White Sands 2010

It’s hard to believe that the last update to this blog was over two months ago. The era of frequent blogging seems to have come to an end-or at least have been interrupted. But, since last week was Spring Break around these parts, there’s a fair amount to recount.

The big plan for the week was to drive to Phoenix for some Spring Training, but that changed pretty quickly. The condition for the trip—finishing the retaining wall in the backyard—showed immediately to be more time-consuming than expected. So we scrapped that plan and stayed in town most of the week.

In addition to the wall, we also made some little outings. Bowling Monday, Explora and a picnic Wednesday, and a hike at the volcanoes Thursday. The weather for most of the week was great, and it very much felt like Spring was on its way. This, of course, changed Friday evening, and we awoke Saturday to a decent snow storm that left us with over an inch by 10, all of which melted by noon.

But Friday was the day. We decided to make a trip, albeit a shorter one than we had initially planned. We drove to Alamogordo and White Sands National Monument, a place we visited four years ago. It’s about a four-hour drive, so we spent a lot of time in the car, but it was worth it.
White Sands is a great sight—the sand is gypsum, and the dunes extend for miles. After driving in to the big dunes, we ate lunch and then sledded and played. Here are some scenes from the dunes:

Ryan aboard the sled

Summer and Isaac in the dunes

Evan amid the sand

On our way out of the park, we stopped by the dunes nature trail, a one-mile loop through the ecosystem of the dunes, where tenacious and adaptable plants and animals have made a home amid grueling conditions. The most amazing thing here was where shrubs rooted and created islands where other plants, followed by animals, make home. In some places, these islands include compacted sand that forms rock, a truly amazing sight.

Isaac on the hike

Ryan, Summer, and a wall of sand rock

The boys at an island

Driving home, the kids fell asleep, and we hit wind, rain, and a bit of snow. It was a long day, full of all four seasons (I got sunburned at White Sands and drove through snow that night), and a lot of fun.

On Being Impetuous

Here's the thing about our family: we plan our trips. Obsessively. Sometimes I think we go on trips just as an excuse to plan them out. When Isaac was one year old, we went on our longest trip ever, up to Yellowstone and down through Utah, lasting about 12 days. We planned every night's say, every lunch, every rest stop. And we do something similar with just about every outing longer than taking the kids to school.

So this latest outing was a great change of pace. We had talked a lot about getting out of town for New Years Eve, in part to escape the madness of the night in ABQ (see here for a friend's account of this year's insanity), and in part because we had not left town in a long time. We were due.

But we didn't want to plan much. Partially this was because of Evan's potty-training (he'll be four-weeks dry this Monday), which made us wary of a tight schedule. So we sketched out some possible destinations, but until the morning of the trip, we didn't know where we might be going.

This was compounded by a snowstorm that swept through the state Wednesday evening. Roads throughout the central mountain chain were going to be dicey. So, Thursday morning we checked road conditions and decided to head in the one direction that looked entirely clear: south.

I had been to Las Cruces--a college town at the far southern end of the state--once before, but Summer and the kids had never been farther south than Bosque del Apache (of which more later), so this was to be an adventure.

We made our way out of town around 10 Thursday morning, and we headed south on I-25. This put us on track to arrive in Cruces around 1:30, but Evan had other plans. Admittedly, three-and-a-half hours with four kids was overly optimistic, but a potty-trainee really throws a wrench in the business. We visited every rest stop between here and Las Cruces to accommodate his bladder, plus one gas station just south of T or C. But the trip--both days--was without incident.

Just north of Las Cruces is Fort Selden State Monument, which marks a post-Civil War era military outpost that protected the Mesilla Valley from Apache raids. A tiny museum displays photos and artifacts (fun fact from this stop: Douglas MacArthur spent part of his childhood on the fort, as his farther was stationed there in the late 19th century). We strolled around the ruins and got the kids some American history.

The kids at Fort Selden

Allyson and Summer among the for ruins
Isaac at Fort SeldenRuins of the adobe walls of Fort Selden

Our next stop was the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum in Las Cruces. This impressive facility includes permanent exhibits of 3,000 years of agriculture in the area, temporary exhibits on rural New Mexico schools and weaving, and a livestock area. We spent two hours there, and probably could have spent two more.

The kids at the NM Farm & Ranch Museum playground

The historic Old Green Bridge at the museum

The boys get their cowboy on

Here's a sample of our spontaneity: we did not have hotel reservations. Pretty crazy for a family of six, no? We had found some good options online, so we weren't completely unprepared, and since we were only a few hours from home, driving back was not a bad last resort. Fortunately, the suite we had been spying online was available--and at the same great price--so we had lodging.

