy, but at least they saved it for after the trip.

Birthday Trip to DFW

| patmcg

For Kit’s big 40th birthday, we took a weekend trip up to Dallas to see a Rangers baseball game and enjoy brunch at the Dallas Arboretum.  Kit took some ribbing from her fancy friends who thought this did not sound like fun at all.  They would rather go to their vacation houses in San Francisco or Italy than plain old Dallas.  But Kit had a good time, and the kids had a ball.  We were wiped out and still recovering days later from the 36-hour trip (which is the longest we could get out of town).  A few highlights…

  • Much to Claire’s chagrin, The Rangers game went into extra innings.  By the 10th inning, though, Claire had come to accept that the game was going to take a long time, and she started to get very good at cheering when it seemed like people were excited about something. The Rangers lost to the Royals 4-1.
  • Throughout the weekend, Claire was a character named Scrumford the dog.  Scrumford is a sweet, shaggy dog who gets in trouble despite his best intentions.  He loves milkbones dipped in peanut butter and belly rubs from his cousin Susie.  Molly took on the alternating characters of Susie, Cuppy (Scrumford’s dog friend), and Old Whiskers (yes, a cat).
  • Molly missed her nap both Saturday and Sunday.  She was extra crazy at bedtime but otherwise handled it well.
  • We got to bed late on Saturday night (thanks largely to Dallas traffic) and all slept in until 8:30 am on Sunday, shattering our previous record by an hour and also pushing the rest of the day about two hours late past the expected 6:30 wake up time (who needs an alarm?).
  • The girls absolutely adored the Dallas Arboretum.  Claire said it was “literally” what heaven must be like.  We could have spent all day there but had to get home.  To top it off, Claire got some shark’s teeth and a butterfly necklace at the gift shop with her allowance ($8).  Molly got a couple of sheets of stickers which she promptly stuck to each other in one big clump.
  • The girls traveled well besides getting a little crazy at times from over-excitement in the hotel room.
  • The girls each gave Kit a ceramic creation they hand-painted at Ceramics Bayou.

And the rest I will leave to the pictures…

All Over the Place

| patmcg

Normally our weeks follow a pretty steady and predictable rhythm based around work and school.  The days are busy, planned down to the minute at spots, and each day feels like a sprint that you can never quite win.  But the basic routine is there.  Except for this week, which was a little different…

On Sunday, we meet Noni, Grandpa Phil, and even Uncle Tim in Round Top.  Tim was in Houston for a conference and had Sunday off, so we decided to meet him for lunch at Scotty & Friends in Round Top, midway between Austin and Houston.  After lunch, we explored grounds of Festival Hall before heading home for Molly’s nap.  It was really great to get the girls together with everyone, especially Uncle Tim on his visit to Texas.  Tim and Claire made a sweet pair, as always.

On Tuesday, Kit and I went to a fundraiser through Kit’s job at a fancy house in the hills overlooking Austin.  Kit’s parents arrived that day to babysit for the night.  The event was based on the movie Bernie, and we got to meet some of the real people that the story is based on as well as chat with director Richard Linklater.  Now Rick is not just any old director.  Besides Bernie, he has made some of my favorite movies ever, especially Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.  It was so cool to get to just chat with him for a few minutes.

On Thursday evening, it was off to Chicago while Grammy and Granddaddy watched the kids back home.  Kit had a conference in Chicago, and I got to tag along.  Our plane dodged thunderstorms as flew in to Chicago, which was flooding as we landed.  The next day was cool and rainy, but we still got to use our great Cubs tickets.  We huddled under coats and umbrellas in a very light crowd, which I believe is rare for a Cubs home game, and which will tell you about the weather.  The next day was cold and windy.  During the day , I did lots of lots of exploring on foot, and some work on my apps.  As Kit and I explored Michigan Avenue at night, snow flurries began to fall and fly horizontally through the bitter winds.  It was still fun, and I got an amusing picture of Kit, but it was a bit much.  We net up with our college friend Asma on Saturday for a great night on the town full of sushi, piano bars, an outrageously overpriced dessert bar, and lots of cab rides.  The next morning, it was time for a crisp walk up through Lincoln Park and back, and then flying back home in the afternoon.

The next morning, back in Austin, it was no more art deco hotels, fine food, and freezing winds.  It was just getting the kids up at 6:30 and off to school like usual.  It was sort of strange.  Chicago, the fundraiser in the Westlake hills, and Round Top all seemed like their distinct little islands that we visited briefly, and now we are back to our own crazy little world.

