We left Traverse City at 8am on Saturday, a stunning feat given that the girls had been sleeping in till 8:30 or 9 all week and that we're traditionally late in most things that we do as a family.  The skies were just beginning a soft drizzle of rain, a fitting farewell (that helped the kids realize that even if we'd stayed, we wouldn't be hanging out at the lake as they were wont to do).  We gave our farewell hugs and toodled off down the peninsula on a Volvo and a prayer.

We reached Grand Rapids just in time for lunch. I think I've only been to Grand Rapids once or twice before (on visits to see Bakkes and Wags) but I'd never been downtown.  We parked on Ottawa Ave, which is roughly perpendicular to Monroe Center St. where I'd found 3 restaurants with positive ratings online.  We walked to Monroe Center and found XO Asian Cuisine right off the bat.  But since we didn't really want to haul leftovers in a car with no refrigeration, we thought we'd pursue the sandwich shops on my list instead. We ended up eating at Blake's Turkey Sandwich Shoppe, which was fine, though their veggie selections were ac knowledgeably slim.  Finding the sandwich shop was the first of several "find the restaurant games" we played in which Meg felt quite confident that she could find the spot, but Rob held doubt in his heart.  :-P


The downtown area was quite nice (if not a little empty, but maybe that was because of the time of day we were there).  We were severely impressed with how clean the city was. There wasn't even gum on the sidewalk! 

After lunch we set off again and made it through the traffic of Chicago with little incident.  (We had planned on taking a ferry across Lake Michigan in order to avoid the traffic, but when we found out it would cost $350 and only save us about an hour and a half, we decided to toss that idea out the window.) 

We had dinner in Davenport, Iowa at a very nice little brew pub called the Front Street Brewery that was right across from one of the locks on the river. The kids got a chance to scooter around in the parking lot, letting off a bit of steam.  And then we drove through town to get back to I-80 and saw several cool old houses and other buildings.


We hit two torrential downpours as we crossed Iowa.  During the first one we couldn't see beyond the end of our car and pulled over for awhile.  We arrived in Omaha at 11 and found a crummy hotel to stay in.  (All the decent hotels were full.  What's with that?)  It was cheap, at least, and had free wifi.



We stopped in Lincoln, Nebraska for breakfast in a little coffee shop.  I was impressed to see a Russian shop across the street and Rob was impressed by the size of the Cornhuskers football stadium.  We then set off once again and stopped in Kearney (where we had stopped on the very first day of our trip for dinner).  We had seen a little French Cafe listed in a tourist mag that we'd picked up on our first visit to the city.  So we thought we'd give it a go for lunch. 

Colorado corn field

On Friday morning, Rob rushed off at 7:45 to defend his technical paper.  (He took all his masters' level classes a few years back, but the paper took a bit longer -- especially since he's been working full time since then.) He was a bit groggy still, having just got in from San Francisco at 1:30 am, but he bravely stumbled out the door to discuss "The Governance of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act".  In the meantime, I packed, fed everyone, ran several errands and spent too long looking for Nathan's long lost glasses.

Around 9:30, Rob called to say that his paper had been accepted and that he had a few more things he had to do to shove it through the system and then he would be home.  When all was said and done, we ended up leaving Fort Collins by noon.

As we headed north on I-25, I snapped a photo of corn fields and Rob started rustling around for a map to glance at.  "Map?" I said, aghast.  Who needs a map?  We drive north till we hit Wyoming, then we turn right."  Rob looked a little leary, but went with it. 

Colorado/Wyoming border

We weren't in Wyoming long (which I found to be problematic since I was trying to get a quick pic of each state.  I got one right at the Wyoming border into Nebraska.)  Then we passed a wide-load truck hauling the weirdest pipes I've ever seen (looked like water pipes but full of little holes) so I snapped another shot.

