Day 2: Thelma learns Louise is a plant nut

I always look for Teddy Roosevelt, but I never find him quite as prominently displayed as this:

Roosevelt's a big deal because the 1906 Antiquities Act preserved places like our destination today of Montezuma Castle.  I tried to name my kitten Teddy, but he lacked the presidential presence to pull it off. I digress...

Today we drove north towards Flagstaff to see Montezuma Castle. Drove? We actually hung on for our lives. I'm being only slightly overdramatic: the speed limit is 75, which means people were driving much faster. Plus there was a stop and go quality to the freeway that bordered on terrifying. 

Montezuma Castle is a beautiful Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling.

It's amazing with what we know from science and anthropology that so many questions remain about the people that lived here. Why did they build so high up? Why did they leave? Where did they go? 

It's equally amazing that while the Castle was being finished here in Arizona, Notre Dame was completed in Paris. It's hard to understand how both civilizations existed at the same time and were so different. 

While I am drawn to anything Rooseveltish, my traveling partner is drawn to native plants. And lo and behold, the NPS did a dandy job marking these. There was cataclaw, cholla, pinyon, something that may or may not have looked like a churro, and sycamore with beautiful bark. 

There were other plants, but I was pretty wrapped up in the churro debate and probably missed some. 😳

Lunch was at a great local place in Camp Verde-such a great burger. 

The rest of the day was car-ride shenanigans. 

We are already enroute to our day 3 destination: Saguaro National Park!! 🌵

Iggy Azalea & Pavarotti

One of the things we really love about traveling is a road trip. We love driving on roads we haven't been on before and stopping at every historical marker in sight. The discovery of what is over the next hill is always intriguing.

We've been lucky and never really had any car trouble.  In our pre-Siri age, we got lost quite a few times. Once because I had the map upside down for more than an hour...  Once we ended up in the middle of someone's ranch in snowy conditions (I do not think that was my fault...).  On another trip we had a broken speedometer on a rental (I will not disclose anything about that driving trip).

As the passenger, I have the important job of being the navigator, although that job is closely contested by the driver.  I go Galaxy Quest on her all the time while negotiating with Siri, "I have one job to do....!"

I actually have two jobs to do. I am also in charge of entertainment. I have carefully curated playlists, my favorite being the Duets one. Who doesn't love singing a duet in the car. Um, my travel partner? I think for her it's like karaoke -- it'd be more fun with a fruity beverage. ;)  My duet list is epic. One minute you're singing Iggy Azalea's part in "Trouble" and then next you are Pavarotti in "Live Like Horses".  Where else can you get that kind of variety?

Our fourth Thelma and Louise trip took us to Italy. I had finished college early, so there wasn't a Spring Break per se, but we went to Italy for a month at the end of May, beginning of June. The night before we left Rome, we rented a car and drove to Modena to see a Pavarotti & Friends concert. He did a few concerts as fundraisers for children of war-torn countries. It's an experience neither of us can talk about without choking up. I think it will stand the test of time as being one of the most special moments of my life. His voice was so big. So big. I can't describe how it filled the entire town, and went down to my toes. And the people -- they adored him.  They treated this opera singer like...Elvis. I can't think of another appropriate analogy.

So as we're singing in the car today -- Elton John and Pavarotti--we of course got to remembering the concert. The only two details we ever talk about are his voice and the people. I wikipediad the event to see what was said about it.  I couldn't find much. I read a couple music industry articles. And then I read a couple more.  I had remembered that the "friends" part of the concert included the Spice Girls and Trisha Yearwood, but I hadn't remembered the rest of the names.  And maybe this will help explain how amazing the voice of Pavarotti was: neither of us remember hearing Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Bon Jovi or Stevie Wonder.  They were there, but they paled in comparison to that thick voice.

It's funny how memory works. I have a knack for remembering more details than the average person (which I get can be irritating...). Feelings are the hardest to remember. You remember being happy or being sad, but it is hard to remember exactly what it was like.  From that night in Modena, I remember being in awe. I remember feeling like my hair was being blown back from the sound. I remember feeling like I was being allowed to see something special. But I don't remember the details.

We love sharing our travels with you, but to be perfectly honest, we love rereading it just as much. The memory plays funny tricks on you, and sometimes you forget the small stuff (or big) that makes each day special.

Casa Grande

That working title isn't very fun unless you can hear the voice intonation I was giving it.  We woke up a little groggy this morning, and because I had the bed last night, I took over the hard part of planning. I know, you're probably thinking, WHAT? YOU MADE YOUR MOTHER SLEEP ON A HIDA-BED? Nope. We actually made a Punky Brewster type contraption out of it and the remaining couch cushions. So you see, it was much, much cooler than a traditional hida-bed. Plus which, I fell out of a hida-bed two weeks ago.  That's not actually what happened, but it sounds less stupid than what did... 