Off to Anacortes

| patmcg

The girls took their big summer trip to Washington state this year, to visit Grammy and Granddaddy and their namesake boat, the Molly Claire, in Anacortes.  I was all set to go on this trip, but ended up staying back in Austin at the last minute to make a big push on my secret project.

Claire was rightfully upset that I was not going, saying, “This is the worst plan in the world!”  But we all knew she would end up having tons of fun up in Washington, exploring islands, riding on boats, escaping the Texas summer heat, and of course, seeing her grandparents.  Molly is at that lucky age where she did not especially care (or understand?) that I was not going along.

Kit was brave enough to fly out there with both girls by herself.  The trip out sounded like it went pretty well, but the trip back was a little tricky, including turbulence that kept Claire buckled into her seat and caused her first peeing accident since she was a baby.  Yikes!  The girls arrived back in Austin jet lagged and urine soaked but in very good spirits.  They made quite a loud, happy racket in the airport when I greeted them, and I ended up with two girls hanging off of various limbs all the way to the car.

Since I did not go along, I can only post pictures of the trip.  I am sure the MV Molly Claire blog will cover it, though!  BTW, this is both of the girls’ first visit to Washington state.

While Kit and the girls were up galavanting around the islands, I took advantage of a huge amount of time — six full days — and got more work done on my project (80+ hours) than I had in about the last five months of working on Sunday afternoons.  I missed everyone greatly, as did our dog Muffin, who seemed “off” and confused with the house so quiet.  By the time the girls got back, I was pretty worn out from solitary working and definitely ready for the silliness, smiles, and yes, even all the yelling and stomping that comes with the girls.

Huddling with Grammy Huddling with GrammyTossing stones Tossing stonesClimbing on the rocks Climbing on the rocksExploring the harbor on the dingy Exploring the harbor on the dingyClaire sketching away on the ferryClaire sketching away on the ferry

Picking strawberries
Picking strawberries

Molly on the Molly ClaireMolly on the Molly Claire

Welcoming the girls back home
Greeting the girls at the airport

 

Off to see Tut (and the grandparents!)

| patmcg

King Tut is visiting Houston, and we made a special family trip to see him, and perhaps even better, see my parents.

Due to Spring Break traffic and a severe downpour, it took us seven hours to get the kids and make it to Houston.  Usually it’s about a three-hour trip, but we spend a few extra hours stuck in traffic in torrential rain on Highway 71 and Interstate 10.  We made it to Houston a couple of hours past the girls’ bedtime, but everyone was in good spirits and happy to see Noni and Grandpa Phil.

King Tut Entrance
King Tut's jackal. No pictures inside!

Ostensibly, we made the trip to see Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs at the Museum of Fine Arts.  When we got the tickets a few weeks ago, Claire’s interest in ancient Egypt was at its peak.  Since then, her interest has waned some, mostly in favor of dolphins and puppies.  When we pulled up to the museum on Saturday morning, Claire said, in a joking tone, “I don’t know why we have to go see this King Tut thing.  You thought I was interested to see it, but really it’s Dad who’s interested.  I mean what’s the big deal?  He’s dead.”  This really cracked me up.

Once inside, we waited in line for the big show.  There was a short introductory movie narrated by Harrison Ford, and then the exhibit doors magically swung open.  The crowds slowly entered and began to examine the ancient treasures with quiet awe.  Within the first minute after entry, Molly had broken the near silence with loud crying and yelling.  She really wanted the museum sticker on my shirt, but I could not let her have it since it served as my proof of admission.  She got frustrated and began screaming.  So I headed with her to the exit, which was all the way through the large exhibit.  By the time we got to the exit, Molly was calmed down, and we did the exhibit in reverse.  There were some really cool things.  Some of Claire’s favorites were the ancient toilet seat used by the pharos, and the ancient cat coffin.  She also liked King Tut’s bed, a colossal state of him, a small decorative coffin used to preserve his stomach, and an equally disgusting reproduction of the Tut’s remains.  I am happy to say that Claire was pretty engrossed after all.  We have no pictures of the exhibit since they were strictly forbidden.

