Day Two

I got everybody up at 6:30 (trust me when I say they were SUPER jazzed about this) so we could make the 45 minute drive from Durango to Mesa Verde National Park.   You have to buy tickets to see some of the more popular cliff dwellings and they are sold on a first come, first serve basis at the visitors center.  It opened at 7:30, so I wanted to get there as close to then as possible.  

Taking our traditional "boys at the park entrance sign" picture. 

We got to the visitors center about 7:45.  We got tickets for the two cliff dwellings that we wanted to go to and the first available were 11:00 and 1:00.  Glad we got there when we did! The boys outside the welcome center.

Hudson seeing what he can see on his binoculars. 

We had to drive to the other side of the park to get to the cliff dwellings, so we enjoyed some scenery along the way.

Our first cliff dwelling to see - Spruce Room. You can't go in it right now, but it was neat to see from a distance.

The first guided tour was the Balcony House.  

We bought 3 tickets - for Brian and the boys.  I did not go and you will soon see why.  I asked Brian to take pictures for me and not only did he take pictures of the boys, but he also took pictures of the three reasons he knew I would be glad I did not go.  Reason 1: The 32 foot tall ladder you had to climb.  He knew I would not only hate this for myself, but I would be freaked out about Hudson falling the whole time (he's a bit of a spazz and tends to freak me out at national parks.  You know, with the drop offs and heights and steep stuff, etc..)

The two cutest boys ever in Balcony House.

Reason 2 (and the main reason I did not buy myself a ticket). The 18" wide, 12 foot long tunnel you had to crawl through to get out. For real people. CRAWL.

Those pictures almost make me break out in hives. (Anyone remember my freak out on the stairs in the Statue of Liberty?  This would have been 100 times worse.). Brian said it was so tight at the end, he had to turn sideways to get his shoulders to go though. Oh. My. Word.  Why do people do this on purpose??? 

Reason 3: the steep climb out.  Brian said it was steps cut into the rock, but super steep and people were using the chain to help pull themselves up and out.

All I've got to say is that after he showed me those pictures, it's obvious my husband knows me very well.  I would've embarrassed my whole family with a full blown panic attack. He said "There was one lady down there that would've been you. She was saying "I can't do this!" and the group was cheering her on."  Uh, no thanks.  I sat in the car with the windows rolled down and read a magazine.  Good times were had by all and I call that a win. #vacationingwin

The boys came out of Balcony House and got a drink and snack and we headed over to Cliff Palace.  We had a couple of smaller ladders to climb, but nothing too bad at all.  It is so awesome down in there.  They liked it because it was a lot bigger than Balcony House.

After the tour, we headed out to grab some lunch.  We stopped at the first cafe we came to in the park and had a $49 meal of burgers and sandwiches.  I was starving and it was wonderful. :) 

By this time it was about 3:00. We left the park and made the 2 hour trek to Moab.  

We rented a condo for the next few nights and the boys not only got their own beds, but their own rooms.  They were very excited after sharing a couch fold out bed at the hotel last night. :) 

After getting settled, we headed back into town for dinner and to grab some groceries for the next few days. I cut up fruit and stuff for our lunch the next day and got in bed around 10 for another early morning!