Wyoming/Nebraska border	Weird pipes

At some point in either Wyoming or Nebraska, Nathan (who I had told numerous times over the last few days to scour the house for his glasses) popped out with, "Oh look!  My glasses!"  They were in the kid's backpack.  *eyeroll* 

Around 7-ish, we pulled into Kearney and ate at an Old Chicago.  We don't generally frequent chain restaurants, but when you're on the road, it's hard to find the little local places that we'd prefer. (I did grab a local tourist mag. while we were there, though.  So on the way back we might try a French Café that's listed there.)  We sat down to order and Nathan noticed that they'd only given us two kid menus and while the girls were given water in plastic cups with tops, he was given a big glass of water just like Rob and I got.  He asked me about it and I pointed out that when we walked in, the server probably saw two kids and a teenager.  It took him a moment to think that one out.  (He's only 10, after all.)  But then it dawned on him that I meant him and he blushed and sunk a little lower in his seat, smiling but embarrassed.

Nebraska

Our plan had been to stop in Des Moines, but it was getting so late that we decided to just find a hotel on the far side of Omaha. Unfortunately, when we passed the last hotel it looked like we were still in town -- we had no idea we were at the edge.  So after that there were no more hotels for several miles.  We stopped at several hotels over the next hour and a half and every single one was full because of some Harley event in the area.  (Whatever happened to "No Vacancy" signs?)  We eventually ended up in a Motel 6 in Des Moines.  (No continental breakfast.  Internet was $2.99.  After staying in several hotels during Spring Break, each of which gave complimentary breakfasts and wifi, I was a bit dismayed.)

We set off in the morning and figured we'd eat breakfast after traveling a ways.  We pulled over in Kellogg, Iowa, which was a really cute little town.  But the only restaurants were bars, so we headed off for nearby Grinnell instead.  (Some guys in Kellogg recommended a diner there.) 

The diner in Grinnell	Iowa wild flowers

The diner was a real hit.  I got a veggie omelet that was very good. It had caramelized onions and peppers that were really tasty.  Nathan got the French toast with ham.  (I don't eat meat, but the ham really did look good.) Anna got a pancake and Naomi got two pancakes with bacon.  Rob had a philly steak omelet (which also had the yummy caramelized onions and peppers).

Corn fields as far as the eye can see	The Mississippi river

We drove into Chicago by 4:30 and visited with friends who not only fed us dinner, but they also let us hold their bearded dragon, Draco.  The kids had a great time running around and it was nice to have a break from the car. 

Draco	Chicago

But then we all piled in one last time and headed off toward Detroit.  We pulled into Canton well after midnight.

1. Plymouth, MN
2. Fort Collins, CO
3. Naperville, IL
4. Irvine, CA
5. Franklin Township, NJ
6. Norman, OK
7. Round Rock, TX
8. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD
9. Overland Park, KS
10. Fishers, IN

Other Colorado cities to make the list: Highlands Ranch (#12), Loveland (#33), Westminster (#44), Longmont (#50).

This is an excerpt from a letter I wrote today:

My dad continues to get worse.  For a long time he seemed to stay about the same.  He was more active in the summer and a bit easier to deal with in the winter, but from year to year it seemed like he was stuck at a point where he could converse and do various activities, he just couldn’t remember very well and he occasionally did embarrassing things (like comment on how fat someone was within hearing distance).  But in the past two years there’s been a sharp decline to the point where now he hardly speaks.  He can read almost anything, but spontaneous speech is pretty much limited to a few lines.  (“Let’s go out the front door,” being the one that I hear the most often.)

My mom sends him to adult day-care twice a week.  They’re really good with him and it gives her a breather.  She really should have sent him more often when he was harder to deal with, but any break, even now, helps.  

He walks A LOT.  You can walk in a circle at my mom’s house through the kitchen, the dining room, and the living room then back to the kitchen.  Pretty much my dad just walks in that circle from the time he gets up to the time he goes to sleep.  A couple years ago he went through a phase where he ate everything in site (including food in front of other people and dog or cat treats that were left around).  He gained a lot of weight and went up several pant sizes.  Well now he’s lost all of that weight and is even thinner than my mom ever remembers him being.  Something about the dementia makes him agitated and he just walks and walks and walks.  If he sits down, it’s only for a few seconds and then he pops right back up again to walk around some more.

