They took two days to play with us. The first day we drove out towards Bandelier National Monument. Before getting there, we drove through some beautiful mountains and went to Jemez State Monument. I think its biggest claim to fame is that it is across the street from where many catholic bishops send their pedophile priests.
The cool thing about Bandelier is that the Native Americans built homes against the lava ash cliffs and they dug caves into the cliffs. There are the remains of the homes that they built over 1,000 years ago. The rooms have many petroglyphs and several of the structures have been restored. Our ranger had been there through the 70s and decided to tell us everything she knew about the place. Even the HB was hoping she would talk less so that we could talk more. Having said that, I forgot to mention that our guide at Carlsbad Caverns was awesome. We had a small group (less than 20) and he clearly had a passion for caves.
After Badelier, we looped around to have an early dinner in Santa Fe. IMHO, Santa Fe is a a 36 hour town. I'm not much of a shopper, and I don't need to look at an entire museum of Georgia O'Keefe paintings to realize that she liked cow skulls and to paint flowers so that they look like vaginas. Since this was the third time I've been there (and have more than extinguished the 36 hours), I'm glad that all we did was grab dinner (awesome spinach enchiladas in red chile sauce) then headed back to ABQ.
Thursday, it was time to get some gambling in. So, after breakfast we went to the Route 66 casino. The big draw there was that they have a great kids area. So, we parked the HB there for a bit (don't feel bad for him--they had arcade and video games, including Rock Band) and hit the tables.
I played blackjack for 30 minutes and didn't lose a hand. My wife and I sat down and played pai-gow poker. This time, I think I lost one hand. So, my winnings covered her losings, the HB's time at the kid center and lunch for the five of us. Woot!
From the casino we went to Acoma. Driving onto the reservation, it's clear that they have reinvested their casino profits well. We saw many new houses, youth centers, schools, and a very fancy visitor center/museum.
These people really know how to market. Everything cost extra, including a permit to take pictures. I guess spirits are for sale. Every step of the way there was someone selling pottery.
Here's what I don't get. Like most of the Indian villages, things were going OK, then the Spaniards got there, said, "Accept our god, or else" and gave the natives the "or else." After being enslaved to build a church on their sacred land they eventally accepted christianity. The Spaniards eventually leave (after killing off 90% of the natives and leaving the rest impovershed), yet they remain catholics (our guide crossed himself with holy water when we entered and left the church). Why in the world would you continue bow to the god that brought you so much misery? However, this gave me the opportunity to talk to the HB about how when people with god and weapons encounter people with neither, it's a bad thing for the latter.
So, since the Acoma's are so strict about pictures (and, believe me, the views from up there are amazing), here are some for you (not taken by me). Though, I did sneak in one of some road runner-coyote rock formations.
Every now and then you'll hear arguments in the sports world about whether teams should have Native American mascots. I noticed that one of the cars on Acoma had a Washington Redskins license plate (our guide hates the Dallas Cowboys, and is a bit of a San Diego Chargers fan since he was stationed there). When I asked him about this he replied, "You know, I don't really care...they're fake Indians."
We got back to my b-i-l's house and watched Obama's speech on TiVo and got packed up. At that moment, I was glad that we flew instead of drove, because after 1600 miles in the car during the last week, an 800 mile drive back to LA would have sucked. We said our goodbyes the next morning and caught the short, if bumpy, flight back home.
It was an awesome trip. I hope that the HB remembers it.
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