After Christmas, we headed back to Ohio to spend some time with Oma and Papa.
We got in a lovely walk around the Ohio University campus. It was so quiet there were a bunch of deer grazing in between buildings, not a student to be found.
Of course, we had to hit up Little Fish brewery, since our #1 brewery fan was with us! Tasty food and drinks; glad they are still in business! (H and I came in 2023.) They were good enough that it warranted a shirt to add to the collection. Lisa was trying to hide from the photographer, but we got her!
The weather was pleasant enough that the tetherball was calling our name.
We were enjoying wearing jackets and hoodies enough that we took another spin around the neighborhood. Owen played Tarzan. It was mild, but a cold front blew in on our last day that dropped the temps by about 30 degrees with fierce winds and snow flurries.
I had a crazy notion to drive up to Michigan to get our 40th state on the map, so we drove a few hours to check out Ann Arbor for a couple of days. Brr!! Nothing like Michigan in late December! That front was intense on our walk down Main Street. It was in the teens and windy, but the trees still looked cozy and festive. We popped in to the Rally House to warm up, but didn't buy anything since UT was about to play UM in the Citrus Bowl.
The next day we drove to Dearborn to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. What a fascinating place! It's amazing what a little money can collect under one roof. Where to begin...?
They even had a Lego city built with some iconic Detroit buildings, holiday touches, and a Batman Santa scavenger hunt.
We spent a lot of time in the automotive section (go figure!) of the museum. They have an impressive collection of planes, trains, and automobiles showing the evolution of technology through the years. Some of our faves were the presidential limos, race cars, and the super big boy steam locomotive.
We took a timeout to go on a tour of the Rouge Factory. No pictures were allowed, but it was a pretty amazing factory where the F-150 is made. Unfortunately, they too were on holiday, so the assembly line was not actually making anything, but we got the idea even without the frenetic productivity.
We were starving when we got back to the museum, so we got some lunch specials in the 1946 diner, complete with Detroit's own Faygo soda, or liquid sugar as I like to call it.
After lunch, we were feeling the time crunch already. So much still to see! We sat on Rosa Parks' bus, watched wing walkers, toured a Dymaxion house, saw George Washington's cot, boarded early passenger planes, and walked through massive machines.
As we pulled into Ann Arbor, we sought out Zingerman's Delicatessen on Lisa's (AA native) recommendation. It was yummy and full of personality.
We had a few hours to kill before our flight the next morning, so when in Ann Arbor... Why not check out the University? It was a snowy, quiet New Year's Eve morning on campus, and nothing was open (not even the bathrooms!). Thankfully we made it to Joe's Pizza NYC just as they were opening for the day, so we used the facilities and got some tasty slices before our walk back to the car.
As we were walking around, we noticed these leaf clusters stuck in the bare branches, but on closer inspection it was actually these super-fluffy, chubby squirrels! They were pretty cute and content in the snow.
Luckily, the pilots in Detroit are no strangers to flying in the snow. We had a pretty uneventful flight home (after the wait for de-icing) just in time for New Year's Eve countdown! Happy New Year!
For Spring Break this year, I asked the kids if they wanted to do beach or mountains, and they both responded "Mountains!" without hesitation. I had connections with a family friend's house in Ruidoso, NM, and it was a doable drive. Our week was available, so it was a done deal!
We overnighted at K&C's house outside of DFW and visited Grandad. Then we had our longer 8-hour car drive the next day. We drove through Roswell on a Sunday, so unfortunately, the free visitor's center and sights were closed. There was still plenty of touristy alien stuff, but we weren't that interested. It was a good place to stretch our legs though.
We arrived to our humble abode in the late afternoon, but we were pleased to see a little snow still remained from a few days prior. I had actually stayed in this house a few times probably 30-ish years before (!), and some memories came flooding back like the kids' bunk room and the 70's bamboo-printed, fully mirrored bathroom. It was a little dated, but it fit our needs, and I'm grateful that we got to go back to a little piece of my history.
This little family of deer hung around the neighborhood, often in our backyard, which was a fun thing to spot over morning coffee or next to the hammock the boys hung in the trees.
We were a bit road-weary, but too tired to hit up the grocery store right away, so we found a local brewery (Downshift) tucked in this beautiful spot on the main road, but with a multi-story deck overlooking the river.
It was a little chilly outside (love that refreshing mountain air!), so we sat inside where we enjoyed live music and played Skulls while we waited for our delicious pizza to arrive.
