I do promise to finish describing in boring detail my trip to Mali! But first -- here is "how we spent our Mardi Gras Holiday":
The girls got out of school at 12 on Friday, the 12th. I picked them up along with a friend each and we headed to the mall for some lunch and a movie (Valentine's Day). Home for some fun, pizza, sleepover. The rest of Saturday was spent with piano lessons and miscellaneous.
Sunday the 14th was our 13th anniversary -- can you believe? Besides celebrating (chocolate!), I did laundry and we packed for our trip.
Monday rolled around and we headed for the train station for our trip. AMTRAK again, though this time the cars were smaller (no toilet and sink in the sleepers -- they were down the hall) and no baggage service (as we were getting off at an un-staffed station). But we still had 2 sleepers and were able to manage. The thing I personally didn't like as much about this train was that the long layovers (Houston and San Antonio) occurred during the late evening/night when I like to sleep. I prefer the motion of the train when sleeping to sitting still. In any event, we arrived in Alpine, TX early, met up with the rental car guy to get the keys to a Suburban, and headed for Big Bend National Park -- perhaps Tom's favorite place on earth. We had 4 nights at the lodge (I am NOT a camper despite my recent excursion to Mali!). We got there about 4pm and took a brief walk on one of the 1/2 mile tracks then went to dinner. Great food at the lodge and a wide variety - nice considering that's the only place to eat and you'd get really tired eating the same thing all the time!
The next morning we slept in a bit and Tom set a challenging goal -- 6.8 mile hike rising 2000 ft in elevation to the South Rim. That turns into a 13.4 mile round trip. With backpacks and water (total of about 2 gallons). WOW! I really didn't think the girls would make it, but they did! And so did I.....Needless to say, we were tired and hungry when we made it back down! The next day we headed for an "easy" 2 mile hike and then did another un-marked hike to the waterfall that supplies the area with water. Really beautiful. Friday we did a 4.8 mile 1000 ft elevation change hike to another beautiful view. New appreciation for hiking boots (though Maggie still finds hers to be hideous). Only one trip and fall on the trip (me, immediately after Tom gave the girls the speech on how to correctly fall when you are going downhill -- and I trip and fall forwards instead of onto my bottom). Only one encounter with a cactus (me, with one of those prickly pears that has the teeny tiny stickers -- I pulled out about 200 of them -- didn't hurt, but were aggravating). And the loss of one water bottle (one I'd taken to Mali that ended up with a crack when I fell). Big Bend IS truly beautiful and there is such variety -- one hike had us in sand and then rock-climbing, one had us on rocks, gravel, dirt, volcanic ash, AND sand. Variety in terms of plants depending on elevation and which side of the mountain you're on (rainy or dry). Amazing!
Saturday we drove back to Alpine, had an awful Chinese lunch and walked around the town. There isn't much to do there! Sul Ross State University is there -- curious what the students do for fun.....Back on the train for the trip home. Got home about an hour and a half early which was nice as I had 4 loads of laundry from the trip to do. But it is certainly good to be back home!
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