Girls and grandparents
The girls and their Houston grandparents

The main attraction for this trip was really the grandparents.  It had been a longtime since we had been to Houston as a family.  We mostly stayed around the house to maximize face time between the girls and their Noni and Phil.  Claire had woken up very early Sunday morning and went down to get Noni.  She and Claire drifted in and out of sleep until 7:00 or so and then got up and hung out until the rest of us got up.  This is Claire in her element… hanging out on a lazy weekend morning with a grandma.  As interesting as King Tut was, this kind of morning was probably even more fun for Claire (not to mention Kit and I, who got to sleep in a little).  We got home on Sunday afternoon, where our tired Claire fell asleep on the couch watching Finding Nemo, thus accomplishing her first nap in years.

Trip to D.C.

| patmcg
This week, we went on our first full-family airplane trip!  We traveled all the way to Washington D.C. to visit Claire and Molly’s uncle and aunt Tim and Cindy as well as our long-time friend Andrea.  This trip was Kit’s idea so that the girls could get to know their one and only uncle and aunt, and she hopes to make it a regular visit to keep the girls in touch.  This goes with Kit’s philosophy that it is worth the effort and hassle to keep in touch with your family.  I was a little hesitant at the idea of taking an exhausting and potentially frustrating trip right in the middle of the busiest time of year, but I know Kit was right to get us all out there.
This was Molly’s first airplane flight ever.  It was also Molly’s first ever trip outside of Texas.  It was also Molly and Claire’s first visit to states of Maryland and Virginia and the territory (?) of Washington D.C.
The flight went surprisingly well.  We thought it might be tough for Molly to sit more or less still in a seat for three hours, and to not scream and cry when she inevitably got frustrated by sitting there so long.  But she actually seemed to enjoy the flight quite a lot.   She seemed to enjoy the novelty of the airplane experience.  She browsed in-flight magazines and catalogs from the seat in front of her.  Then she collected all the duplicate in-flight magazines and catalogs from the adorning seats.  Then she stacked them all on the seat next to herself just so.  Don’t even think about touching those magazines!  Don’t so much as look at them!  Any disturbing of the in-flight magazine stack immediately caused a shrieking protest from Molly.  But she always settled right back down once you … left … the … damn … magazines … alone.
Claire also enjoyed the flight.  One favorite activity was playing with some reading flashcards.  After she tired of reading the flashcards, Claire invented her own “game” with the cards, a game which was completely arbitrary and impossible to win until the she basically just agreed to let you win.  To be fair, she let her opponent use the same arbitrary and impossible rules against her when it was their turn.  So… impossible and arbitrary?  Yes.  Unfair?  No.
(Jeez… We’re still on the airplane out to DC, and this is already getting long.  Got to pick up the pace…)
We actually flew into Baltimore, where the rental car company offered us a free upgrade to a minivan.  So we drove around Maryland, DC, and Virginia in a Chrysler minivan with Massachusetts plates.  It was almost like we had somehow transformed into a different family.
Approaching Tim’s house in Arlington, Virginia, Claire told us to tell Tim she was shy and did not want to talk.  But on entering their house, Claire almost immediately repudiated this tact and started chatting up her uncle who looked kind of like her dad.
The next morning, Tim took us to the National Museum of Natural History to see a butterfly exhibit.  The girls liked the butterflies, but Claire loved the mummies and the other Egyptian artifacts around the corner, past the insects, which Claire quickly bypassed because she was creeped out.  Claire was fascinated that the Egyptian mummies were real people from long ago.  She was a little bit surprised that mummies were actually real, perhaps thinking they fell into the not-so-real realm of fairies and ghosts. Kit got Claire a kids’ book about ancient Egypt from the museum store before we left, and it quickly turned into Claire’s favorite new book.  Claire also loved the animal skeletons, especially the monkeys since those are her class mascot at school.  And she loved the gems, rubies, and diamonds exhibit.  She also liked the dinosaurs a lot.  Basically, Claire loved the National Museum of Natural History, as did we all.  Molly liked the museum too, most of all when we let her out of the stroller to walk around on her own.  She seemed to like the skeletons best of all.

The girls admiring a “please touch” gemstone.
Me and Molly with Uncle Tim in the butterfly house.

