Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon - updated with pictures from Mesa Verde (I WOULD take my crappy DSL connection at home over this! More to come)

Good Morning!  I'm starting to lose track of days so I'll do my best to bring you up to speed.  We spent the day on(I really have to think about this.....spent several minutes discussing with Paul)....  Ok this is bad...we can't figure it out but does it rally matter?  Mesa Verde was amazing!  In the morning we hiked and climbed into the canyon.  The first was a self guided hike to see Spruce Tree house.  We didn't have much time because we once again got a late start.  Honestly I don't know how we can get started any faster with Paul the speedy traveler behind the wheel. Anyway... I can't even image how those cattle ranchers must have felt when they first laid eyes on the cliff dwellings.  Our stay at Spruce Tree house was made even more brief when we sat on a 700 year old wall to take a quick pic.  The ranger on duty that day took her job very seriously and with much intensity screamed "get off the wall" across the dwelling, which was packed with rule abiding citizens at the time.  Lets just say the kids were mortified and practically ran up and out of the canyon, pitching a fit of embarrassment and blaming us the entire time.  On the up side, we made it to our next hike in plenty of time. The easier of the climbs, and the largest cliff dwelling in North America I might add, was into the canyon to see Cliff Palace.  We were very careful not to touch, lean, or sit on any walls this time.  The pics speak for themselves.  In the afternoon we hiked into the canyon to see Balcony House.  Our ranger led tour group consisted of the Rubenstein Family and about 30 teenagers from Minnesota(what did Mississippi sip?  She sipped a Minnesota.  That was a Buppy joke)  I was curious to see how this hike would go....  Our Ranger was from Baltimore and a Ravens fan, however he redeemed himself due to the fact that he went to Slippery Rock for his graduate degree.  Ty and Libby quickly jumped to the head of the group and stayed there throughout the tour.  I should have known that would be the case.  Balcony House was a fascinating place and we got to climb through narrow passageways and hallways to really see that up close and personal.  The ladders although very sturdy, were much longer and steeper to get into and out Balcony House.  Ty insisted on taking the lead.  It's not like I could put him on my back, so up and off he went. The alternative was a ride out on a helicopter and that wasn't happening.  It was difficult to watch, and thank goodness I was right behind him so that I couldn't watch!  Since Paul is having an easier time breathing, he says he's now able to keep up with the kids.  I'm sure it helped with his ability to handle the heights as well, which he admittedly struggles with.  The Rubenstein's conquered Mesa Verde, and as I spoke with my Mom later, I learned that she had too had climbed the steep ladders of Balcony House.  She is one tough cookie!   That night I talked Paul into staying one more night at the RV park in Mesa Verde instead of getting back on the road.  The kids really wanted to go for a swim and a have a home cooked or should I say RV cooked meal.

At the Visitor Center - Mesa Verde earning their Junior Ranger Badges

On our way to Spruce Tree House

Spruce Tree House

Spruce Tree House (before the Ranger! All Smiles ...)

Kiva

View of Cliff Palace - Largest Cliff Dwelling in the World

Waiting for the Ranger

Cliff Palace

Heading out of Cliff Palace

Made it!

One of many ravens that we saw (thought of Matt and Leah)

View before we started the Balcony Hose tour

This is the first ladder that we had to climb for Balcony House.  Ty led the way!

Rubenstein's at Balcony House

Tough Ty!  Leading the way.  The teens from Minnesota were impressed!

Our drive from Mesa Verde to Grand Canyon was a relative short one.   However, gone were the lush green valleys with the contracting mountains behind them.  We were now in the most desert like climate that we had seen thus far.  Most of it was Navajo and Ute Indian Reservation.  So desolate...so much nothingness.  Is that a word?  I could barely appreciate the orange soil reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds, making them appear pink.  When Paul drives, I just watch this amazing country go by(in between negotiations with the kids).  Driving through this part of the country was the first time I felt like there was nothing for me to see....made me want to pick up a book for the first time this trip.  Alas, I kept on looking.