It was now time for victuals. We drove out to Old Mesilla, a small town just west of Las Cruces that missed out on most of the 20th century and resembles Albuquerque's Old Town. After walking the plaza and adjoining streets for 30 minutes in search of a restaurant, we struck gold: La Posta, a good, family-friendly (unlike the only other dining option we had found, a noisy cantina) place that served up great salsa (spicy but flavorful) and decent enchiladas. The kids must have been famished, since they all ate up.

The New Year began too early (we hadn't stayed up very late, but Evan always wakes up by 7:00, which is often too early), and by 8:30 we were out the door. Our destination today was Bosque del Apache. We got there around 10:30 and spent a few hours hiking and watching the birds. There was nothing much special (lots of ducks, geese galore, and some impressive cranes), until we began our loop out.

We came up on a field full of crows and a few cranes, but the guy pulled off to the side with a military-grade camera and lens waved us over. He said that many of what we thought to be crows were vultures, and a bald eagle was out in the field with them. A glance through the binoculars confirmed it. Two hundreds yards away, cavorting with the crows, was a bald eagle.

Pleased, we drove on to the overlook where we thought we had seen another eagle on our first trip to the bosque last March, and there, in the upper branches of a dead cottonwood was percehd another bald eagle. He was closer, so the view through the binoculars was even better. He looked regal.

But it gets better. After a minute or so, and just as we were ready to take off (we were well overdue for lunch), the eagle took off and flew toward us. About 200 feet away he awooped up and to our right. It made for a good start to the year.

Hiking at Bosque del Apache

The kids at Bosque del apache--behind them is the tree where we spotted Bald Eagle #2

The rest of the trip was prosaic: lunch in Socorro and a tour of the South Valley as we made our way home. (At one point Allyson asked if we were in Albuquerque, and after our reply to the affirmative, she said, "Yeah," so it must have been good to get home.) We found the house well, a movie in the mailbox, and clean clothes in the dryer. And we've vowed to do more unplanned vacationing in 2010.

Boo!

Halloween was tempered a bit this year by the fact that Evan spent Friday evening and night with a fever and occasional bouts of throwing up. So he and I missed the ward party and he spent much of the day napping. But the kids still had fun. Here's the crew before embarking on their day:Ryan wore the most traditional Halloween costume, a homemade mummy:
Isaac went old-school with the Charlie Brown look:
And Allyson was Nancy Drew (that's a magnifying glass, not a huge lollipop, as it appears to be):
Evan did go with us later on for a quick run through the neighborhood, and I'll post his costume as the picture of the week later on.

A Day at the Farm

This week marks UNM's fall break, an event that ordinarily would mean nothing, except for the fact that I am teaching there on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning that I had today off. As fate would have it, today was also Isaac's field trip to the Wagner farm in nearby Corrales, so I went along.

Corrales is a village north of Albuquerque on the west bank of the Rio Grande, nestled in between the bustling Westside and the rapidly-growing suburb of Rio Rancho. This old farming town holds vestiges of its agricultural roots, with horses and orchards, while at the same time being home to a plethora of B&Bs, small mansions, and art galleries. It's the nicest town in the area to have dirt roads just off the main route and a noticeable lack of sidewalks.

The farm we visted has been in operation for nearly a century, growing corn, pumpkins, and apples. A few years ago they, like many farms, diversified their business to include a corn maze, pumpkin gathering, and other touristy stuff. It's both a sad commentary on the state of family farming in America and a great opportunity for city folk like us to get a taste of the rural life.

Here's another fun tidbit from the outing: there were 17 kids from Isaac's class, accompanied by 15 adult chaperones. When you're dealing with 5-year-olds, that's the kind of ratio you want.

My group consisted of me, Isaac, and Josiah. When we arrived, we had to wait for a few minutes before getting to the corn maze, so the kids entertained themselves in the corn pit, a sandbox-sized pool of dried corn kernels.

The first stop was the corn maze, which is always a good time, but, since it doesn't lend itself to many good pictures, we'll skip ahead to the pumpkin patch, where everyone got to pick a gourd.

We then went on a hayride around the corn field. One of my favorite things about this area--including both Corrales and the North Valley of Albuquerque--is the view of the Sandias you get from the agrarian space in the valley.After lunch and an hour of playing, we made our way back to the school. We climbed on a hay stack, visited the orchard, and learned a bit about the various household products made from corn. All told, it was a pleasant day (temperatures in the upper 70s) in mid-October. Better than working for a living, I suppose...

