River Road

This afternoon Mom sent over a few photos from our River Road adventure (see Santa Elena post.) Instead of adding these photos to the below post, I'm just putting them in here. The river on the left is the Rio Grande and everything on the left is Mexico.

I love the rock on the side of the road here. We kept seeing highway signs that said, "Watch for Falling Rocks" and then we'd see the rocks on the road. Lisa pointed it out every time!

Near Redford the road was closed for maintainence and we were "detoured" onto a stretch going around a mountain. It appeared that they created the "detour" with a bulldozer.

This was my favorite drive from the whole trip, possibly the most beautiful scenery. Quite the adventure! Thanks Mom for the pictures. They came out really well considering the drive and that I was yelling "Photo! Photo!" the whole time! Talk about action under pressure!

Santa Elena

Monday morning, day three of our family vacation, Dad went "into town" to pick up breakfast to go while the rest of us packed up to check out of the Marathon Motel. I believe he went to two different places and cleaned them out of breakfast taco/burritos, croissant egg sandwiches, and sausage egg biscuits before he had enough to return to his hungry family. Ah, the challenges of traveling with 14.

Meanwhile, Bryan was heading to the airport to catch a flight to El Paso. He'd had to stay behind and finish up some work that could not be avoided or put off. We arranged for him to fly to El Paso where the Marfa Flyer would take him to Cibolo Creek to meet us that night.

We caravanned back into Big Bend, once again passing Panther Junction headquarters.

This time we passed the turn off for the Basin and headed down Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive for Castolon and Santa Elena Canyon. We drove around the west side of the Chisos Mountains and saw the backside of the Window, where we had hiked yesterday.

The winding drive down to Castolon did not disappoint with beautiful vistas, twisty curves (or so we thought....) tuff canyons, mule ear peaks, and beautiful sights everywhere we looked. We stopped at the general store in Castolon and decided to make our picnic at Santa Elena Canyon.

The park rangers told us that in Sept. 2008, the Rio Grande crested at 23 feet with some of the worst flooding they've had in years. Remnants were evident as we drove the six miles from Castolon to Santa Elena. Mud and sand had clearly been pushed off the road with a bulldozer, and washouts were visible, but the bluebonnets were blooming and the cottonwoods were green.

We had a lot of trouble finding a parking place at Santa Elena, and since there was no opportunity to have a picnic in this beehive of people and cars, we decided to hike the canyon first.

Cameron & Brenna loved the fact that the other side of the river was a whole other country. I let them each go down to the bank and put their hands in the river. Some tourists had taken off their shoes and socks and were wading. We didn't see anyone on the other side.

The hike required us to climb a steep and narrow path over a portion of the cliffs in order to get to a sandy beach in the canyon. Because of the crowds you would have to stand to one side where the trail was wide enough to allow others going back down to pass.

When I got tired, I stopped to take some more photos looking back over the Rio Grande.

And this one shows how high we climbed. Our cars are in that white spot within the cottonwood trees beyond the sand.

After you go up, then you go down. Take a look at the pathways right on the edge of the canyon walls.

The other side was cool and shady with a light breeze. The girls enjoyed playing around the sandy beach with huge rocks that had tumbled down from the canyon walls.

While the others stayed in the beach area, Dad, with Megan, Cameron, Brenna and I followed the trail to the end.


Lisa told me later that while we were walking, they watched as a boy of about 10, who was splashing in puddles, became trapped in quicksand. She said the more he struggled, the farther he sank. His father tried to pull him out, but the boy sank up to his waist. David was heading over to help and things were looking serious when the boy's father finally pulled him out in what must have been an incredible rush of adrenaline.

Exhausted and hungry, we climbed back around the canyon wall to the parking lot and drove back to Castolon, where we scarfed down another picnic lunch. Since it was after 2:30, we needed to get on the road to Cibolo Creek in order to arrive before dinner.

The drive out of Big Bend to Terlingua was beautiful, but I made Mom a little crazy. I kept one hand on my camera and would suddenly take my foot off the gas and try to snap a photo of this view or that while driving. Shockingly, some of these actually came out pretty nice!