If you ask him a question, he’ll look at you for a few seconds, and then continue doing whatever he was doing before (most likely walking).  As recently as 6 or 8 months ago he was able to answer a question such as “Who am I?”  but not any more.

It’s difficult getting him to eat anything.  If cookies or candy are sitting out, he’ll grab something to eat and munch while he’s walking.  Lollipops are particularly favored, although he’ll chew the stick when the candy is gone, so you have to watch and remove the stick when he’s reached the end.  But getting him to sit down at a table and eat is very hard to do.  Often you have to hand him a plate of food and he’ll take a bite while walking.  Then he sets the plate down and you have to get it and hand it to him again on his next pass through.

But while he’s clearly getting “worse,” he’s also getting better in the sense that he’s easier to deal with.  Whereas before he’d ask questions almost non-stop, now he hardly talks and when he does it’s quieter and not insistent at all in the way that it used to be.  He’s pretty gentle and complacent (other than needing to walk like crazy).  

He’ll most likely eventually lose the ability to speak at all, even to read.  Sometimes he leans when he walks, so obviously something is taking place physically, but it’s hard to tell what’s going on when he can’t tell us anything.

The plan is to try to take care of him as long as we can on our own and only put him in a nursing home when it’s too hard to care for him.

The picture is of my dad after I picked him up from daycare where they had been celebrating Mardi Gras.

A funny moment at the Spelling Bee 2008.

Mocana just picked up another award. It's one of those awards you've never heard of (at least I'd heard of Red Herring before), but hey, it's recognition and recognition, in general, is a good thing. :-)

I occasionally find that reading the paper in the morning is a bit of a surreal experience.  This morning was one of those times.

Though the story about human cockfighting building army moral was a bit odd (to my way of thinking, at least), it was the articles on trash bandits (particularly those stealing used cooking oil) and "the end of poop" (Peru stands guard over islands of bird crap) that make me go, "hmmmmm."

I suppose this means it's time to start stock piling old french fry oil and dog turds?

(And yes, the men in the picture are standing on mountains of bird turds... that they're worried won't last much longer.  I'm really not sure which of those facts is more disconcerting.)

The girls performed this for the school talent show.

Mocana is a top 100 finalist in Red Herring's list of top tech startups in North America. woo hoo!

Here's the blurb from Mocana's website.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – April 22, 2008 – Mocana, a security software company that delivers comprehensive protection for devices, today announced that it has been chosen as a finalist for the Red Herring 100 Award, a selection of the 100 most innovative private technology companies based in North America.

The Red Herring editorial board diligently surveyed the entrepreneurial scene throughout the North American region and identified the top 200 out of more than 800 closely evaluated companies that are leading the next wave of innovation. Mocana has been recognized because its device security technology is meeting a critical industry need as enterprises across all industries are placing increased pressure on device manufactures to provide equipment and services that are secure. By leveraging Mocana’s Device Security Framework, device manufacturers are able to guarantee the integrity and security of those devices.

“We can see the exciting evolution of the technology sector reflected in the quality and variety of exceptional companies that we had to choose from in putting our list together," said Joel Dreyfuss, editor-in-chief of Red Herring." It was tough to choose just 200 finalists from such a large list of excellent contenders, and we are very happy with the quality of the companies we selected as finalists."

“At a time when any device connected to a network, whether it be a cell phone, router, or digital frame, has the potential to be threatened by viruses or malware, device security is paramount,” said Adrian Turner, CEO of Mocana. “Having been named a finalist to the Red Herring 100 further validates the industry need for device security and acknowledges that Mocana is offering an innovative, comprehensive approach to securing anything connected to the network.”

Mocana’s Device Security Framework is specifically designed for device manufacturers and service providers and contains software that gets embedded into devices at the time of manufacture. The Device Security Framework offers a unified approach for device security and management by managing device identity; authenticating devices and device applications onto a network; securing communications between devices; and by enabling secure firmware updates. It is easy to implement, offers high levels of scalability and performance and a very small footprint, making it ideal for any connected device, even resource constrained ones-minimizing the impact on device power requirements. The Device Security Framework also extremely portable, working across more than 15 operating systems and 50+ CPU’s, making it the ideal choice for securing any connected device.

