vacation day 1 - raleigh to santa fe

[i actually wrote this on our first night, but our internet connection was so slow that i couldn't upload any photos, so... days later, this is what i wrote. we haven't used the computer since then but to upload photos daily. one day i'll finish writing this series!] today we started at my parents' house... got up bright and early (4am) to get at the airport "in time" for our 7am flight. you know how they recommend getting to the airport 2 hours early? well, when you have a 7 am flight, i think 1 hour is sufficient. maybe 1-1/2 hours... we had LOTS of time to walk and eat breakfast. i got a breakfast plate of eggs, grits, and bacon, and when i sat down to eat it, kendal handed me his pacy and sat up in his stroller. guess he was hungry too (even though he just had a bottle). so anyway, our first flight was from raleigh to orlando. the plane was only loaded about 30% capacity, which made for lots of empty seats!!! it was a little over 1 hour 30 minutes and was an easy flight, kendal slept through most of it. he got a little fussy that last 15 minutes, but he did have a wet diaper. our orlando flight landed at 8:35 and our next flight was at 9:05, which was hardly enough time to get from gate 101 to gate 125. nathaniel ran over to the gate with the carseat, leaving me behind, so he could get a seat (row). i walked at a more casual pace and stopped at the restroom for myself and to change kendal. he was VERY happy to be clean. anyway, that flight boarded on time, we got a seat at the very back. this flight also was also about 30% full. guess folks just aren't traveling by plane these days. this flight was almost a 4 hour flight and we were all already tired. we started the flight all 3 sitting together. quickly, nathaniel moved to the empty row in front of us, and i got K out of his seat and fed him breakfast. we played for a little while, then kendal got sleepy again, so back he went in his seat. he quickly zonked out, so nathaniel sat with him while i stretched out (laying down) in the seat/row in front of us. i went right to sleep also. i woke up with 2 hours of flight left, and we were flying over some really cool looking river with tons of oxbows (east texas?)! the geologist in me kicked in... and i took lots of photos! kendal slept for another hour (which only left 1 hour of flight left for him to be occupied). fortunately, this flight was also very smooth, so we didn't have to sit or stay buckled. so, we passed him around. plus every flight attendant and half the passengers came back there to talk to him and play with him. he was truly a hit. even got his own set of wings!!! so we landed with no problems, casually walked the half-mile to the baggage claim, and by then it was pretty much only our bags left on the wheel. well, all but 1 of our bags (fortunately one of the 2 camping bags). so, we had to deal with that, then we took the shuttle to the rental lot, upgraded to a SUV (4runner). we love it, i think we may take it home with us! ;) we left there and went to subway for lunch (it was noon here by then and we were starved and very thirsty). we drove north on 25 towards santa fe, but decided to take a detour to petroglyph national monument. it wasn't too far away, and was well worth the time. we found the visitor center, then we drove to boca negra canyon and walked one of the trails. we would have done all three except we had NO water (and their ladies room was out of order). nathaniel walked the quick one while i loaded K in the car. here are some of the petroglyph photos and 1 video about the park: (and yes, one of these photos is of a macaw - aparently long time ago the native americans traded turqouise to the aztec for macaws, they used their feathers.) speaking of turquoise, there was a rest stop on I25 that had a sign about the local history. i know it is hard to read, but it says "the prominent hills to the east and to the left are the cerrillos hills..." question: what exactly is to the east and to the left? we were facing north. to the east is to the right... and to the left is the west. so did they mean to the east and west? or to the north and west? i'm just not sure. there were little hills everywhere! ok, so that is it for now. we are in our motel, it is eh. we ate dinner at whole foods (which had a local flare plus the normal weirdos). the food was good, even kendal had his own plate. it is bedtime. more tomorrow...