Outside of Big Bend, we took 170, the River Road, to Presidio. I don't have any photos of this stunningly beautiful scenery because for the first time I put the camera down and kept both hands on the wheel! The road follows the Rio Grande winding and twisting amid the mountains. There were moments that felt just like a roller coaster, you go up and up and up and then you notice that the road just seems to .... end in the blue sky. And then, you crest it and the first time I took one I didn't stop or slow down, so it felt like cresting a roller coaster and over the top you go and for a second you catch your breath and the road is going down, down, down. I think I cried out on one or two of them, and the kids were definitely screaming (in a good way) and throwing up their hands as though this was a coaster. I didn't dare take my hands off the wheel to take a photo, but I kept calling out "Photo! Photo!" for Mom to take a picture. I haven't seen any of her photos yet, so I can't post one on the blog. If she sends me any good ones, I'll add them later.

Presidio was the largest town we'd seen with 4000 people with a fabulous history that includes Cabeza de Vaca and Pancho Villa. We drove right through the heart of town, passing the high school and a gas station. The city's website says they have four gas stations, but we only saw one.

It was nearly 6 p.m. when we finally drove into the gate of Cibolo Creek Ranch. I'll blog about our stay there another time, but on the four mile drive from the gate to the Fort / Hacienda we saw two large mountain lions cross the road!

We were happily reunited with Bryan when we arrived at the Fort.

Family Vacation

• Eight Days+
• Three minivans+
• Fifteen people+
• Seven children+
• ...three in diapers...+
• 1700 miles
• = one Supersized Family Vacation

For Spring Break we took an extended family vacation to West Texas. To understand how we can do this, you have know Mom. She can plan anything. She took charge of all the planning, the reservations, etc. She even put together this great book (one per car) with phone numbers, addresses, confirmation numbers, directions, schedules, list of places to eat per town - anything you could need to know before heading out.

Bryan had to work on the first weekend of our trip, so he missed the drive out and hiking in Big Bend. I took off on Friday, did the laundry, cleaned the house, packed the suitcases and the car and we left for SBR about an hour after the kids got out of school.

Saturday morning we began our caravan west on Hwy 90 to Del Rio, where we planned to stop for lunch.

Dad had this fantastic idea to use walkie talkies to communicate between the vans, but on the way we discovered that our WT could receive but not transmit. If you know me, then you know what torture it was to hear everything but not to be able to comment back! After a greasy Mexican lunch in Del Rio we stopped at their Walmart (the last one we saw for a week) to pick up another set.

About 90 minutes after lunch we pulled into Langtry, Texas where Judge Roy Bean dispensed whiskey and the law in his saloon/courthouse.

The last time David, Lisa and I were here was in the summer 1978 about a month before David's first birthday. Mom has a photo of us on this same porch, so we took another photo together. The Texas Information stop there had a lovely walking area with a cactus garden.

We drove another few hours before arriving in Marathon, Texas. Population 455. For a comparison, our neighborhood has a higher population. Our rooms were in little cabins at the Marathon Motel.

The kids really enjoyed the courtyard area with a fireplace and fountain.

We ate dinner that night at the Famous Burro. I love the look that flits across the hostess (or owners) face when we walk into a small place and say we need seating for 14: 7 adults, 6 children's menus, 3 booster seats and a high chair. At the Famous Burro we sat outside while we waited for a few tables to open up. Although they had a very limited, yet tasty, menu, they did have a full bar.

The next morning I fed the girls (and Laurie, who ended up in our room while the grownups got ready) some poptarts. Aren't they cute sitting around the vanity stool?

We drove "into town" to get some breakfast. Dad immediately suggested Marathon Coffee, because the parking lot was empty (another key to finding places that don't freak out when 14 people walk in), but Mom was concerned because it wasn't in "the book". They served a sufficient breakfast taco, though their coffee was decidedly weak.

After breakfast we gathered our supplies and headed south into Big Bend National Park! We drove in through the north entrance at Persimmon Gap and stopped at Panther Junction park headquarters.

The kids enjoyed playing with hands-on exhibits while the adults spoke with rangers, picked up maps, browsed the gift shop, and bought postcards. Then we drove into the Basin area, passing the trailhead for "Lost Mine Trail" noticing that there were no more parking spaces. Inside the Basin, we unloaded for a hastily put together picnic lunch.

Alex and Laurie entertained themselves by placing lots of little pebbles on this big rock. Brenna enjoyed looking at the surrounding mountains with her binoculars.

After lunch we walked around the "Window View Trail" a short walk to an overlook highlighting the Window.

Mom volunteered to stay in the Basin with Megan and Laurie, allowing the rest of us to hike the 2.8 miles (one way) down to the window itself.

Once we were at the window, it was very crowded and we had to wait "our turn" to take a photo at the opening where the water runs over the slippery rock to a 500+ foot drop on the other side. We rested and drank a little water before making the return hike - another 2.8 miles going uphill the entire way.