Anyway, I found us a Starbucks (hallelujah!) and then the closest National Monument in the area. One of the exciting things about traveling is driving down a road where you've never been, and wondering what you will find on the other side.  The other thing that is nice is finding something that seems familiar, like the good old green and brown of the National Park Service. Feels like an old friend by now. As I mentioned, this was my scheduling, and as mom was the driver, she was just being told where to go, not much else. As we parked and walked closer, she all but squealed, "Is that an interpretative center too?"  We are geeky about all things NPS.

Casa Grande is exactly what it sounds like -- a big house. It was built by the ancient Sonoran Desert people who lived and farmed there about 600 years ago. Fun fact: In 1892, it became the first prehistoric/cultural reserve in the US. 

 

And then, we were hot. Not sick to your stomach hot (well, slightly...), but more, happy hot. It's so sunny here! And dry. No rain boots, no waterproof jacket... Feels heavenly.

Rounded out the evening with a nap, shopping and dinner at Z'Tejas (I know!!!).  I'm not sure what's on tap for tomorrow; while I've been typing over here, Thelma (or is it Louise...) has been poring over guide books. Whatever it is, it's going to be FUN!!! G'Night!! 

One More Day; One Day More

Okay, it's not actually one more day until Spring Break, but I REALLY wanted to use that for the title. :) I drove to Chelan last week to visit a friend, and fought the French Revolution the whole way there. Um, and back. Even though I know this soundtrack by heart, I'm a little obsessive while listening (we're talking Les Mis here), and play back the songs until I have them right. That will pretty much eat up a 14 hour car trip.

Onward -- Spring Break officially kicks of next Friday after my last conference, so say, about noon!! Woohoo! Where are we going, you ask? Some of you may think you know the answer, but things are changing faster than the feudal system in France (I'm so amused by myself...).  Originally we had planned on visiting the Channel Islands National Park in California. Other than it being a National Park (and the setting for Island of the Blue Dolphins) we were excited to kayak around the islands, particularly in the caves that are present there. Unfortunately a winter storm knocked out the dock where the ferry lands, so the kayaking trip got a whole lot more complicated.

Picking a new destination for our trip proved a little tricky.  We ended up making a list of all the National Parks we hadn't been to that were not under 10 feet of snow. I lobbied hard for Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas. My point was that if we intend to visit all of the parks, we will have to go to Arkansas at some point. Mom's point was....it's Arkansas.

After much debating and pondering, we settled on Arizona and the Petrified Forest National Park and Saguaro National Park. In addition, there are a lot of National Monuments in the area that we can see.  It's been quite a few years since we went to the Southwest, so we're excited! Plus, and it's a big plus, it is supposed to be warm and dry, two things I hardly remember.

Valjean and Javert don't mesh in my mind with pueblos and canyons, so I am off to find a more appropriate sound track. Tune in (ha!) next Friday as Thelma and Louise embark on their next adventure! :)

Hikers...sort of

We travel together because we love being together.  In general we love to do the same activities and are on the same page about most things. Except two.  I don't mean like someone likes kale and someone else likes pizza, I'm talking big ideas here.  Life altering ideas.

One of us likes to hold and study and become one with the map. One of us likes to push a button and go wherever Siri tells her to go.

But the other difference is huge. And it rears its ugly head every time we set foot in a National Park. Hiking. One of us loves to hike, and sings a little chipper song while she's doing it. The other person is me. Once I'm hiking, I'm eight years old, wondering if I might invent time travel right that second. Considering what might happen if I hurtled my body down the hill.  Begging the universe to try teleportation on me right that instant.  But...I love adventure, and I want to see it all. And so I hike.  I complain, but I hike.

And with that, our Crater Lake adventure begins.

We parked above Cleetwood Cove and hiked down to the water. That's not really a hike -- it's more of trying to keep yourself from running because it's so steep. From Cleetwood Cove we took a boat tour of the lake. This is a must. The views from the rim are stunning, but from within the crater they are...indescribable. The water is so blue, and looking at the crater walls from below is magnificent.

The boat drops you off at Wizard Island which is a cinder cone volcano that formed after Mount Mazama blew. I would imagine this is a geologist's dream. When you get off the boat, you are immediately scrambling over volcanic rock, and as you go up the trail, the rock changes dramatically with elevation.  We had lunch with some very aggressive chipmunks (don't feed the wildlife!) and then started the hike up to the summit.

I'm not usually prone to being wary of heights. Possibly small spaces, but not heights. This, however, freaked me out. The trail was so skinny, and so steep. It seemed so easy to just tumble down the side. The nice ranger person was pretty sure I wasn't going to slide down the hill, but he's not really familiar with me.  He'd probably say that people don't fall off bleachers or in kickball games. Little does he know...

