Summer Day Trippin'

Yesterday Lu and I trekked up into Missouri to visit the George Washington Carver National Monument. Now she has one more Passport cancellation stamp in her book.  We've been trying to hit those within driving distance for the past couple of summers.  Last year we did Hot Springs National Park and Pea Ridge National Battlefield. 

This site is home to the birthplace of George Washington Carver.  It's tucked back in Missouri farmland and is one of the prettiest parks we've visited.  It may not have the grandeur of Yellowstone, the Tetons or the Grand Canyon, but for a day trip, it was well worth the visit.

There's a small museum inside the visitor center that details George's childhood and life, and a little one-room schoolhouse replica.  There's also a working science lab! 

The interactive educational exhibits were pretty awesome, maybe the best I've seen in any visitor center, including the "big" ones.  There is a 3/4-1 mile hike outside that takes you past his birth site and around the original homestead.

It's a gorgeous nature walk, and the park ranger gives a 1-hour interpretive walk too.  (We took to the trail on our own though, with the brochure).

A stream runs through the property that is gorgeous, and reminds me of the streams running through the woods here where I grew up.  Actually the entire trail reminded me a lot of my childhood, tramping through the woods and splashing through creeks, sometimes with friends, sometimes with a dog trailing me, sometimes alone.  This is where I grew up and may be the best example of what this part of the country looks like for you foreigners (or as my son calls you, city folk). ;)

the water is beautifully crystal clear

The end of the trail takes you through a field of wildflowers and passes by a small cemetary where Moses and Sarah Carver are buried.  George is buried at Tuskegee, AL.

There's a really pretty picnic area too, where we ate lunch before we hiked. 

Most excellent day trip.  If you're in the area, I recommend visiting!

And in a completely fun "small world" moment, the park ranger on duty when we got to the park graduated from the same college (NSU) as me within the same time frame!  As an education major!  It was a fun coincidence.

I mentioned that I've been saying for the past few years that when I "stop teaching" I'd like to work or volunteer at a NP,  and she told me about the Teacher to Ranger to Teacher program.  I've got to say, it sounds very, very cool.  It will be a few years before I don't have kiddos at home in the summer (sob! my babies!), but I am definitely keeping the program in mind for the future!  Fun!

home again!

We made it home safely, and had a wonderful time!  My first vacation with TWO teenagers (how did I get old enough to have 2 teens??) wasn't without it's quirks though.  Namely...teenagers can get crabby suddenly and then just as quickly be having a ball. Sheesh.

And I bring photos!  Probably too many, so forgive me.  But there was so much to see in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons!  This is a mostly photo post... Enjoy!

 

"Morman Row"

 

 We were stopped a few times by bison!

 

My favorite part was touring the geyser basins.  I could have walked around taking pictures of them the entire time!

G-man, by one of his favorite geyser pools "Sapphire Pool".  I used a little retro coloring on parts of the photo.  Although...there is no coloring effect on the pool itself!  It really is that color!

 

 

Old Faithful!

The kids enjoyed animal watching the most.  And I'll admit, it was pretty exciting to see our first bear!

I thought of Dawn when we saw this big fella!!

Grizzly!

And we have some bison in Oklahoma, but I still love them.

My pretty Lu, hiking at Jenny Lake.

 

Hidden Falls at Jenny Lake in the Tetons

Isn't that a lovely photo?  I was standing at the top of a "butte", taking this picture when unbeknownst to me...my flight was taking off at the Jackson airport.  All flights out of Denver were cancelled on what was to be our last day in Wyoming (due to bad weather), so we were *rescheduled* on a much earlier flight.  Too bad nobody told us!!  We were stranded for a day & night in a downtown Jackson hotel, and then spent most of the next day (more than 12 hours!) in an airport or on a plane.  I have never been so glad to be home in my life!

Home again now though...and just about recuperated enough to get back to normal.  Now I have lots of blog catching up to do!

NP Passport Stamp #7: Pea Ridge Battlefield

Lu, G and I have decided that we're going to try to visit all of the National Park Service's parks, monuments, and historic sites that are within (easy) driving distance this summer.  Lu already had 6 stamps in her passport book from our Arizona vacation in '09. 

First up is Pea Ridge Battlefield National Military Park, which is an easy day trip for us.

Now, granted, I'm sort of a National Park nerd, but I got all excited by the park services building. It was so official and National Park-ish! 

 
It has a nicely stocked little gift shop (where you'll find the passport books and cancellation & stamp station!), super clean restrooms, and a small civil war memorabilia museum. 

G-man was fishing with his dad and missed this trip.  I'll have to take him back, he's actually our civil war buff.  He'll get a huge kick out of the little museum. There's also a short film that plays every 30 minutes, but we missed it and didn't hang around to catch the next showing.  There was park to see!

There was a nice little picnic area as soon as you enter the 7-mile driving loop around the battlefield, so we stopped and had our sack lunch first. 

(That happens to be MY birthday Wicked tee.  Silly thing was sized for a toddler I swear.  I had to give it to Lu!  Of course she didn't mind.) 

The picnic area is bordered by a Trail of Tears marker (we scored this stamp cancellation too.  I love getting a two-fer at a NP!)

The driving tour is mostly one-lane, with several pull-outs and overlooks.  You can get out and meander around the cannons, hike one of the trails, or read the storyboards.  There are horse trails too and we saw several trailers and horseback riders.

There were plenty of hiking trails (we only did a very short one to a scenic overlook.  It was HOT and super humid today!)  It's a really pretty area though, with lots of wildflowers and nature.

My favorite scenic overlook was this one, which was so expansive it was really hard to capture in a photograph.

