Well we have had a very eventful week. Monday, June 14, Evie had virtual school and I was working at my school when I got a call from Granna that she had been rear-ended. Thankfully, she was okay, but I left work to go to the scene and realized when I got there she could have been more seriously hurt. The man who hit her was changing lanes, but didn't see that the traffic had stopped and I honestly don't think he even hit his brakes at all. Fortunately her car was able to drive, even though it had some front end damage from being pushed into the car in front of her. So we pulled it off to a side street, got into my car and got Evie from our house (where a new roof was being put on, so she was glad to get away from school early and away from the roofing sounds), and went to Granna's house where poor Addie and Will were starvingly awaiting the arrival of the pizza Granna had gone to get. We stayed at Granna and Grannadaddy's to welcome Ryan and Aimee in from their flight, then Seth came over when he was finished with work, and we had dinner all together. We said bye to Addie and Will since they were headed off for a road trip the next day.
Tuesday, Evie had virtual school, and she also lost another tooth! That's 15 down, and only 5 to go!
On Wednesday, it was finally Evie's last day of 3rd grade! This school year has been so weird, but I am proud of how well Evie has handled it. It was hard to get used to sitting at a computer for a large portion of the day, figuring out how to do things in the software liking turning on and off the camera and mic, raising a virtual hand, typing in the chat, finding the online assignments and completing them by drawing or typing on the computer rather than on paper. Then there was the situation where part of her class was in person and the rest were online and the teacher was having to deal with kids in the classroom (behavior management, etc) while also teaching kids online. Her teacher, Ms. Ault, did a great job with that, but it was another change to navigate for everyone. I'm very proud that Evie ended her year with straight As, and I know she learned so much, despite all the changes.
End of 3rd grade
So after school was out (it was a half day), Evie ran some errands with me as we prepared for our trip, and we got packing.
Thursday morning, we loaded up the van, drove to Granna and Grannadaddy's house and loaded up their stuff, and we hit the road at 6:13 am. We drove over the I-55 bridge because the I-40 bridge is closed due to a crack(!) and we were in Dallas by 2 pm.
Ready for adventure!
Our stop in Dallas was the Perot Museum which had a lot of cool exhibits on dinosaurs, space, extinction, and many other topics. Evie especially liked the earthquake simulator.
Ascending the escalator at the Perot.
This exhibit on genetics really captivated Evie. She was interested in getting all possible combinations of dragons.
After the museum we got checked into the hotel and Evie got to swim, which is one of the best parts of road trips when you're a kid.
Then we met my cousin JT and his wife Lissee for dinner at Chuy's which is one of our favorite restaurants that we only get to eat at when we travel, because they don't have one in Memphis, despite one of their "things" being homages to Elvis on the menu and in decor.
We headed back to the hotel for some shut eye and we were up and out again the next morning. We stopped at the Grassy Knoll where Evie got a history lesson on JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald. She was really fascinated by some of the other theories of who shot JFK, probably because she's been on a kick of watching The Inbestigators, so she's decided it's a mystery she needs to solve. She wants to go back to Dallas some time to go to the Sixth Floor Museum since we didn't have time for it.
Grannadaddy, who is a history buff, explains the events to Evie.
Evie ponders whether she agrees with the single bullet theory or not.
We headed out of Dallas toward El Paso for our longest driving day. We made a stop in Abilene, TX where there was a museum of illustrated children's literature.
Also statues of Santa
The Easter Bunny (E. Aster Bunnymund)
And the Duck on the Bike, all characters from children's books
Back in the car again, and then we stopped for a picnic lunch. We had a table near a tree where there was a nest of grackles, and we happened to catch the parents push one of their littles out of the nest. Time to fly! I'm not actually sure both parents were in agreement because there was a lot of squawking after the fact and that caught Evie's attention and she become completely preoccupied with wondering if the baby was going to be okay.
You can see the baby by the sidewalk (we didn't want to get any closer)
Then we drove on to El Paso and got in about 6:30 pm. Evie had time for a swim before our barbecue arrived from Door Dash.
We had a hot breakfast at the hotel, which was a treat because our previous hotel was only doing grab and go bags, and then we headed out about 8 am.
We drove along the US/Mexico border and Seth pointed out to Evie the difference in architecture and infrastructure in Juarez vs. El Paso, something that made an impression on him as a kid. We went to the Fort Bliss and Old Ironsides Museum (amazingly they let us in even though we didn't have a pass - the guy at the gate told me to hold my ID real low under the dashboard so the video cameras wouldn't catch that....), and it was interesting to see all the tanks and transport vehicles, and to imagine what it must be like to be operating them. We talked about how Pappaw (Granna's dad) had learned to drive a tank when he was stationed in Hawaii during WWII.
Evie wanted to play dress up in their dress up area, and I let her, but it was hard for me... I kept thinking about countries where kids not much old than her are conscripted into the army.
Pappaw in Hawaii, about 1943/44
Next up was New Mexico, Evie's first new state of the trip and her 30th state!
We headed to White Sands National Park, where we braved the 100 degree weather for a little while with a short stroll down the boardwalk, and then made an attempt at sledding the dunes.
It was HOT!
Granna brought us fans and we were very glad to have them
After braving the heat there, we realized that a picnic lunch would be pretty unbearable, so we stopped for a meal at Wendy's and then went to Alamagordo to see the pistachio farms at Pistachioland.
World's Largest Pistachio
After some shopping, we headed on to our stop for the night: an AirBnB condo in Albuquerque.
Sunday morning, Seth, Evie and I took a stroll through Old Town Albuquerque, which was incredibly pleasant at only 80 something degrees and 10% humidity. We enjoyed seeing the adobe style architecture and their park.
This is our condo/townhouse, walking distance to Old Town
Cute little shop in Old Town
Happy Father's Day to Seth!
We bought Evie some honeysticks at the grocery store
We went to church at the Cathedral of St. John in Albuquerque, and then had the enjoyable task of needing to put air in the tires of the van. We stopped at a gas station and I thought I had successfully aired them up, but it turned out that no air was going in because the machine was damaged, so Dad took over (it was Father's Day after all....)
We had wanted to eat at La Placita, which is a restaurant that both my parents and Seth and I ate at on separate trips to Albuquerque, but it was closed and so was the restaurant next door. We later learned they were closed due to worker shortages. So we found Back Street Grill which took an incredibly long time, but was absolutely delicious. We shopped during our wait and Evie got outfitted with some balloons.
Look how sweet they are!
Then we went to the Explora! Museum which was a great place! They had all kinds of hands on experiments for kids, and ample seating for grown ups, so we all enjoyed experiencing science and comfort.
Building a machine to convey marbless
Discovering uses for different cranks, levers, etc.
Playing with bubbles
We went back to the condo for a rest and then had dinner at 66 Diner which was a gem that Granna found. Indoor seating, but socially distanced, with New Mexico style burgers (smothered with cheese and green chiles) or typical diner fare, great milkshakes and sundaes, and amazing atmosphere.
It's been a great trip so far with much more to go!
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