**Bon voyage**

Having survived the end of classes, letters of recommendation, birthdays, burning CDs for my neighbor, I am turning my attention full force to getting out of the country for a bit. 24 hours after picking up #1 son, I am dragging his college-weary butt to Ecuador to visit #1 daughter. He is being a good sport about this as he doesn't share my latin american wanderlust, being more inclined to head to Europe or the ever elusive Australian continent.

I have no idea what his desk looks like now (see prior post), but now that finals are over, he is under strict parental orders to have fun until he board glorious Jet-Blue for his transcontinental flight home with his girlfriend by his side and satellite TV to keep him occupied.

In the meantime, I must, today, finish grading, pick up last minute essentials like 30% deet bug spray and motion sickness pills (several overnight bus rides to various locations). I also have to wrap Christmas presents, pack, do laundry, get more cash (yessir, I would like all those small denomination bills new and unmarked, please), and figure out how to repackage a 77 lb. book shelf into something that meeting the size and weight restrictions for airline travel.

The weather forecast calls for freezing rain for the 24 hours before we leave. This may mean we have to go to the airport early and stay at a nearby hotel. I know from experience living here in the boondocks, driving ice covered rural roads at 3 am is not a good way to insure arriving at the airport on time.

This is the last communication for a couple weeks as there will be no regular Internet access where we intend to spend time. And this is a good thing.

Adios y paz.

**Proof that #1 son is preparing for finals**

Tell tale signs:

Skittles and 2-liters

**The Ansel Adam tree**

I took this picture and it filled me with memories of when the tree looked different. In years prior, there would be a garden train underneath, circling the tree in a big oval swoop. Presents would be stacked inside and outside the oval.

The kids would bring up the wooden trail set and and build it over all the presents using the wrapped boxes as the foundation for bridges. The little wooden tracks would wind between the presents. All the little wooden accessories, tree, people and the like would be stacked around all the tree. Finally strategically placed among all this mayhem would be an impressive collection of Dicken's Village ceramic light buildings. The scale of everything was wrong, the floor was covered with with stuff and for the several weeks before Christmas that space was the focus of hours of imaginative play (and maybe a little present snooping, although this cannot be confirmed).

**Bad Shiloh!**

Every since the kids have fled, the canine of the house has decided that the life long rules of not getting on the furniture no longer apply. I come home to dog hair on the sofa chair, and "nests" on the futon and bed.

My celestial futon cover is shredded from "nest building."

And yet I have noticed that I am not so consistent about telling her to get off the furniture - which she is on as I write.

And for some reason, I am not waking up at night when she jumps on my bed, noses her way under the covers and curls up like this in the curve of my stomach. I awake spooning a dog.



I need a life.

**Trip report, part three**

One of the days in Santa Fe, we took off to explore Bandelier National Monument. We didn't go to the main section that sets off behind the Visitor's Center. We went to the northern patch of the park. It is a separate, islotated area known as the Tsankawi section. It is not heavilly traveled - we only saw a small group on the trail towards the end. I recommend it as a companion hike to the main route. It takes just a couple hours including lots of time to gaze at petroglyphs and explore caves.

The first two photographs show the initital hike in along the ridge of a mesa top. One of the common ways to go up and down parts of the mesa was with the classic New Mexican ladder. You also could squirm up through crevasses. Towards the latter part of the hike on top of the mesa, you come along foundations of ruins and an amazing amount of pottery shards littered everywhere.


























After going going up and down for a bit, using you final drop down along the side of the mesa. Once below the ridges there were a series of caves that served as enclosed structures a seriously long time ago. They were probably created through erosion. But have clearly been altered by inhabitants as some walls had ridges carved out - probably serving as a kind of shelf. There also were little alcoves carved into the interior stone walls. You could tell which caves were used for cooking by whether there was soot coatings on the walls.























The trails used on this hike have been used for a very long time as evidenced by this rock portion of the path.
















But the walk back along the side of the mesa was chock full of petroglyphs. Close to the best collection I have seen in years.