Rock and Roll

Tonight Cameron's fourth grade class presented annual school program titled "Rock and Roll Forever." You must understand that there really isn't a "plot" or "story," just a set of lines to be delivered by students (with a homemade teleprompter) and filled in between with at least five songs (one per class and a grand finale.)

Cameron's group was asked to wear either a poodle skirt or jeans (rolled cuffs), a white shirt, and hair in a high ponytail. We pulled out a skirt I made for her a few years ago and loosened the waist.

I edited down the half-hour program to 1 min 15 seconds. You can see Cameron's one line (she opened the program) a snip of her class song and a rough cut of the final song.

Cibolo Creek

When last I left off blogging about the Family Vacation, we had arrived Monday night at Cibolo Creek Ranch, where we saw two mountain lions cross the road and met Bryan, who had arrived via El Paso airport.

Cibolo Creek is the most amazing place, full of history and art. In Jan 1858, Milton Faver purchased the land around three natural springs where he established cattle ranches at two and a sheep ranch at the third. The 100 square foot adobe Fort Cibolo is believed to have been constructed on top of the original Spanish mission ruins. Two smaller adobe forts at the other two springs were also used to protect against Indian raids. Soldiers from Fort Davis also used the fort as an outpost. Today the three adobe forts are part of the 30,000 acre Cibolo Creek Ranch and operated as a working ranch with accomadations for guests.

We arrived during "Happy Hour" in the central living space, where employees mixed drinks and set out a simple spread of appetizers. Guests mingled among the many couches and tables. We rushed to unpack and freshen up before dinner at 7:30 p.m. Our large family was seated at two long wooden tables in that living area while the rest of the guests sat in the dining area. We later learned that Cibolo Creek was "at capacity" for the first time since they opened in the 1990s. (Guess the word is getting out.) We were immediately sorry that we hadn't planned to stay more than two nights at this beautiful location.

Another blog post will tell you about our activities while staying at Cibolo Creek, but here I want to share with you just a few of the many photos I took of the accomodations.

The original fort with two towers in the corners. The towers were used for museum displays of original Faver family documents, library, and photographs (in one) and a military armory display (in the other.) The current owner added two guest areas, tack rooms, and other areas in such a way that it does not interrupt the original design or feel of the Fort.

The other guest addition is the Lakeside Hacienda, where we stayed.

Each of the twelve guest rooms opens up to this long patio furnished with Mexican daybeds, book shelves, couches and tables. I'm sure that during the heat of the summer they throw open the windows, turn on the ceiling fans, and let the dry air cool the patio, but during our stay the windows were closed. There were moments where I would walk from window to window looking for the door handle.

You can see our door on the far right, double glass doors that had no key. You could lock the doors from the inside and pull a white curtain, but you never needed to carry a key while staying at Cibolo. You were invited to read any book from the fairly impressive Texana book collection.

Outside our bathroom window, looking out to the rear of the hacineda, we had a beautiful view of Milton Faver's mausoleum. I meant to hike up to it and see what was there, but I never took the opportunity.

All of the original aquacias were rebuilt, providing flowing water throughout the Fort.

And the variety of places to just sit a spell and rest were unlimited.

There are two other small abode forts about twenty minutes away from the main fort that offer a high degree of privacy and seclusion. Bryan learned that Mr. Randy Quaid (and family) was staying in one at the same time we were there. Though we never saw him we thoroughly enjoyed the irony that "Eddie" of the National Lampoon Vacation movies was sharing a moment of our own Family Vacation.

More Softball

Softball is in full swing now and the whole family is loving it. Brenna usually alternates between playing pitcher and catcher. Bryan serves as third base coach. I have been the official scorekeeper twice now and Cameron occasionally serves as the official family photographer. (Top photo is hers.) Cameron also learned to keep score.

Brenna loves being pitcher, especially when Erin is on first base. The two of them pull off a pretty good 1-3 throw out at first. (They're 6 years old!)

Brenna also picked up her first softball injury last week. As pitcher she ran out the girl at home plate for the out, but slipped and fell on home plate. I was shocked that she wasn't crying about the scrape and demanding a band-aid, but she was really proud of the blood.

Tonight's game proved very entertaining! One of the little girls on the opposing team had gotten on first. The next batter got a hit and started running to first, but her teammate (on first) forgot to run. Our pitcher fielded the ball and threw it to first, where the runner caught it and then, with coaches shouting at her, handed it to our pitcher (who had run over there) who looked at her strangely and very matter-of-factly tagged her. They were standing on the first baseline, while the batter had run past them and was standing on first. The crowd roared (with laughter).

In the first inning, Brenna didn't get to bat. She scored a run in the second inning, and in the top of the last inning she was thrown out at third. After she scored the run in the second, I high fived her and said something like "Good running. She could have beat you home." Brenna grins up at me and says, "Not this one Mom. She's not the fast one." We played this team on Saturday and Brenna remembered which girl was a real strong player at the pitcher position, and apparently which one was not.

After two bottom innings as catcher, Brenna played pitcher. I told her that her team was up 7-5, but this was the last inning and if the other girls scored two runs they would be tied. I pointed out that any play with a runner on third - you take it home.

She was so serious, and sure enough one little girl hit it right to Brenna, who scooped it up and beat the runner to home plate. Her coach (and Bryan) is yelling TAG HER, TAG HER! And Brenna looks up at coach and stomps her foot on the plate. The runner crosses the plate and umpire calls "Safe."

It wasn't a force. There wasn't a runner on first. Our team had thrown out the previous batter, so the girl on third didn't HAVE to run home. Not that SHE knew that. Not that Brenna knew that. (Heck, I didn't even catch it....) I was so proud of Brenna when she didn't get upset. She was confused until the umpire (one of our coaches) calmly pointed it out to her and it was like a light dawned in her eyes, OH... okay. And that was that. She got back on the mound and continued to play.

After dinner tonight, she was sitting with Bryan asking him all kinds of strategy questions like, "Daddy? How do you know where the ball is going to go when the batter hits it?" And they'd talk about watching how a batter hits the ball and all those details I haven't the foggiest clue about.

Those of you Dads who love baseball and are just waiting for your son or daughter to be old enough to ask these questions know what that moment must have been like for Bryan.

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.