National Park #7 - Day 2 March 26, 2013

We got up around 7am, ate some breakfast in the room then packed lots of trail food in our backpacks, bundled up and headed to the park.  It was very cold - like 38 degrees in the morning.

We started off in the Chisos Basin area of the park and intended to start the day with the Lost Mine Trail, a 4.8 mile round trip hike that I went on as a kid.  We first stopped at the camp store and bought Grant a pair of sunglasses.  Then we drove to the trailhead.  I had our lunch in my back pack and we were going to eat at the very top but after we parked, there were signs everywhere warning us about black bears and mountain lions.  One sign told us that if we spotted a bear, pick up your kids, start screaming and throw rocks.  This was immediately after we had just told the kids that if they saw any scary wildlife to remain calm and quiet and just keep on walking.  Well all of these signs convinced us that having food in our back packs was a bad idea so we went with nothing but water. 
Grant is known to be a hiking whiner so we bribed him with candy at the end and the potential to win the Junior Ranger Award of the day, a completely ficticious award. 

Along the way we saw two beautiful blue birds and a deer. Grant fell three times and really was a trooper.  At one point he said to me in a very loud, optimistic voice, "Mommy, my legs are REALLY hurting but I am NOT complaining!!"  Ry fell once on her way down but overall they enjoyed the hike and three hours later, we made it back to the trailhead.

We drove to the main visitor center, Panther Junction and bought the required magnets and hat pins, had the passport books stamped and ate our picnic lunch on a bench outside of the visitor center.  We then drove to the closest camp store where the kids got to pick out a candy bar. 

After that, Nick was itching to take Subi (the car) "off-roadin'" so for the next 1.5 hours, he drove about 20 mph and I fell asleep first, then Grant, then Ryan.  We got back to our hotel around 5:00 and the Brekkens were there.  The kids were thrilled so they all changed into their bathing suits and played in the fountains while the adults sat on the patio drinking wine and mixed drinks. 

We finally strolled over to the hotel restaurant, Cafe Candelilla and had drinks and dinner.  The kids ran all over the grounds and collected these "red beans" out of these beige pods that hung from green bushes.  Turns out they were pomegranate plants/seeds. 
We finished up dinner close to 9:00, headed back to the rooms, took showers and the kids and I went to bed.  Rolf and Nick head to the hotel bar to watch the USA tie Mexico in a World Cup qualifying game.