7/20/13

Santa Fe has just jumped up on my favorite cities list a few notches.   Today was pretty cool. 

We woke up early this morning, early for us anyway, so that we could go to the healthy kids Run For Fun.  This is a city sponsored free event.  We thought it was just a 5k run and a mile walk.  It turned out to be a lot more. 

The 5k started just as we arrived, the attendance wasn't huge. 

The kids were not happy.   I believe that Michael thought we were going to make him run a 5k or half marathon. 

But we force marched them the one mile course through scenic downtown Santa Fe.  As soon as it was over we found out there was much more to the day including face painting, a rock wall, bounce houses and more.  All for free.  It was really cool.  Also, people were very friendly.  One guy just randomly went and found us a chair when we went to a table that had only three.  People were courteous and aware of their surroundings for the most part.  It turned into a wonderful day. 

They gave the boys a bunny to hold while they got their arms painted. 

It was a fun day.

Oh yeah, I finished the first draft of the Adventure Nickel book yesterday.  144 pages and a shade over 52k words.  Now a short rest before the real work of editing and rewriting begins. 

More treasure hunting.

After three days of ER twelves, my misanthropy was peaking.  So today we went treasure hunting again.  To the same place.  This time we completed the hike.  We finished the rockslide trail.  It used to be a portion of Highway 570, but a rockslide destroyed it.  Fun day.  We took Satchel with us this time instead of Russ. 

Right at the beginning of the hike, Max got a large splinter.  That made the trek a little less pleasant than we expected as we didn't have any way of extracting it.  But we managed.  Along the way we startled what appeared to my uneducated eye to be a juvenile bighorn sheep.  Pretty cool 

Neat tree.  I climbed down in search of treasure and found photo op treasure.

Another photo op treasure from the Rio de Pueblo de Taos.

Looking back the way we came. 

A neat drainage culvert.  Michael looks like  he is straightening his hat prior to walking the plank 

Of course you wear a pirate hat to look for treasure.  Michael stopped to examine our reference materials.

I'm reading what Michael told me to.  Max is enjoying the shade.

Our mountain quadraped friend.

What are you guys doing out here?

Hey, I never had a chance to photograph one of these guys.  I went nuts snapping pictures.

Back on the trail.  If you zoom you can see the sheep still up on the rocks, waiting for us to leave.

Time to gambol about the rocks. 

Satchel just wanted shade, it was hot out. 

Arrrrr, there be treasure nearby, I can smell it. 

Then at the end of the trail, there is all this trash in the canyon.  Who does this?  "Hey it's a gorgeous waterway, lets drop trash into it."  A**holes.

The way back down.

So, we took it. 

After the hike we spent some time wading in the Rio Grande.   Of course the kids were soaked, but Sarah had brought a change of clothes.  She only forgot underwear.  The kids were going commando.  After we got home and had dinner and coffee, we went for a walk.  Michael and Max were playing tag.  Max slipped and fell on a cactus, with no underwear.  WE spent half an hour pulling spines out of his hands and butt.  Poor kid. 

No work tomorrow.  YAY!  Thanks again Mr. Forrest Fenn.  I got to take my kids hiking with a minimum of fussing.  You rock.