day two: the arduous journey

We began with Anasazi ruins. Mesa Verde it was not (which for some reason was what I was expecting), but neither was it a few unrecognizable stones on the ground like last year.
They had some structures for the babes to climb in and explore.
We climbed through doorways to the storage rooms that were high off the ground to keep animals out.
We read about their gardens and their favorite plants for medicines.
And we found a chart that shows what foods the Native Americans introduced to the settlers.
Next our plan was to get to the Visitor's Center for the Petrified Forest! We were so looking forward to collecting information and pamplets on dinosaur bones and history on the forest. We were hoping to talk to someone about current digs or quarries.
Uh, yeah.... No.
We started out on our hike through the petrefied forest (you can imagine my excitement to see such a wondrous place)...um, yeah...no. Again.
Maddie and I ended up heading back down after she stumbled and scraped her foot, and though Trev and Eric finished the hike, they saw two logs at the top of the hike.
Not very satisfactory.
Did I imagine tall stumps of trees, majestic and ageless? Why, Yes. Yes I did.
Not quite.
After our trip through the majestic Petrified Forest we intended to swim at its lovely lake... to pass the rest of our day swimming, fishing, splashing, and shouting.
Nope! Shut down due to pesky parasites. Swimmer's itch. Just found out about it the day before.
Now this was the third time we'd been disappointed, if you counted the ruins. Which really, I guess you can't, because at least they had a structure for investigating.
But still. It wasn't a very successful day, thus far.

On the way out of there (we were not sure what to do) we stopped at a rock shop (which was pretty much a stand) and Trevelyn made friends with Scott, the owner.
Most of the rocks were collected by him.
Trev asked if he had any dinosaur bones. Scott did. He showed Trev a few fine specimens... and then Trev blurted out "Do you have any sharks teeth?"
Scott did.
He got into his special box, and brought out a particularly fine one. He offered his special sharks tooth for $5. Trev took the deal.
He also decided to get a piece of bone.
With Scott's card tucked into his hand with his precious pieces, we were sent off with assurances that if there would anything Trev needed, he could just send Scott an email, and he would do his best to find it for him.
One other thing our new friend offered us... a favorite swimming hole.
On the way there Trev talked about his collecting fossilized shark's teeth. He has claimed it for his hobby. Very cool, we say.

Our day was shaping up.
After a while Madeleine found a stick, and the babes took turns tossing it downstream for the other to chase and catch.
Once Trev was gone for about fifteen minutes.
"You have No Idea what I've been through!" he shouted happily as he came back to us from his Grand Adventure, tiredly (but proudly) waving The Stick.
"Well then, welcome back from your arduous journey!" answered his Mama.

We spied a little friend on an arduous journey of his own.
Daddy came back from fishing and Maddie had a turn.
And they played with lizard fishing. Not trying to catch them, mind you, just getting them to chase the fly.
Some were getting hungry, so we came back to our room and got showered and played and got ready for a walk to supper.