Apparently the battlefield bordered a homestead and several years after the war there was a reunion.  There is still a house on the site  (the original was a log cabin, which was replaced by this pretty house at some point).  

There are also two marble monuments to the soldiers and Native Americans who fought at the battlefield. 

We were dehydrated and silly at this point.

The last bit of driving borders the other side of the battlefield, which is very picturesque with the rough-hewn fencing and cannons.  (There's a ranger out there weed-eating too.)

It was a good day!  We'll be visiting another National Park next week before I attend a 1-day school conference.  I'm way more excited about the NP than the conference.  I honestly don't know why I thought I'd want to do a workshop barely one week after getting out of school. 

The mojo is seriously lacking at Casa Angie too.  I think it's a combination of exhaustion, school burnout, and a really annoying medical insurance fiasco (the less said about that, the better).  I've never seen a more negative and irritable bunch of people in all my life than at my school the past two weeks.  We were all required to pack up EVERYTHING and vacate the building by this weekend.  (We'll be moving into a brand new high school in the fall!) You want to see people's true colors, give them an impossible to-do list and an air conditioner that shuts off every hour on the hour.  Ha.  It was not pretty.

Anywho...if you can bear with me for a few more days, I think I'll get back on my feet soon!  Meanwhile, I soothe my soul with my super wonderful kiddos.  That's good medicine.

arizona

Time difference, altitude, hiking my tushy off. Best time of my LIFE. Oy, I'm tired. But I bring pretties from Arizona!

Note to my dial up friends: This be a picture heavy post (and practically snark-free, cause you know, TIRED.)

Day one: Montezuma's Castle. A seriously cool way to start a vacation.



Just down the road lies Montezuma's Well (note the cliff dwellings along the sides):

Day two: Pink Jeep Tour of Sedona. All I have to say is if you're ever in the area DO THIS. It was so much fun!! And probably the best way to see Sedona (which is just gorgeous!)



After lunch we were still pretty energetic so we decided to trek up to Sunset Crater Volcano & Wupatki National Monument. Here's the volcano as you're driving into the park:


And here are the lava flows (we hiked the "Bonita Lava Flow Trail"). It looks like you're walking on an asteroid!

It was getting late in the afternoon at this point, but we were only 20 miles or so from the Wupatki National Monument so we forged ahead. I was so glad we did! This was spectacular, and easily my favorite of the ruins we saw on our trip. This is the Wukoki Pueblo:

Time difference, altitude, hiking my tushy off. Best time of my LIFE. Oy, I'm tired. But I bring pretties from Arizona! Note to my dial up friends: This be a picture heavy post (and practically snark-free, cause you know, TIRED.) Day one: Montezuma's Castle. A seriously cool way to start a vacation. Just down the road lies Montezuma's Well: Day two: Pink Jeep Tour of Sedona. All I have to say is if you're ever in the area DO THIS. It was so much fun!! And probably the best way to see the area. The sun was only about 90 minutes from setting, so the light was interesting (and made it tough to get good shots facing the ruins. But I could pretend I was an artsy photographer!)


And this is the Wupatki Pueblo, with more than 100 rooms!


We were nearly by ourselves at both of these, with only 1 or 2 other cars arriving/leaving during our visit. The pueblos are 20+ miles out into the back country, and there's not an electrical wire or telephone line in site. With the wind blowing through my hair, the complete silence, sun setting, I felt like I'd just stepped right into the past. It was a very odd feeling, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.


Day 3: The big one, the Grand Canyon!


The canyon was a little hazy, and it was a cloudy day. It even sprinkled on us! But I still got some good shots I think. Me & the G-man at the south rim:


And me & lu:
Day 4: Back in Sedona, we decided to take it "easy", which meant no long car trips! But we couldn't just stay in the hotel either, so we went up the road a ways to Jerome, which (I think) Linda suggested! Jerome is seriously cool, a mining town built right into the side of a mountain. Here's me feeding the mule at the Gold King Mine & Ghost Town (he rings a bell until you feed him.)


Then we traveled down the road a few miles to Prescott to go to "Out of Africa", a drive/walk through safari (Warning...EXPENSIVE! We about croaked at the entrance gate, but we were too hot and tired of the car at this point to turn around and leave, so I just went with it.)



Lots of big cats. Honestly? Probably not worth the money, but we may be spoiled by our really fabulous Tulsa & Oklahoma City zoos. And...we have a wilderness safari a few miles from here at home where you can get in with the baby tigers and bottle feed them/play, etc in the spring. So we're probably biased.

We also stopped by the Tuzigoot National Monument, another ruin. It was my least favorite of the trip. It's been "preserved" a little heavy-handedly (in my opinion) and looks overdone. Some of the masonry has been reinforced with what looks to be concrete mix rather than completely indigenous materials. And I'm sorry, but if its stood there for 1000 years (or near so) before WE found it and started messing with it, why assume current materials are better and longer lasting?

Sorry for the rant. Here's Tuzigoot:


Day 5: Last full day in Arizona! Lu had been waiting all week for this day, because we finally visited the Petrified National Forest & Painted Desert.


The petrified logs were really amazing. I couldn't stop touching them! Of course I had to buy a little piece from the gift shop to bring home. Still amazing to me that it was once part of a tree! And the Painted Desert is BEAUTIFUL!


This is Newspaper Rock, where over 650 petroglyphs have been found:


And here's me, still smiling after traveling for 5 days with an 11 year old and a 14 year old (mostly in a car!):


Two more of the Painted Desert, because I couldn't stop taking pictures of it. It took my breath away...


We're home safe and sound now, doing the drudgery of things like laundry and unpacking. Thank you all so much for the well wishes on our trip! I hope you enjoyed the recap. If you have the chance to visit this beautiful state, I highly recommend it. I would go back in a heartbeat!