The 100 winning companies will be announced at the Red Herring North America event. The CEOs of the winning startups will present their innovative ideas and technologies to an audience of leading entrepreneurs, financiers, and corporate strategists at the event in San Jose, California, on May 12-14 at the Fairmont. This year’s Red Herring 100 North America event marks the 11th anniversary of the Red Herring 100 Awards. In celebration, the event will feature keynote addresses from legendary VC investors and CEOs of leading Internet, information, and communications companies. Register online at: http://herringevents.com/northamerica08/index.html.

About Mocana
Mocana securely enables Internet-scale applications and services for connected devices. Mocana's industry-leading infrastructure software solutions ensure that wired and wireless devices, networks and services perform and scale with the utmost security – a necessary foundation for a networked society. Customers include Philips, Dell, Cisco, Nortel Networks, Harris, Honeywell, Symbol, Net.com and Radvision, among others. Mocana was founded in 2002, is privately-held, and headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.mocana.com. To request a free full source code and documentation evaluation of Mocana's security solutions, visit www.mocana.com/evaluate.html.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company which unites the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy.

More Problems With Plastics
Like BPA, chemicals called phthalates raise some concerns
By Adam Voiland
Posted May 7, 2008 in U.S. News & World Report

The urethra is supposed to emerge at the tip of the penis, but in 1 out of every 300 baby boys, its opening is elsewhere—sometimes just underneath the head, or midway down the shaft, or even at the base of the scrotum. No one knows what causes the defect, called hypospadias, but studies have shown that widespread chemicals called phthalates can reproduce it in rodents. Phthalates are used widely as softening agents in certain plastics, notably PVC, and are also found in some cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and a wide range of other products.

Scientists classify these chemicals among the "endocrine disruptors," so known for their ability to alter the proper balance of hormones, which play a central role during development. "It's not just bisphenol A that we're concerned about," says Ted Schettler, the lead scientist at the Iowa-based advocacy group called the Science and Environmental Health Network, referring to another endocrine disruptor that has made headlines this spring.

Widespread problem. Human exposure to hormone-disrupting synthetic chemicals, which can leach from a slew of consumer products, is continuous and widespread. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2005 that most Americans have traces of hormone-disrupting chemicals in their body. An analysis of the data by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., concluded that 84 percent of Americans have at least six different phthalates in their urine.

Toxicologists have been studying the effects of various phthalates in animals for decades. Three in particular—diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), and dibutyl phthalate (DBP)—cause a constellation of reproductive defects that includes hypospadias, testicular cancer, reduced sperm quality, diminished penis size, and undescended testicles. The effects, in some cases, seem to extend beyond the male reproductive system. Studies in animals have linked allergic skin lesions and lung malformations to DEHP, which is the most widely produced of the phthalates. And pregnant rodents given high daily doses of DBP tend to lose their fetuses. Not everyone, however, thinks such adverse effects in animals justify concern among people. "Most of the exposures are at doses far higher than what we see in humans," says Marian Stanley, a spokesperson for the Phthalate Esters Panel, an industry group that represents phthalate manufacturers. Major scientific reviews from the National Toxicology Program have concluded the risk the chemicals pose to humans is minimal. Yet, the most concerned scientists counter that emerging evidence does suggest phthalates harm humans. Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester, has shown that baby boys born to women with elevated DBP and BBP levels tend to have somewhat demasculinized and slightly smaller genitals. Recent studies in adults have linked high exposure to certain phthalates to low sperm quality and abdominal obesity.

Though these studies don't prove cause and effect, some people find the existing evidence alarming enough to act. Many European countries have banned phthalates in certain toys, and a number of American states are considering similar restrictions. Meanwhile, "phthalate-free" products are popping up in stores and on the Internet—just as bisphenol A (BPA)-free baby bottles and water bottles have. Industry groups say that many of the products people worry most about—including plastic wrap, water bottles, and food containers—do not contain any phthalates.