Art, Hiking, and Autumn

Allyson had a friend over for a sleepover Thursday night (Friday was the kids' Fall Break), so we took a holiday Friday to play. After a lazy morning, we went out for lunch. Then we went to our main destination, the city's Open Space Visitors Center. This facility at the edge of the bosque is a great place to visit in the fall, when the leaves turn, the air is crisp (although our visit was quite warm), and, in a month or so, the migrating cranes arrive.

Our main goal this time, however, was not the building, but the hiking trails that run through the bosque. The city has installed some landscape art along the way, and we wanted to check it out.

We hiked a for a mile or so and saw about five such pieces. The first few are simple poles, adorned with natural materials local to the bosque--leaves, branches, and such. Another piece was a a reclaimed jetty jack (used for flood control, and, I guess, to make the bosque look like a war zone). There are a few more that we didn't catch, but it was fun to view art and hike, all at the same time.

After returning the visitors center we rested a bit and then went up to the roof. The view from there is great; you can see the mountains in the distance, the bosque gradually yellowing in the autumn, and the field across the way, where before long a few hundred cranes will spend the winter.

Here are some pictures from the outing:

The outside of the visitors center--itself a cool building:

On the hike, the first of the poles:And Isaac with a piece called "The Cube." A Cottonwood trunk surrounded by wire, it represents the urban space of the modern city built around the natural space of the river:A bosque Cottonwood with the Sandias in the background:The boys at the "Tree of Life" sculpture:The view from the roof:

Fall Pictures

Summer and the kids have been feeling under the weather on and off lately, so I took a day off today to let her rest and recuperate. This afternoon, Evan and I went outside to get the mail, and we paused to take some pictures of our fall colors. First, the one pumpkin plant that did any growing this year (though no producing) as it weaves through the trunks of the Desert Willow and past the pots:
Here's Evan with a pumpkin that Summer bought and place out in front of the Cottoneaster, itself bright with Autumn color:
Here's another view of the pumpkins:
And here's my favorite, from behind the pumpkins:

Pecos

To celebrate the last day off until Thanksgiving (the kids and I both have some days off before then, but Labor Day is the last joint holiday until we eat turkey), we decided to join some friends from the ward in a trip to the Pecos National Historical Park in northern New Mexico. It's place we've been meaning to visit for some time, and the group outing made it ideal.

We arrived around 9:00 and spent some time in the visitors center. The exhibits chronicle the history of the area, from the pueblo that flourished there to the contact with Spanish Conquistadors and later Anglo intrusion via the Santa Fe Trail. At the time of Coronado's expedition into what is now New Mexico, Pecos was the largest and most influential pueblo in the area, serving as a trading center for the Rio Grande pueblos and the Apaches and Kiowa of the plains to the east.

The start of the trail

Seven of the Twelve Children

Next, we began the hike through the ruins of both the pueblo (more on the excavated and reconstructed kivas later) and the mission church built by the Fransicans. Our party included four familes, with 8 adults and 12 kids (at dinner we did some math with the kids asnd figured that these 12 children included 10 boys and just 2 girls).

Three of the hikers
Mission Church Ruins
Detail of the Mission Ruins
Boys Among the Ruins

The company proceeded along the 1.25 mile path, entering two reconstructed kivas, pausing at an overlook of the Glorietta Mesa, and meandering through the mission ruins. Having a multi-family group made for a lot of mingling, as Allyson adopted the other girl in the group as her little sister for the day, Ryan and Isaac floated among their friends, and the adults got to chat as we hiked.

Evan and Summer in the Kiva
Ryan Ascending From the Kiva
Isaac Leaving the Kiva
Lookout Point

Isaac, Spencer, and Ryan

After returning to the visitors center and eating lunch, we decided to drive north past the village of Pecos (a quaint place that serves as the gateway to lots of great wilderness area adventures and rental cabins) and along the Pecos River to the Holy Ghost campground area.

At the End of the First Hike

There we set off on another hike, this one a trail that eventually makes its way toward Santa Fe Baldy (a nearly-13,000 foot peak) and a series of mountain lakes, which would make for a great backpacking trip someday (perhaps when the 10 boys we had in tow are old enough to carry their own gear).

The trail ranged from 2 feet to 6 inches in width, switchbacking a few times up the hill. The kids did a great job of scrambling over logs and uphill. After a mile or two, we came to an intersection with another, downhill-trending but even more narrow path. We followed this down to the creek and the road leading back to the parking area.

Along the way we passed by some beautiful campsites that require future visits. We also made our way to the creek, where the kids (and the more daring adults) slipped barefoot into the icy waters. It was then time to head back home, reflecting on a summer of fun, the impending autumn (the leaves up the Pecos canyon will be brilliant in a few weeks), and more such trips in the future.