the little travelers * travel blog

wow...i've been nominated!

I got an email notifying me that I'd been nominated for an award!  wow.  Then I took a peek and noticed I had no votes- haha!  For those that would like to humor me there are prizes involved.  If we win I will donate a Dream Basket from The Heiffer Organization.  So vote away!!  It's a bit of a pain to register but taking out 2 minutes of time could dramatically change a few families' lives forever.  so please take action!  thanks.  Click on the 'Vote for this Site" button in sidebar.

new interview up

Hey, there's a new interview up today on Wandering Educators.  It's a great site with lots of excellent resources.  Check it out!

flickr contests!

I finally got around to getting my flickr accounts up!  I've been wanting these so all of you could start posting your family travel photos!  I've started two groups -the first being family travel.  I'd like this to focus on people rather than landscapes as flickr has tons of gorgeous sites already on incredible locations.  I'd like this forum to be for families to encourage each other to venture out with the kids.  That being said, the family travel forum is not limited to those who travel overseas.  Even if your family adventures are only to your own backyard - please share them!  I will select a photo each week to be featured on the site and the winner will receive a FREE Little Travelers dvd of their choice.

The second flickr group is called "Global crafts, activities and celebrations."  This group is to share how you as a family create using natural materials, celebrate holidays and festivities and any activities you may do in your home that focus on 'connection.'  This can be anything from a gratitude ritual to  a birthday celebration, rites of passages, ethnic celebrations...  The list could go on forever.  The goal of this group is to inspire others to bring more beauty, ritual and celebration into our lives from various perspectives and cultures around the world.  It is important to note that this group is respectful to all forms of faith, religions, beliefs and expressions.  I will also choose a photo to feature each week and the winner will receive a FREE dvd of their choice.  

Inspire us!  and send us your photos!!!  Click on the photo flickr badges in the right sidebar to go to the flickr group of your choice.

Weekly bento #7

This bikini shot is for our last Monday of summer!  Although locally, we are anticipating temps finally going under the 100's soon!  Our bikinis are still in full use.  Another beauty by luckysundae.

sedona

We took a little day trip up to Sedona today for a little break from the heat.  It's still in the low 100's in the city but was in the 90's up in Sedona. 

The road into town.  I love coming around that turn and being blasted with this view.  I imagine if I lived here I would try to take this road everywhere I went just so I could be wowed as often as possible.  It makes me feel so small with it's vastness.  I love that feeling and it helps me keep things in perspective.  Like when I can't figure something out on my computer and it starts to feel like a BIG problem.  Matched up against these rocks it seems absurd.  

Last time I was here was for a wedding about 5 years ago.  It was held right at the base of Bell Rock and was gorgeous.  We were living in California and it was the first time we ever left the kids overnight with Oma.  Seems ages ago.

For lunch we were really wanting to eat rattlesnake and all excited about it.  When we got to the cowboy saloon they gave us the bad news- sold out!   So we got buffalo instead.  We did try prickly pear cactus french fries, which none of us had tried before and they were quite good.  A sort of cross between fried zucchini and tempura green beans.  It cracked me up to see that even the cowboy saloon has succumb to the modern pressures of removing 'deep fried' from their menu and replacing it with the gentler 'tempura style.'  Funny.  I mean there was no panko on the cactus - it was just battered, breaded and deep fried!  Very tasty though- and definitely worth the food hangover we'll all have tomorrow.

Natures water park.  Rock Slide Park, just a few miles north of Sedona is one of my favorites.

This kid is nuts! Look closely at the boy doing a flip.  After he landed he smiled at me and said, 'Did you get it?"  I offered to email him a copy and he said, "Nah, what would I do with it?"  I love him.

I always think of kids like this during the Olympics when the announcers say, "The best divers in the world."  I think, 'ya, except for the kids who live near tall cliffs and bodies of water.'  

The girls started slowly.  The water was freezing!  Seriously, my feet were in for about a minute and were numb.  This time a year they say it's about 55 degrees and we think a pool at 85 is cold.

Then the big sister is in!  so brave!!  I was really proud of her since I was far too wimpy to get that wet- up to  my knees is all I could bear.

And she's off!  down the slide she goes.

The little sister takes after me I guess, since this is as wet as she got today.

A good, fun and relaxing day.

the perfect lunch...