Still, avoiding phthalates altogether is more difficult than avoiding BPA, since it's not clear which of the panoply of products containing them contribute most to exposure. The chemicals easily move from sources such as vinyl tiles or shower curtains, so phthalates routinely end up in the air, water, and dust.

Pregnant women, children, and couples trying to conceive may have the most to gain from trying to avoid phthalates, scientists say. "The primary risk appears to be to the developing fetus," says Swan.

I recently received an email from Xanga essentially begging me to come back (not that I was ever really there to begin with). The tone of the message was not so much, "We've got great stuff!  Come check us out again." but rather "We need you! We're dying here. We've got to pump our numbers or we're toast."

When you send something out like that, you're essentially telling your users that now is the time to leave because their services might not be around much longer.  It doesn't seem like a smart marketing decision to me, but what do I know? 

So I had to raise an eyebrow when I received an email from "my friends at Tribe.net" last week.  (To be perfectly honest, I don't even remember ever signing up for Tribe.  But knowing me, I did.  If a site isn't laid out intuitively and doesn't have functions that I'm looking for, I tend to bail pretty quickly.) 

It looks like Tribe.net is starting a premium service.  Generally when a premium service is introduced, it's to provide content or functions or something that the freebie users won't be getting.  A site adds a premium service, then covers it in bling to entice user to pay a little something for it, right?  Well, here's the email that Tribe.net sent me. (I'm starting with the second paragraph.  The first one was a boring blah, blah, blah asking their forgiveness for sending the email in the first place.)  Listen to their reason why their users should upgrade to a premium account:

"We’ve listened to our users for solutions to our site instability problems." [Woa!  Stop right there.  Instability problems?  I'm glad you're listening to your users, but... You're going to send out an email to every stinkin' user of your site to tell them that you have instability problems?!!!!  Brilliant.] "The overwhelming consensus is that our users love tribe.net so much that they are willing to pay for a premium subscription for all the functions that we now give to you." [So they're apparently not going to give you anything new.  What you've been getting for free all this time, they'll now be giving to you only through the premium service.  And those instability problems?  Will those be solved? You know, they didn't really say, did they?]  "We launched a premium subscription service on November 30, 2007 to allow folks to support tribe.net at a rate of five bucks for thirty days." [Let's see, that's about $60/year.  So in a world where social networking sites are a dime a dozen, and most have a free service, Tribe.net is now going to allow you to pay $60 a year for a site with instability problems.  Sounds great.  And what's this about "support Tribe"?  Tribe needs support?  When a company needs support and they're begging their users for it, that's a sign that the VC's have already seen the writing on the wall.]

[Oh wait!  I missed something.  The free service will still be available after all.  Hallelujah.  I didn't want to have to start paying for that instability.  So read on.  Now you get to find out what the paying members get.  Drumroll please.] "Tribe’s traditional, free service is going to continue just as it always has and always will. Those that want to upgrade can click on the PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION link, fill out the information, and sign up. The premium subscribers will automatically have a gold star instead of the orange bubble when they’re online." [OMG!  I'm so excited I might just wet my pants.  A gold star?!?!?  I hope they also send me a gold star sticker that I can wear on my forehead.] "We also offer bi-annual and annual memberships for $25 and $50 respectively. Each of these services comes with a free 4 day trial period -- you can cancel anytime before the 4 days is up and not be charged."

[Hey, don't stop reading yet.  There's more!] "We’re aware that some people may not be able to sign up for premium service for various reasons. For those folks we offer the free service (hopefully they’ll click on some of those ads), but we’re also offering an ADOPT A TRIBE ORPHAN" [That's their emphasis, not mine.] link where some kind folks can help out one of their friends (or maybe a lucky, random person) by upgrading them to premium subscription status."  [I'm all vaklempt.  What can I say?  That's just so... so... thoughtful of them.  Tribe orphans.  Brilliant. I wonder if the CEO is going to be a Tribe orphan soon.]