Skeletons = fun

Playing it cool by the monkeys
The next day, Kit, Claire, Molly, and I headed out to see our college friend Andrea in Silver Spring, Maryland.  Andrea is providing foster care for two girls, ages 4 and 12, who we had not yet met.  Claire and the younger girl, Caitlin, hit it off nicely.  They were pretty quickly dancing and singing around the house.  They made a few trips into the bathroom together to say “bathroom words” in the one place where that was okay.  So were heard them in there yelling words like “toilet” and “diarrhea” over and over and giggling wildly.  The bathroom words were probably what sealed their friendship more than anything.  Claire and Caitlin settled down and drew pictures together.  Molly played with Caitlin’s mega-blocks and generally hung out.  We eventually walked down to the neighborhood park, where the girls played themselves nearly to exhaustion, Claire showing off her new monkey-bar skills to the younger Caitlin.  Molly had the best time of all, throwing herself down the twisty slide in as many odd and dangerous ways as possible, but walking away okay as usual. After the park, it was getting late and time to head back to Tim’s house.  Claire knew she was having to say goodbye to a great new friend, and she said to Caitlin, “I hope I see you again some day”, looking down glumly at the ground.  I nearly wept.

Claire and Caitlin drawing together.

For lunch, Molly pulled up a chair for herself
and refused a taller chair or a lap to sit on.
Molly at the park in her vaguely superhero outfit.

Sad goodbyes with Caitlin.

Back a Tim’s, Claire and Molly settled into more fun with their aunt and uncle.  Claire loved to hang out in Tim’s basement with Tim.  She kept him cornered down there for an hour at a time, chatting him up and playing with the exercise equipment down there.  When I went down to see what they were up to, they were sitting on exercise balls talking.  Tim, who has never really known a 6-year-old girl, as far as I know, explained that they were “just talking about Fancy Nancy and stuff like that.”  Claire also loved the chin-up bar in the basement.  She would hang from it and swing like a monkey.

Molly was kept close at hand the whole time at Tim’s house to keep her from provoking Tim’s two sweet but large and energetic dogs, as well as the general watch to “keep Molly’s body safe” as we are always like to do.  Plus Molly generally needed to sleep during most of the hours actually in Tim’s house.  She did like to play in the guest room bed and eat apples, though.
Molly enjoying the guest room.
So it was a great visit, if only for two full days in town.  It was tough to say goodbye, especially for Claire, who had grown quite attached to her aunt and uncle and their super fun house and city.  But Claire had also been sorely missing her teddy bear, who she decided to leave at home so she would not lose him.  When we got home, Claire spent a lot of time cuddling with and talking to her teddy and other stuffed animals, which was the first time she had shown so much interest in them.  I am glad she had her teddy or else she would have likely been crying over the fine friends she left behind in DC.

The morning after we got home, we had the national news on the television.  A reporter was covering something political from Washington DC, live, with the Washington Monument in the background.  Claire immediately recognized the setting and ecstatically said, “Hey!  Look!  She’s in Washington!”  Yes, besides meeting some great people and having a really fun time on her trip, Claire also got to see a true famous place.  And mummies.  You can’t do much better than that!

Iowa

| patmcg

Claire accompanied her mom to Iowa this weekend to attend a service for her late, great uncle (?) Jim, and to take part in an Alzheimer’s fundraiser walk .  Molly stayed back home with me, as she is still not quite ready for a fast-pased weekend trip, in and our of airports and hotels, like this.  And it’s a good thing she stayed home, because there were some late nights and no real nap times.  In particular, the well-planned return flight from Iowa got delayed by several hours.  Kit and Claire ended up ditching the last leg of their flight and driving home to Austin from Dallas, arriving home at 11 pm on Sunday night.  Claire was up for school at 6:30 the next morning.  That might have been sort of tough on Claire, but if Molly had been on the trip, it would have cut Sunday night’s sleep just about in half!

Anyways, I just wanted to briefly mark this trip, and the fact that Claire visited a new state, and the old family farmland in Iowa no less.  And Claire, as always, we super excited to go on a trip with her mom and fly in an airplane.  And she got to visit a butterfly house thingy.  I did not go on the trip, so I will just stick some of Kit’s pictures in here to tell the main part of the story.  (Kit and I tried on several to sit down and write this blog together, but time does not allow such frivolities.  Now I am writing it along a month later!).

Molly’s First Trip to Houston

| patmcg

I have been trying to avoid long posts, and I have found that posts about travel and holidays are nearly impossible to keep short.  They can quickly get out of hand, resulting in long, rambling posts (and much lost sleep on my part).  I was reminded of this just recently.