Some of us *cough-me-cough* found the climb up and out to be quite exhausting, but I made it. On the drive back to Marathon we had to go through another U.S. Border Inspection Station. We saw one driving into Del Rio, were stopped at our first exiting Del Rio, and now were stopped again exiting Big Bend.

It's quite simple. You pull over and one of the two officers asks you "Are you all U.S. citizens?" to which you answer "Yes." I think both stops also asked us how many people we had in the car and where we were going and why we were in the area. I also remember a K-9 unit, but don't remember if there was one for both of the stops. I do remember that the young officer who spoke to us at this particular stop was really handsome. Lisa noticed too.

Sunday night in Marathon - and nothing is open. For dinner we took advantage of the sign in the Marathon Motel office stating that they would cook us "pizza" for a fee. Frozen pizza. I think we ended up with six of them. They were very delicious after our long day.

A new softball season

Spring has arrived and with it - softball season! This year Cameron is sitting out and Brenna is playing on the 6U team. Tonight was their first practice game. They have another one on Friday and the season officially begins Saturday.

6&U get three coach pitches and then three swings off a tee. The other team was consistently hitting the coach pitches. Brenna got a piece of one, but all her hits were first swing on the tee.

They play 3 innings, with each inning restricted to a 5-run rule, 3 outs, or 7 batters. During their first two on-field innings, Brenna played catcher. This was by far the funniest part of the game seeing this little girl all suited up in catcher's gear. While she did not care for the position, she took the role very seriously, fielding all of the coach pitch balls and getting into position after the girl hit the ball.

The other funny part was watching Brenna hold onto her helmet while she ran the bases. And you can't keep Bryan away from working during a softball game. Tonight he served as 3rd base coach.

On the very last inning, Brenna took the pitcher position. She really enjoyed this role and you could see her strategizing every time she got her glove on the ball. She got the second out by running down and tagging the runner on 3rd headed home.

And check out this video of her beating the runner home on the last out of the game!

I'm told that she beat the runner by half a step. She is pleased as punch with herself, claiming loudly that this game is better than soccer and better than gymnastics. (We'll see if that lasts the whole season.)

27 hours in Philly

One of the things I like about my job and my service to the Archives profession are the opportunities to attend meetings in a variety of cities across the US. Last weekend I had to make a quick trip to Philadelphia to attend the Academy of Certified Archivists' board meeting. Since they hold their meeting on a Sunday, I invited Bryan to fly up with me. Even though we were in Philadelphia for about 27 hours, we took advantage of a few tourist areas starting with the Independence Visitor Center.

The last time I was in Philadelphia was the summer of 1990 when I lived briefly in Washington DC with my dad. One of the places I remembered and enjoyed visiting again was Franklin Court.

They have a unique way of identifying the location of Franklin's office and three-story home, including quotes carved into the stones identifying the rooms and how they were used, and windows displaying the home's original walls and bricks from an archeological dig.

The home of Pennsylvania State House Bell, now better known as the Liberty Bell, offers a great view of Independence Hall.

Of course you can't come to Philadelpia without enjoying a mouth-watering, delicious, drippy Cheesesteak. (My favorite came from one of the street vendors.)

We ate dinner with the ACA board and EDC committee members at a little neighborhood corner bistro called Salt & Pepper. The food was outstanding.


Sunday morning we awoke to a light dusting of snow all over and an imminent snowstorm warning for that evening. My meeting was from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the American Philosophical Society library. It's pretty inspiring to be sitting in a room surrounded by bookshelves holding the personal library of Benjamin Franklin.




While I attended the meeting, Bryan went on the morning tour of Independence Hall. He took many photos, especially of areas used during the filming of National Treasure. (We love that movie!)


(the signing room)He also caught a bus to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Washington monument, the Cezanne exhibit, and oh - this cool Rocky statue.



We made it back to the airport before our 5:15 flight out ahead of the snowstorm.

All I want for Easter is....

...my two front teeth.

Brenna's smile as of 7 a.m. this morning. The bottom two are starting to come in and now we're missing those top two. No apples for her for a while!

Crooked smile

Brenna's top tooth has been loose for a little while. Saturday morning when I woke up I could hear the girls talking. Suddenly there was excitement. Brenna had allowed Cameron to pull out her loose tooth!

What a cute and funny smile. We're waiting to see if the other loose top front tooth falls out before the first one grows in.