"What do you get for this? Currently, the only benefits are turning off the advertising and access to our new web-based TRIBECHAT function. TRIBECHAT is a Jabber based instant messenger that is accessible to all tribe members who have a Jabber client such as Adium (for Apple) or Trillian (for PC). This allows you to chat with anyone on your tribe friends list." [In other words, you lose the ads.  Yeah, that's cool.  And you get the ability to do what any instant messaging program does. *twirls finger* Or better yet, you get to do, for a $60 a year fee, what Multiply has for free every day, for every user, in every context -- LiveReplies.  I think that Tribe CEO is going to be a Tribe orphan sooner rather than later.]

[Another blah, blah, blah paragraph.] "Ever since we launched this service, we've felt so grateful for this outpouring of support from the Tribe communities. You all have made tribe.net a wonderful place to connect, and we hope that you'll think of us more in the future. Big changes are on the horizon so keep in touch to know the latest."

"Finally, if you've purchased a premium subscription, we salute you. We have over 1000 subscribers now" [Wow.  A thousand.  Going through the roof already, eh? Beautiful.] "and the number is steadily growing each day! We are dedicated to making tribe.net the best experience we can for you, and your subscription benefits the entire user community of tribe! If you know a premium member, thank them for supporting tribe!"  [And that instability problem?  We never got back to that one, did we?]

"Check in at http://www.tribe.net and reconnect!"  [Because we need you over here or we're all going to be Tribe orphans, dammit!]

... Beautiful.

We had a leisurely morning. The kids sat around reading. (Anna has read two books during this trip. Nathan finished one this afternoon and Naomi read one and is part way through another. It's like the reading-bug has finally caught ahold of them. They read before, but not like they have on this trip. -- Oh, and Roz, the one that Nathan finished was Over Sea, Under Stone, and he's said several times, "Who gave me this book again? I need to thank her.") Rob worked on work stuff and I got caught up a bit on emails and Multiply.

This morning we had leftovers for breakfast, since the hotel food had been suboptimal (fake butter, fake syrup, lots of white flour).  Then we spent some time in the pool, hot tub and sauna.  Once we were able to drag the kids away from that, we packed up and checked out of the Inn of the Rio Grande.  Despite their crappy hotel food, the rest of our experience there was absolutely wonderful.

We then headed up to Zapata Falls.  Though we’d been to the dunes before, we’d never even known about the falls.  But my friend Leslie told me they were worth the trip and the gal I chatted with in the sauna agreed – the falls were a must.  

Just taking in the view from the parking lot at the beginning of the hike was worth it.  We could see all of the San Luis Valley, as well as the dunes, the San Juan mountains, and the parts of the Sangre de Christos that we weren’t standing on.  

The hike went much more smoothly than I had expected.  The info. from the website that I had printed out said it was a fairly steep hike.  But it honestly wasn’t bad and even went much faster than I would have expected with three kids in tow who kept insisting on playing in the untouched snow along the sides of the trail.

As we entered the crevasse that the water flowed out of, we didn’t even realize we were walking right on top of the stream.  Instead, we were mesmerized by the huge bubbles of ice along the right side wall of the mini-canyon.  The kids had a blast sliding down them.  Then we walked in a little more and were awed by the falls.  They were incredibly cool.  The falls to the left looked completely frozen, but you could see the water flowing beneath the falls on the right

Two ice climbers came along and we waited while they donned their gear (which seemed to take forever) and started their climb.  I’ve never seen anyone climb ice before.  To be perfectly honest, although it was interesting to watch, the sport just doesn’t appeal to me.  Climbing a rock is one thing.  Climbing ice?  I think I’ll pass.

We then got gas in Alamosa ($3.25/gal.) and stopped at a café for lunch while Rob took a conference call for work.  Then we settled in for the two hour ride to Santa Fe.  

Along the way we tried to figure out who Fe was.  Anyone know of a Saint Fe (or Fey, more likely, eh?)

We saw a large heard of antelope.  They were standing in the road but moved when they saw us coming.  