 We arrived at the Grand Canyon with just enough time to be absolutely floored by the beauty of this massive hole in the ground and watch the sunset reflect off of it's walls. It more than made up for what we had driven though to get there.  We climbed the observation tower for an even more amazing view and the kids quickly recognized that the gift shop was a replica of a kiva, which they learned about at Mesa Verde.
There were a ton of  ranger led programs, and we took advantage of as many as we could.  On Monday we were out of the RV by 8:00 am(and on time for once) in order to catch the shuttle to where our first program was to begin.  As we walked to the shuttle stop, we could see that it was already there.  Just as we started to run to catch the shuttle, Paul realized that he forgot our park pass.  This little set back ended up causing us to miss the first hour of the program.  It was called Family Adventure hike and was a ranger led hike into the canyon.  We decided to head into the canyon on our own.  We had plenty of water, sunblock, and a map.  It was really hot and steep, but so beautiful.  We figured we would go as far as we felt comfortable and then turn around and come back up.  Somehow we managed to catch up to the group.  We felt vindicated!  The ranger welcomed us into the group but literally talked for about 5 minutes and his portion of the program was finished.  Ugh....  After a snack and continuing on our own for a while, we turned around and made our way back up and out of the canyon.  The  kids did really, really, well.  Ty and Libby jockeying for the lead position all the while.  Everything came to an abrupt halt when Libby accidentally flung her new camera off her wrist and into a rock as she was frantically waving off a bug.  In doing so, the zoom lense would not retract and was making a clicking noise that did not sound good.  Oh my did the alligator tears come a rushin'!  Libby is not a fan of flying bugs.  A bee bit her in her upper lip a few years ago and she's been deathly afraid any anything that flies and buzzes ever since.  She sat down on a rock and almost hyperventilated.  It took us a while to convince her to calm down and to understand that frantically waiving off a bug as you hiked a narrow trail a mile up from the canyon bottom, was a bad idea.  As we moved on, she started to cry again and couldn't catch her breath.  THANK GOODNESS she checked her camera again and it retracted just fine.  WOW.....  With Libby no longer a tearful, disgruntled heap, we were able to hike to the top.

After lunch, we were late for yet another ranger program.  This one was perfectly themed about bee's.  Too funny!  Anyway, the charasmatic ranger was also a 4th grade teacher and as always Libby and Ty were eager to participate.  Libby as a guard bee and Ty as a worker bee.  We had a few hours until our next program was to start and as Libby and Ty were awarded their Jr. Ranger badge, we heard drums, and had to see where they were coming from.  Right next door was Hopi House, a replica Hopi In Indian dwelling.  There we saw Hopi Indians, men and women, dressed in their native festival costumes dancing to the accompaniments of a drum and flute.  We were mesmorized.  It was the high point in the day for us all, and completely unplanned.  We finished the day with a timely arrival to a program and scavenger hunt about fossils.  We had hoped to stick around for some star gazing, but it had been a long day and the heat and hiking had taken it's toll.  Paul and I were toast!

The drive to Anaheim from the Grand Canyon was a long one.  An early start on Tuesday helped to get us to Anaheim in just over 8 hours.  There are tiny little itsy bitsy towns along the way, but only a few.  The Mojave desert is a monster, and a horrible place to drive through.  Joey-Linn and I have a running joke about Kansas being a awful state to drive though.  I think that the Mojave dessert might just be worse.  Hot, hot, hot, and looooong slow descents up and over mountain after mountain, especially for an RV.  We finally arrived in Anaheim and were met by the smoggy skies of Southern California that, depending on the time of day, hid the mountains. During our stay, the smog hid the sun until almost noon.  Once the smog was gone, I could see why gazillions of people choose to live here.  It wasn't easy to navigate the traffic and the 7 lane highways of California, but Paul did just fine.  We were exhausted, but excited about spending the next couple of days at Universal Studios and Disneyland.

Universal Studios was great!  The girls loved the ride based on the movie, The Mummy Returns, and Ty loved the Transformers ride.  All three, left the park declaring that they wanted to join Gru's minion army.  The Despicable Me ride was great, altho I attribute Ella's love of minions to her fantastic 5th great teacher, Miss Link, who declared her students to be minions.  We left as the park was closing and the kids wanting to ride their favorite rides again.  The great thing about being in an RV is that we left the park and the kids were able to get ready for bed and get into bed before we left the parking lot.  They would need to rest up for day 2 of our stay in SoCal which would be spent at Disneyland.

We had a blast at Disneyland...despite it's princess perfection, it really was wonderful.  The high point of the day for Ty was when he was one of the kids picked out of the crowd to volunteer at the Jedi Knight Training Academy show.  His enormous smile and multiple fist pumps in the air said it all.  Libby loved meeting Ariel(her favorite), Snow White, and Cinderella.  Equally exciting and therefore personally pleasing for me was how thrilled the girls were to get some special attention from Mary Poppins herself as she rode her carousel horse down the parade route. Ella couldn't wait for the fireworks(her favorite part).  She was hooting and hollering the whole time.  I don't think they could coragrapgh the music any better.  The end of the day was kind of a blur.  The kids melted down and melted down quick.  Ty declaring that it had been the worst day ever because he dropped his last bite of ice cream and because we wouldn't buy him a light saber(he already has 4).  Ugh.....  By this time it was 11:00 pm and we were surrounded by screaming kids, it comes with the territory.

Just so you know, we did eventually figure out what day was what.  Only after going through campground receipts were we able to decifer when we had been where.  Ha!