I have a couple of vacationers that prefer a low-key itinerary, so I had planned for Monday to just be a chill day at the house to acclimate to the high altitude (>6k ft). However, we got a knock on the door from a work crew letting us know that they were cutting off the water for a few hours that afternoon to work on the lines, so we ate lunch while we had water (we had done a quick Walmart trip after dinner the night before) and opted to go on an easy hike in town along the river we had seen behind the brewery. There was a nice path, but it ended sort of abruptly, and we still had some time to kill before returning to the house.
So we found a longer hike on the edge of town. There are actually wild horses that roam the area (maybe related to the nearby horse track?), and there were several near the trailhead here. I don't think this is an animal that I have seen out in the wild before, and it was fascinating... They didn't really seem to care about the humans around. We also saw some elk driving through town around the country club.
This was a legit trail, and we consulted a map so that we didn't end up on a spur trail off in the wilderness. It started in the trees, but did open up to some nice views of Sierra Blanca.
We did a mid-distance loop and still had some time before we figured they'd have the water back on, so we walked up and down the main strip of shops and picked up a few souvenirs and a pick-me-up snack along the way.
When we got back to the house after the workman's estimated time, the water still wasn't on, and we were considering our options when it finally came on just before dark. Phew! We were able to make dinner and get some rest before venturing out to White Sands National Park the next morning. It was just a little over an hour away, and we could see it as the white strip just below the mountains from miles out.
The Visitor's Center was a little crazy, so we made a potty stop and got in the car line to enter. The isolation of this place is pretty amazing. I guess that's why there's a missile range next door! We hiked out, up and down a few dunes to separate ourselves from the family picnickers. After a while, if I hadn't been in the steady stream of cars, I would have never guessed there were so many people there. We felt almost alone!
The house had snow sleds, which were perfect for sand sledding too. Don't they look like they're searching for a desert oasis?
It wasn't as easy as it looks, but we had a few decent runs.
The sand is incredibly fine and soft, like baby powder. It's actually gypsum, which reflects the sun's rays, so it stays nice and cool, especially if you dig down a bit. We had fun making sand angels, sand beards, and Hadley buried Owen like we were at the beach. We did see a group or two that planned ahead and brought a canopy. Genius! That's all we needed, and we could have stayed for hours. But the sun was pretty intense after a while, so we headed back to Alamogordo for a late lunch and then back to our cabin in the woods.
The next day, I took the kids up the mountain (Sierra Blanca) to Ski Apache, which is where I learned to ski many moons ago. I brought mine with us from home, and we rented equipment for the kids. This was the first time I had been the driver up the mountain, and I have to say I was white-knuckling it and trying not to look at the sweeping views with only a tiny wire keeping us from careening off the cliff side on the hairpin turns up and up. 😬
We made it! They make their own snow, so there were plenty of lifts and runs open. After a few turns on the bunny slope, we did the "advanced" bunny slope for an hour or so, and the kids did great! Although, Owen must have one leg that's longer than the other because he managed to spin himself around quite a bit. 😂
After the line grew long at our usual lift, we decided to try out the gondola, which takes you up to the top of the mountain. The view was amazing (150 degrees or so) to the backside (south) of the mountain, and we could even see White Sands (just above the trees to the left below) off in the distance!
The runs off the gondola were mostly blue, so we found an unpopular lift and hidden run that gave us a pretty good circuit for the rest of the day. The lift went right up the front slope, which was icy from the wind, and we had a front row to watch skier after skier attempt and fail at that run. Around 2pm they started to shut our lift down because the wind was picking up, so that's when we called it a day, too.
Finally, we were due for our chill house day, so after we got back from skiing we decided to start a 1000-pc puzzle! Crazy idea, but we at least got the edges and castle finished in one day.
We left on Friday, and wanted to hit Carlsbad Caverns on the way home, but because of their reservation system and the Spring Break traffic, we couldn't get reservations for the cave until early Saturday morning. So we spent a wild Friday night in Carlsbad and went to the movies (Kung Fu Panda 4). The next morning, we were there bright and early for our 8:30am entrance time. The drizzle made for a good cave day. The kids took in the VC exhibits while I stood in line to get our official passes.
Then we were off to the caverns! You can either take an elevator down or walk down through the natural entrance. I had been there before and knew that the walk down was worth it, even if it would add to our 9-hour car day. It's a bunch of switchbacks leading to a dark hole in the ground that keeps going and going. So cool!
Finally the daylight starts to wane and you keep descending...
I really like this shot looking back up to the entrance. It gives you an appreciation for the journey down and the limited reach of natural light.
Of course there are wondrous things to see, and you end up with a ton of rock pictures in the end that don't nearly do it justice. Suffice it to say, it's a huge, fairly open room down at the bottom, tons of stalactites and stalagmites in drips and fins and popcorn formations, and clear pools of water. Definitely worth a stop, and a nice bookend to our time in New Mexico.