That said, it is worth noting that Molly took her first trip to Houston this weekend, to see my parents.  Claire, of course, came along too.  It was a busy and fun trip.  We accidentally overcommitted on Saturday’s plans, which included two play dates, lunch out, and swimming.  Molly’s favorite activity was probably sorting hair bands into a little plastic bag, which she did for at least an hour.

Molly also made her first trip to Corpus Christi recently, to see Kit’s parents.  I managed to keep that post short too, which was especially easy since I did not actually go on that trip.

Santa Fe

| patmcg
Kit, Claire, and I all took a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico this week.  Kit went for a three-day liver biopsy conference, and Claire and I just went along for fun.  We decided that Molly was still not up for an extended trip like this; with her still somewhat baby-like sleeping and eating requirements, we would be pretty well tethered to the hotel and would not have a chance to explore.  Maybe next year, Molly will “pull herself together” enough for this kind of trip, as Kit and I like to say. But this time, Molly stayed at home with Grammy and Grandaddy, who offered to come up and lavish her with attention while we were out of town.
Describing a big trip like this can quickly get out of hand for a single blog post. And hey, this is a kid blog, not a travel log.  So this post will focus on Claire’s experience of the trip rather than our tourist impressions of New Mexico as such.  Suffice it to say that New Mexico was beautiful, and Kit learned a lot about livers (I suppose). Now let me just paint a sketch of how the trip went for Claire, and I’ll try not to let it get too long…
Claire was very excited about the airplane flight in particular. She got to pack her carry-on Mickey Mouse suitcase with more or less whatever she wanted to entertain herself on the trip. She piled it full of books, notepads, and stickerbooks. In the interest of keeping things running smoothly in case Claire got bored over the next few days in airplanes, cars, and the hotel room, I packed some extra electronic entertainment such as her Leapster game system, some movies and games on the iPad, and even some audiobooks to listen to. As it would turn out, Claire did not need any of this stuff. She spent most of her travel time drawing in her special travel notebook from Noni, talking and joking around with me and Kit, and reading books with me and Kit.
Claire spent most of her flying time drawing with her fuzzy green pen.
On the plane, we also talked a lot about our route to Santa Fe: fly from Austin to Houston, then fly to Albuquerque by another plane, then take a bus to pick up a rental care, then drive to Santa Fe. Claire jokingly called Albuquerque “Albu-cookie”. In the Houston airport, Claire got to choose pretty much whatever she wanted for lunch, and she ended up with a collection of curiously retro food: Fritos, Orange Crush, and a turkey sandwich. What is this, 1979? By the way, that Orange Crush made it all the way to Santa Fe, where Claire continued to sip on it daily throughout the rest of the trip, and not for lack of other (fresher) options.

Claire travels back to a 1979 TV commercial for lunch.
Once in New Mexico, we drove the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe. Claire had been interested in seeing the desert, but had also been worried about being poked by a cactus.  Fortunately, we steered clear of cactuses (alright, “cacti”). Claire had expected New Mexico to look like the desert planet Tatooine from Star Wars. It was not quite as sandy as that, but in Madrid, NM, we did come across something that looked kind of like the feared Sand People of Tatooine.

Claire runs from a Sand Person
A “real” Sand Person, as a matter of comparison
By the time we actually got to Santa Fe, we were all exhausted, and we dined in our hotel room on Lunchables from the local convenience store, and then went right to bed. 
The next morning, Kit headed downstairs for her conference, and Claire and I headed out to explore Santa Fe on foot.  We ended up in the literally freezing wind at the beautiful central plaza.  The cold weather was sort of a shock coming from the balmy weather back home. We ducked into a mall across the street from where there was supposed to be a great breakfast restaurant where we were supposed to be having a nice warm breakfast right now.  But alas, the restaurant was closed for remodeling.  The mall, and actually the whole city, was empty, I guess because it was Sunday morning and everything was closed.  We slowly trudged our way back two or three blocks to the hotel, ducking in for cover from the wind as the situation allowed.  Claire complained bitterly about the cold, which was not like her. She did not even want to walk and asked me to carry her the whole way. We made it to the hotel and eventually took the car to an open restaurant (which we ended up going to three different times) where we warmed up over some breakfast and a gigantic hot chocolate, which Claire barely touched.  
Then we tried heading out again, this time to a park overlooking the city. Claire was miserable the very minute we got out of the car, and she begged to go back to the car as soon as I took this one picture of her being miserable.

