Monday morning Aug. 18 we got up at 5:00, drove to the rental car return at the PDX airport terminal, returned the car to Dollar Car Rental, checked our bags, whizzed through TSA (hooray for TSA pre-check!) and went to the United Club. The Global Entry/NEXUS membership is great because it includes TSA pre-check for five years. And my decision to get the United Visa Club card which includes use of all the United clubs is also worth it. We had coffee, juice, yogurt, fruit, muffins, etc., at the club - all included in the price of membership. It has been most worthwhile this year.
Our flight from PDX to DEN went smoothly, both early departure and arrival. We retrieved our bags and then took the Hyatt Place shuttle back to their hotel where our car was parked. And then we drove the 453 miles to our hotel in Albuquerque. After dinner at a Mexican Seafood restaurant (shrimp tacos with beans and rice for Patty, camarones en su cama [shrimp with onions, peppers and tomatoes on rice] for me), we sat in the spa and took a dip in the pool at the hotel.
Today, we got going around 8:00 and stopped at the Navajo National Museum and Zoo in Window Rock, AZ. Window Rock is the capital of the Navajo Nation. In the museum, we learned more about the history of the Navajos as they were handled by white settlers - first the Spanish, then Mexican, and finally American. Their history is a story of broken treaties - they signed more than ten treaties with the United States but only one was ratified by Congress. That means the Navajo agreed to treaties but that the United States did not honor the agreements. There was info about the wedding basket and the child carriers, and other cultural artifacts. There was also info about the "Long March" - nearly 500 miles where the Navajos were forced to march from Fort Deviance in Arizona to the Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. Thousands died on the march. That said, the persistence of the Navajo and their leaders led to the Navajo Nation being the largest reservation (in square miles) in the country.
We then visited their Zoo and aquarium. Nearly all of the specimens there were animals that were orphaned, injured or kept as pets too long to make them appropriate for release back into their natural habitat. For example, there were two gila monsters that were illegally taken and kept as pets for several years. The perpetrators were eventually caught and prosecuted, but two years in captivity made them unable to care for themselves in the wild, so they are at the zoo.
We got lunch in Window Rock and found a picnic area on Indian Route 12 where we stopped for lunch. On the ride back to Phoenix, we heard about flooding in Phoenix - four inches of rain fell on the north side of the city, closing roads and causing floods - it made the national news with one report saying eight inches of rain - most unusual for Phoenix.
As we got close to home, I saw this truck - "Zombie Outbreak Response Team." This is most unusual - check out www.uszort.com and form your own opinion about the group.
We have arrived home safely, and now need to do laundry, dishes and unpack. Vacation travel is over for now and back to chores and getting ready for classes that I am teaching.
Our flight from PDX to DEN went smoothly, both early departure and arrival. We retrieved our bags and then took the Hyatt Place shuttle back to their hotel where our car was parked. And then we drove the 453 miles to our hotel in Albuquerque. After dinner at a Mexican Seafood restaurant (shrimp tacos with beans and rice for Patty, camarones en su cama [shrimp with onions, peppers and tomatoes on rice] for me), we sat in the spa and took a dip in the pool at the hotel.
Today, we got going around 8:00 and stopped at the Navajo National Museum and Zoo in Window Rock, AZ. Window Rock is the capital of the Navajo Nation. In the museum, we learned more about the history of the Navajos as they were handled by white settlers - first the Spanish, then Mexican, and finally American. Their history is a story of broken treaties - they signed more than ten treaties with the United States but only one was ratified by Congress. That means the Navajo agreed to treaties but that the United States did not honor the agreements. There was info about the wedding basket and the child carriers, and other cultural artifacts. There was also info about the "Long March" - nearly 500 miles where the Navajos were forced to march from Fort Deviance in Arizona to the Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. Thousands died on the march. That said, the persistence of the Navajo and their leaders led to the Navajo Nation being the largest reservation (in square miles) in the country.
We then visited their Zoo and aquarium. Nearly all of the specimens there were animals that were orphaned, injured or kept as pets too long to make them appropriate for release back into their natural habitat. For example, there were two gila monsters that were illegally taken and kept as pets for several years. The perpetrators were eventually caught and prosecuted, but two years in captivity made them unable to care for themselves in the wild, so they are at the zoo.
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| Golden eagles were there |
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| Porcupines |
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| Cougars |
We got lunch in Window Rock and found a picnic area on Indian Route 12 where we stopped for lunch. On the ride back to Phoenix, we heard about flooding in Phoenix - four inches of rain fell on the north side of the city, closing roads and causing floods - it made the national news with one report saying eight inches of rain - most unusual for Phoenix.
As we got close to home, I saw this truck - "Zombie Outbreak Response Team." This is most unusual - check out www.uszort.com and form your own opinion about the group.
We have arrived home safely, and now need to do laundry, dishes and unpack. Vacation travel is over for now and back to chores and getting ready for classes that I am teaching.
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