Then we hit Española.   Let’s just say that what we had expected to take 20 more minutes rolled into an hour and a half as we first took a few wrong turns, then tried to find a hotel that had both a vacancy and a pool.  We finally ended up at a Holiday Inn with horrible internet service.  (Though I was able to connect at first, the service then dropped out on me completely. It wasn’t until I made some rather unsavory comments to it that it finally started working again Wednesday morning.)

We headed out to Maria’s, a Mexican restaurant that I had heard good things about on PlaceShout.  We had no trouble finding the place (for a change), but when we went to park, we turned after the building instead of before it and next thing we knew we were a major street away, stuck in a parking lot.  I reread my printout (to see if there was a tip about where to park) and noticed that there was a note about making reservations.  Mama mia!  So I called (while we were getting turned around) and found out there was a 40 minute wait.  It was 7 o’clock by that point and we were all hungry and tired, so instead we hit The Upper Crust closer to downtown Santa Fe.  (Parking was again a mini-nightmare, but the pizza was decent.)

On our way back we raided a Trader Joe’s and upon arriving at the hotel we collectively devoured a package of cheesecake brownies.  That helped to make up for our driving troubles getting into Santa Fe. 

For more pics from the day, click here.

Today, we conquered giants.  

The day started out normally enough – Rob’s alarm went off and I was the only one to hear it.  The girls managed to sleep in a little longer than yesterday (and I’ve noticed that the amount of arguing and complaining has gone down dramatically today compared to yesterday, despite the giants we had to conquer).   

We had breakfast in the hotel, then we set off for Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.  It was a bit cold as we started out (36 F), but we had high hopes that the sun would be beating down on the sand, heating it up.  We’d seen pretty strong winds yesterday so we were glad that the sage brush along the side of the road wasn’t blowing in the wind.  (In the first picture, you can see the Sangri de Cristo mountains with the dunes in the foreground (from the left of the picture to the middle).  The land between the road and the dunes is mostly scrub with rather sandy ground.)

But as we got to within 5 or 10 miles of the dunes, the wind started to pick up.  We saw trees leaning a bit sideways.  And as we hit the turn off into the park, I looked towards the mountains and saw that it was snowing.  …  Yes, snowing.  … Sideways.  (Look at that first pic again.  See the cloudiness over the mountains on the right hand side.  That's snow.)

We decided to go in anyway.  The plan was to hit the visitors’ center first, wait for the snow to stop, then try to climb the dunes.  Anna had wanted to bring her swimsuit (for the stream that runs along the side of the dunes that we played in last time we were here) and by this point we were all saying, “Good thing we didn’t bother bringing the swimsuits, eh?”  Rob was laughing in disbelief at the force of the wind. (At which point I reminded him that he was the one who had packed mostly shorts for the trip.)

The ranger at the entrance gate tried to cheer us up a bit.  He pointed out that just 15 minutes before, he couldn’t see the cars parked 30 feet away because the snow was so thick.  But now he could not only see the cars, but the mountain behind them.  I don’t know about the rest of the family, but I didn’t find it all that encouraging.  Nevertheless, we soldiered on.

At the visitors center we watched a movie about the Dunes and played with the displays.  (There was a lot of hands on stuff to fiddle with.)  Here’s some of what we learned:

* These are the tallest dunes in North America.   !!!
* The dunes are 30 miles across.
* Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is one of the most biologically and geologically diverse parks in the United States.  It even has at least 7 insect species that are found no where else in the world.

We also found out, thanks to the movie, that it's often windy at the dunes... especially in the spring.

The snow had... well, lets just say that it was falling (streaming sideways, rather) less thickly than it had been when we arrived.  So we bravely set off for the dunes. 

Upon arriving, we saw two other cars in the parking lot.  That was encouraging.  At least we knew we weren't the only crazy people in the state of Colorado. We headed out.  The first thing I noticed (besides the wind throwing sand and snow in my face) was that the creek bed was dry.

OK, let me just back up one quick second.  When we came to the dunes last time (June, several years ago) the creek was the funnest part of the visit.  That's why Anna was upset this morning when I told her that we probably wouldn't be donning our swimsuits today. So before setting out on this trip I asked several people if they thought the creek would be flowing by now.  Most seemed to think it would be.  Well, if I had just known about this page, I could have found out that the creek is FROZEN still, on the eastern end of the dunes.  In which case we probably would have skipped Alamosa entirely and headed straight on to Santa Fe. 

