Colorado

Originally I had planned for us to visit Arches National Park in Utah, which is on the eastern side of the state, but somewhere along the line I deleted Arches and added Bryce Canyon and Zion. I also had intended for us to visit Four Corners Monument which again would have put us closer to Mesa Verde in Colorado. Even though it added some extra driving time to visit Colorado (just as was the case when we added North Dakota), I think everyone thinks it was worth it because #1 we added another state to the list and #2 we had a good day in Colorado. The hotel we stayed at offered a grab and go breakfast, but at least theirs included options like yogurt and an apple which was better than the hotel we stayed at in Michigan. Originally I had hoped we would visit two sites that were close to Cortez, but due to COVID Canyons of the Ancients is only open certain days of the week, and Wednesday isn't one of them. At Mesa Verde I had planned to have us drive to the Wetherill Mesa section to take a self-guided tour of Step House and a guided tour of Long House. Since I goofed up and we didn't have tickets to our the Long House, we instead drove to the Chapin Mesa section. We hoped to take a self-guided tour of one house there, but it was closed due to a rock slide. Paul and the kids got out multiple times to see sites such as pit house and a sun temple, and we also could see the Cliff Palace at some of the overlooks. The kids earned a Junior Ranger badge. Nadia has earned 18 so far on the trip, Ian has earned 15, and Oliver has earned 14 so far. 

Our second stop was supposed to be a science museum in Durango. I had checked their website the day before do make sure their hours hadn't changed. They hadn't posted it on their website, but they were closed for two weeks for some renovations. Thankfully we hadn't driven much out of the way to go to this museum as what was supposed to be our third stop was less than 2 miles from the science museum. When I found out that we couldn't visit Canyons of the Ancients, I tried to find something else to do in Durango. I presented the kids with a few options (one was zip lining), and they chose the Durango Community Recreation Center (like a YMCA). The rock wall was closed due to COVID, but the swimming pool area was pretty amazing for a community pool. It included a 2 story water slide, a lazy river, water cannons, see saw in the pool, etc. Nadia and Ian spent almost the whole time in the lazy river. Oliver went off the diving board and used many of the other features.

We had dinner at Applebee's in Durango and then drove 3.5 hours to Albuquerque. We drove 312 total miles yesterday. During our drives we haven't listened to music that much. Either we're talking, listening to an audiobook, or the kids are having screen time. Ian uses the Switch, Nadia uses our newer iPad, and Oliver uses the old iPad. Some of the books we've listened to from start to finish on this trip include: River Secrets by Shannon Hale, Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis, The Shining Company by Rosemary Sutcliff, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. We're currently in the middle of The Horse and His Boy and Book of a Thousand Days. The indoor pool was closed due to COVID, but they had an office chair with wheels in the room, which is so helpful for me. We had adjoining rooms for the second time on the trip. Paul lived in Albuquerque from 1994-1996 (right before I met him in Pennsylvania). We're spending the day doing things in and around Albuquerque, and then we're driving to Amarillo, Texas, which means we'll lose another hour tonight as we move back to CDT.