The last leg of our was the journey back to good ol' West Valley City from Albuquerque. We got up Saturday morning and hung out at Alicia's for a while, eating cheese quesadillas for breakfast, before making a stop at the "Ward Garden" where Alicia and Stacey have some delicious things growing (and being eaten by something). The kids and I watched lizards.
We next went to a Play It Again Sports that sales discounted brand new shoes (from floor displays or overstocks, I think). Grandma and James both found a new pair of shoes and the kids tried their best to empty the racks of frisbees.
Eventually we made it on the road and headed north. We drove through Indian Reservations and even this one town with so many letters and hyphens on the water tower I have no idea how to pronounce it (I wasn't quick enough to take a picture and I can't even find it on the map, now. Maybe I hallucinated it).
Side note: When we got back home, our neighbor Joe, told us he grew up in southern Colorado and that this area of Northern New Mexico is known as the pinto bean capitol of the world. If only we'd known.
We were finally ready for a pit stop in Durango, Colorado. It was a cool little tourist-type town. It had lots of churches, shops on the main street, and a train that goes down the middle of the street. It looked like a fun place that might be worth re-visiting on some other trip.
While in Durango, we ate at Max's Big Burgers. I only got onion rings and ate the kids leftovers, but the burgers looked good.
Our next stop was Mesa Verde National Park. This was an option on our original trip itinerary, but Alicia suggested it (and Durango) as the best path home. (Four Corners will have to wait for another trip). Mesa Verde is a site with Anasazi cliff dwellings. We were a little late getting to Mesa Verde and the walkways to go to the dwellings and one of the museums/visitor centers were closed, but I am glad we stopped. It was quite interesting!
This is the view as you enter the park.
This is the Spruce Tree House dwelling. We were hoping to be able to walk down to this one, but the pathway is blocked off at 6:00 p.m., so we could only see it from this vantage point, but it was still cool. Molly and Jack didn't quite fall off the cliff and neither did James or Grandpa.
The next one was called Square Tower House. I don't think you can actually walk to this one, so this is as close as we would have gotten anyway.
There were also several pithouses along the road. These were ancient dwellings that likely had thatched roofs over a pit in the ground. You can still sit the pit and some significant things in them. I guess I didn't take any pictures of them.
The road closed when the sun set. We were trying to get out of the park, but had to stop to take a few pictures of the sun setting.
That night we kept on driving and pulled in to our motel in Monticello pretty late. It was a nice little place. The bathroom only had a shower and the kids were so dirty from the day before that when we got up that morning, they had to have a shower. They survived and even thought it was kind of fun (of course, they haven't gotten near the shower since being home. They are back to the usual bath tub only.)
Monticello didn't really have any places open on Sunday for breakfast, so we stopped at the Maverick, gassed up, and headed north to Moab. We ate breakfast at McDonald's in Moab and then decided to take a drive through Arches National Park. I haven't been through Arches except once when I was probably junior high aged and James and his parents had never been through it.
We drove through the parking lot at Hole N" The Rock. I remember seeing that once on our way to Lake Powell. I don't know why there is a " after the N. That doesn't really make any sense.
Here is my beautiful selfie that I decide to take on Sunday afternoon. One or more of my children may have been screaming when I took this.
The visitor center at Arches had very hot, metal big horn sheep. There was also a tour bus of Japanese people that created a line at least 50 people long to the women's restroom. Molly had to wait until the next stop. Sorry. Molly may or may not have also shop-lifted a large stuffed animal from the gift shop. If she did do it, we may have taken it back into the store and put it back with it's friends without bringing any further attention to ourselves.
This is a big red rock. I may be "Courhouse" or "Organ" or something else like that.
This is another red rock. If it has a name, I don't know what it is.
This is another red rock that has a name similar to the others we have seen.
As you can see, I had plenty of time to take pictures of red rocks while James took pictures of red rocks, too. I didn't want to break it to him that the things we were seeing had, indeed, been photographed before. He seemed like he was on a historic photo quest and I didn't want to burst his bubble.
This was our first arch. It was probably "Window to Heaven" or something like that . . . maybe "Window to your Soul" or "Window to the World" or "Dust in the Wind-ow."
This was another arch near the last one. It was called . . . . " ______ Arch."
Finally we got to the most impressive arch in all of Arches National Park, the only arch worthy of being put on license plates. It was the one, the only . . . . (oops, wrong picture)
. . . . DELICATE ARCH! Molly and I use the "porty potty without a flusher and only hand sanitizer wow look at the hole" at the Delicate Arch viewing parking lot. Luckily she had forgotten she needed to go to the bathroom between the visitor center and here. Jack was momentarily asleep in the car. Dad and Grandpa walked up a slightly longer path and disappeared for a while (though no, we didn't do the long dessert 3 mile trek to the base of the arch).
Molly was almost as impressed with this tree in the middle of the path as she was with Delicate Ar . . . . I mean with the "porty potties."
Here is our trusty, dusty car parked in the Delicate Arch viewing parking lot. The car was tired, but after that whole battery incident, it continued to be our trusty dusty car.
We left Arches and didn't stop again until we reached Price. I thought about finding someplace fun and unique to eat at in Price, but instead we went to Arbys. It was fine.
After Arby's we began the last, though fairly short, journey home. Within a few minutes Molly was totally wiped out, with her drink in mouth, rocks, dinosaur, and map of Yellowstone firmly in her grip.
We had a good trip and we are glad we went. The end!
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