The other thing weighing on my mind (other than tumbling to my death while hiking) was that we weren't going to make it.  You are given three hours to explore Wizard Island, and then you have to be back at the dock. As we started getting closer to the top, I was getting hysterical that we'd been climbing for so long and that we wouldn't even be able to see the top.  I think that hysteria gave me the energy for the final push up the summit.

It was...wow.  It was actually hard to really focus on the last 100 yards of the trail because it became just a breathless view. From the top you have an amazing 360 degree view of the lake. This is a must do. It's dirty and long and I hated every minute, but it was worth it.

The thing we love about National Parks is that they are wondrous. They contain parts of the natural world that you don't see in your everyday life. We love that they are protected, and that we live in a place where these places are held above as special.  We also are always staggered by history of those that have come before us in exploration and recreation, be it people we have known or revered in history.

And so we sit in our pajamas eating pizza in our hotel room, fully satisfied with our day. We are dirty, swollen, in dire need of ibuprofen, exhausted and pretty happy.  I don't know if I will be able to get out of bed tomorrow, but that is a problem for another day.

The Road to Crater

We took two days to get to Crater Lake -- you know how we like to stop and smell the roses. :) First we stopped in Portland to see an old friend. I mean old in both ways.  And she would laugh at that, so it's okay.  ;) My favorite quote of the day was, "Dorothea and Charles' granddaughter has a medicare card. I MUST be old."  It's always nice to visit with someone who knows where your story started.

From Portland we began the long and arduous journey down I-5.   We stopped off at the Woodburn Outlets because... Well, does one need a reason?  We went in every shoe store, but guess what? We bought bags!!  You know what else they had (um, pretty much all over Oregon)? Harry & David's!  Remember when they had that dessert store next to the downtown Bellevue QFC?  Love. And yum.  Well, they don't have baked pears at the outlet, but still... 

From there, onward to Eugene for the night. When you are new in a town, one way streets are really a bear.  And for two girls that went to small colleges, wow.  

In the morning after coffee and a funky college-town breakfast, we headed south again. On our way, we stopped at several covered bridges.

My favorite was the Office Bridge in...oh my, where were we? Maybe close to Oakridge? The bridge used to connect the office to the mill. And of course, because it was like 90 degrees and we are ever in search of history, we searched around looking for signs of the long-lost mill.  We found the concrete pad, but not much else. Sometimes, people do clean up their "messes".  

We arrived in Crater Lake in time to catch a glimpse. Oh my. Tomorrow is going to be amazing. 

 Goodnight, travelers!

The Zoo and Favorites!!!

There really was a last day! Life got a little harried with the flu on Sunday, so this is a little delayed... 

Our plane didn't leave until Saturday afternoon, so we took off for the National Zoo in the morning. I know there are museums we didn't see, but we were on information overload! There is so much to absorb in DC!

Despite our best efforts, we did in fact learn at the zoo. Sigh. Their conservation program is quite impressive, and of course, so are animals! 

After compiling our "favorites" list it appears that all we did was go to museums and eat. Hmm...I'm pretty sure that's right!!

Here are our favorites:

Favorite museum exhibit:

Ann: Star-Spangled Banner

Erica: Me too!! 

Favorite National Monument:

Ann: Lincoln. Despite the hoardes of middle schoolers, it was so moving. 

Erica: This one's tough. The WWII Monument was so beautiful with the wreaths and the state names--it really invited lingering. But Lincoln--his words engraved on either side of his huge form were so powerful. 

Favorite Appetizer:

Ann: I liked the various "chips" at Cubra Libre--taro and plantains. 

Erica: Those toasts with mango butter at Cuba Libre-yum. I think they were double buttered which is never bad. 

Favorite Entree:

Ann: I really loved the shrimp thing at MXDC. It was spicy spaghetti and unexpectedly delicious. 

Erica: I, unbelievably, liked the molasses pork belly risotto at Lincoln. So creamy and flavorful!!

Favorite Dessert:

Ann: Key lime pie at The Lighthouse on Solomons Island. 

Erica: That crust was so good--chewy and crunchy... I also liked the peanut butter thing at Lincoln, though it was extremely challenging to maneuver with a spoon. 

Favorite Beverage:

Ann: The Gettysburg Address at Lincoln. Oh, but...

Erica: Too late--that's mine!! The ginger pear juice at MXDC. Yummm. 

Favorite March Madness Game

Ann: Really?

Erica: I crack myself up. 

Favorite Historical Fact (yes, this is a teacher-esque question):

Ann: That the lyrics of the Star-Spangled Banner reflect exactly what Francis Scott Key was seeing as he looked on to Baltimore during the War of 1812. 

Erica:  I loved learning Dolley Madison's story--her name just kept popping up! 

This was another amazing trip!!!