So we crossed the dry creek bed, climbed over several dunes (they felt like giants even if we didn't exactly tackle the real giants out there), froze just about any exposed parts of our bodies (Rob started to lose feeling in his hands.  My ears hurt. -- Check out the picture with me and the kids on the dunes.  Nathan's cheeks were bright red.  Nathan at Rob had gone to the top of a much higher dune than the girls or I tackled.  They were promptly sand blasted with freezing sand.)

Needless to say, we didn't stay long.  We had to walk backwards to the car so that we didn't get sand in our eyes and mouths.  (We still managed to do both, however.)  I kept encouraging the kids that they were being very brave and this was something that we'd look back on in 10 years and laugh about.  Though there was some whimpering and crying (and the kids were a little upset, too) we generally made it through with courageous spirits.  I was proud of them all.

We got back to the hotel and celebrated our survival with a whole lot of playing in the pool.  I hit the sauna first while the kids and Rob played in the regular pool.  Then we went to the indoor water park and had a blast.  It definitely made up for all that we'd gone through in the morning.

Though the pool, sauna, hot tub, etc. are all free to anyone staying in the hotel, there's usually a charge to get into the water park.  But seeing as no one was even on duty, we got in free and had the place entirely to ourselves for probably 2 hours.  I went down the slide 20 - 30 times.  Rob started a game where he'd toss a volleyball up to us while we were sliding down.  And Anna learned how to do a back float without help.  After the water park we spent some time in the hot tub, and then we zonked out in the room for awhile.  (The kids watched a movie and Rob and I checked email.)

For dinner we went back to the San Luis Valley Brewery and this time I got the double blond, which was excellent.  They had several St. Patrick's day specials and many people were dressed for the day (including two guys wearing stuffed green mugs of beer on their head). Again, our food was excellent, and we even got some grasshopper cheesecake, which was eaten so quickly that by the time I got my camera out, this was all that was left. 

Back at the hotel, Rob and Nathan had just started a game of pool when I decided to drag everyone out to watch the crane migration.  (Click through to see a great picture of it.) Unfortunately, all we saw were ducks.  Rob saw a large bird come in, but he didn't see it clearly and the rest of us all missed it. 

We came back to the hotel, Nathan and Rob finished their game of pool, then we watched the Simpsons movie (which I thought was OK and Rob didn't like at all). 

I took way too many pictures today to include in this post, so you'll have to click through here for the photo album.

The BIL sent this to me and it's too darn cool not to pass on.

There are several cool vids on the site. (We watched a few on the music video page at least, and though I don't know that I "get" them all, they're fun to watch -- creative and beautiful.)

I made three nominations last night. (You have to make a minimum of three.) I have no clue about best Asian, African, craft, etc. blog. So I just voted on the three best blogging tools.

1. Multiply: In my opinion, Multiply has the best tools not only for blogging, but for carrying on the conversation after the blog has been posted. It has the ability to post more than just traditional blogs as well. There are unlimited uploads to photo albums, videos and more and these services are all neatly integrated into one streamlined and highly customizable package. When the bubble bursts and Web 2.0 companies start self-destructing, I believe Multiply is going to be one of the few left standing.

2. Intense Debate: If you're going to be a block head and use some other blogging site, then the very least you can do is use Intense Debate for your replies. With Intense Debate you can track who has replied to your replies as well as to your posts. And you can get sense of where else a person is active in the blog-o-sphere.

3. Lijit: Lijit provides a cross-blog search platform, so people don't have to remember which of your blogs had the post they're looking for, they just have to do a search and Lijit will find it, no matter which blogging site it's on. Lijit also provides detailed statistics about who's on your blog and where they came from.

Nominations close tomorrow, I believe. So if you would like to nominate a blogsite, do it now. The blogs with the most nominations will become finalists, at which point you can vote for your favorite on January 22nd.