We were told about a little place here in Phoenix called The Farm that was supposed to have good solid food in a fabulous setting- and it did not disappoint.  A small kitchen and miles of picnic tables to choose from.  I'm still used to California scale of things and the real estate cost on this many picnic benches makes small eateries like this an impossibility.  

Food comes in baskets and they use biodegradable disposable flatware.  

The apple pie was excellent with very little sugar, more tart than sweet.

The best part was that there were plenty of trees for climbing when the eating was done.

The lunch ended when a 'tiny' black ant bit the little sister.  "It wasn't even a red one!"  Isn't life like that sometimes...  just when the day is moving along so well, the food so good, the setting so pretty- the tiniest little thing comes along and takes a bite out of you.  until the next moment.

water fun: regulated.

The little sister had her first field trip today with her new school.  The big sister came along since she's not in school right now.   The class was one of three invited to the grand opening of the new water feature at the Phoenix zoo.  Since temps are still in the 100's here it was definitely time to add some splash to this place.  The resident macaw at the zoo did the ribbon cutting and then the water pumps were fired up and swoosh!  the kids were off.  The one slide was crazy fast and the kids were all flying out it.  onto a skid proof, padded surface.  Us parents with our cameras were having as much fun as the kids capturing the hilarity.

That was the first half an hour.  The zoo people were all feeling good watching the kids having fun and it seemed as though it were all a success.  

Then the regulators showed up.  The second class from another school with all of its teachers.  Need I say more.  They felt it necessary to monitor the slide, started yelling at all the kids, "ONE AT A TIME!"  They told the zoo people that the slide was too fast and needed to be fixed because it was way too DANGEROUS.  Next thing you know the guys have lost their smiles, the water was shut off and they 'took charge.'  

The funny thing was that turning off the water barely slowed down the slide, so the teachers lovingly 'caught' all the kids coming down.  yup, felt it necessary to catch 6 yr old boys coming down a slide onto a padded surface!  sigh.  and kept up their yelling.  for safety's sake.

Still a good fun day was had.  We'll definitely be back.

Weekly bento #6

Talk about crossing cultures!  I LOVE this by luckysundae.

road trip

On our way home from we found some fabulous wild west sites.

 

That's some big ol' skin there!  The little sister asked, "but why did they take it off the cow?"

If anyone comes up with a good answer for that, let me know!

I already mentioned the part about the kids in the back of  pick-ups, right?  on beach chairs eating McDonald's?  

Lot's of fun looking treasure in here.  Unfortunately, this shot was taken through a locked fence!  Closed on Sundays.

the wild west

So, life in Arizona is a bit more wild than in its western neighbor.  They do not have a helmet law, we've seen kids in the back of pick-ups and no hands free issues with the cel phone.  More freedom of choice.  I'm not mad at them for it.  But a good ol' road trip was in order to see more of this wild land.  The big sister is not going to school for now but we do like to follow a general Waldorfy approach to things.  Also, she may go  back at some point so we do like to incorporate Waldorf subjects into what we do.  Not so much in a book way but in an experiential way.  Third grade studiest farming, native Americans and house building.  We figured we're in the perfect place for a little native studies, so we headed off to Montezuma's castle.  It was built by the Sinagua about 700 years ago.

I love this place, but I agree with the girls in that, "It would be way funner if we could go inside."  I would just love to explore up there.

I would love to walk through all the rooms like it was a model home and choose our bedrooms, see if we could figure out which part was the kitchen and ponder the potty issue.  Every time I see something like this- you know, a huge structure built into the side of a cliff with mud most likely brought up one fistful at a time- I realize I don't really have as strong a work ethic as I'd like to think of myself as having.  "...but I stay up on my computer working late."  doesn't really seem to compare to scaling a cliff with one handful of mud.

So, I guess we'll have to do with a small scale model.

A cotton plant.  I'd never seen one unripe before.  Cotton, corn, squash, sunflowers and cactus were the main plants that they cultivated.  They built an irrigation system from the creek across the way from their shelter.  Just imagine the effort of getting a glass, oops I mean a gourd of water when thirsty in the middle of the night.

I fell into one of these once as a kid while roller skating and my mom had to pull all of these needles out of my rump with tweezers.  Ah, the scars of childhood...