Claire continue to complain and was not acting like herself the rest of the day. She eventually settled into an unusually quiet mood and seemed somehow uncomfortable.  Only later did we put it together that she was probably sick and exhausted and just gathering enough strength for me to drag her around town. Poor thing.  Anyways, we did manage to meet up with Kit for lunch.

We did manage to see some of Kit. 

Still not realizing Claire was probably sick, I took her to the local children’s museum in hopes of lifting her spirits.  It kind of worked.

Claire loved the museum’s kid-sized door.
The museum had yet another Star Wars reference to enjoy.

The next day, we took the 90-minute drive to Taos to see the 1000-year-old pueblo.  I explained to Claire that when pilgrims landed in American, this village was already here, and it was already hundreds of years old.  That actually did impress Claire, who responded with a genuine, “Wow!  Really?”  The drive to Taos was scenic, and it was a good chance for Claire to sit and rest up.  At Claire’s behest, we played “Max and Emma” for almost the whole drive up and back.  This is a game where Claire is a girl once year older than Claire named Emma, and I am her little toddler brother named Max.  Occasionally Emma reverts to a baby, but usually she’s older.  The game is mostly about talking funny, and she especially like when little Max badly slurs his “S” sounds because he’s a toddler.  She’ll also give me ideas to riff on, such as, “Pretend you think those rocks are giant meatballs and you want to eat them, and you get really upset because you can’t…” Anyways, that got us to Taos.

At the Taos Pueblo, Claire was asked where all the Indians were.  I pointed out a few locals, and she seemed surprised, I think because they were not wearing native clothing.  We were told not to take pictures of the natives without asking their permission.  Claire, who also had a disposable camera from Noni for her travels, took this rule very seriously and went to great trouble to not take anyone’s picture.  She thought she might have accidentally taken a local’s picture, but the panic was over when I told her it was just another tourist like us.

Claire at her favorite spot at Taos Pueblo.
Claire wanted to take a picture of her camera.
But she first made sure it was okay, with the picture rules and all.

We made friends with a couple of village dogs and chatted with some storekeepers before buying some small pottery for Kit.  Claire loved to hang out at the river and was fascinated by all the insects, mostly ants, crawling around the common dirt area.  There was even a gigantic ant carrying a whole dead caterpillar back to it’s clam-sized hole all by itself.  Right around that point, the fascination turned to fear, and we carefully hopped around the insects all the way back to the car.  Then it was a stop by the modern town of Toas for some souvenir shopping and lunch.

Claire was pretty droopy by this point.
But she did her best to put a good face on it. 

Then it was back to Santa Fe.  On the drive back, you guessed it, more Max and Emma.

Let me just wrap this thing up with a few final highlights…

We were able to sneak Kit out of town during an extended lunch break for a quick trip to the closer-by pueblo of Tesuque.  It was good to show Kit some of the countryside north of Santa Fe and some pueblo goodness.

At Tesuque, we found a real-live tumble weed,
which looked better tumbling around on the ground.
On the way back, we also got to see this cool rock thingy by the highway.

I think this was called “Devil’s Rock”,
or something like that.
On the final day, once we realized just how worn-out Claire was, we took it super easy and went to see a movie in the afternoon.  We chose the only kid’s movie, Gnoneo and Juliet, which was pretty enjoyable, actually.  Being a kid’s movie at 2:40 on a Tuesday afternoon, Claire and I were the only ones in the theater.  It was a little weird with nobody else around, but we did not have to whisper when we wanted to talk to each other.
The plane flight home was dominated by jokes from a book of 2000 kid’s jokes, supplied by Grammy for the trip.  The book did have roughly 2000 jokes.  At least.  I guess what lacked in quality it made up for in quantity. 🙂  Claire absolutely loved this book, although she did not really understand most of the jokes.  She just liked the tone and delivery of the jokes. She did pick out a doctor joke for Kit, “What do you call a children’s knees? Kidneys.”  Claire spent most of the flight home making up her own jokes, including a “New Mexico joke” what went like this, “Why did the hill go to the hospital?  Because it got poked by a cactus.”  This went on for hours, until we stopped to literally run across the Houston airport to catch our connection to Austin.  We made it to the gate after everyone had been seated, with about five minutes until take off.
By the way, New Mexico was a new state for Claire.
Okay, that should do it.  I am worn out, and it’s time to move on.  I think that should paint a more than ample picture of the trip.  (Jeez, next time I really need to keep these trip blogs to a minimum!)