Hoodoos

Yesterday, not content with a jam-packed weekend, we took Hal and TJ out to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, one of our favorite spots near Albuquerque. The hoodoos, which look like Indian tents, are cool enough of a natural formation, but even better to get to them you have to walk a mile through a slot canyon. Let it be said that slot canyons are probably my favorite thing ever. Well, behind dinosaurs, pirates and caves. Actually, probably on par with caves. Anyway, this was our third trip, but it was fun seeing it all again through TJ's virgin eyes. Also a lady walked by us in a very sparkly gold sunhat that said NOTICE ME PLEASE!, and Hal said "Oooooh, great hat." I'm sure he made her day. He definitely made mine.

TJ brought a picnic lunch for us all, and Hal made painfully delicious homemade pralines. Painful because I ate too many, delicious because my taste buds were in praline heaven. We also stopped at the Mormon Battalion Monument. Whomever put the monument up quoted someone of the time period who in describing the hardships faced by the troops referred to the local Native Americans as "savages". Now I'd hardly consider myself the PC police, but that probably wasn't a great thing to put on a monument in New Mexico, quote or no. Someone had come along and angrily scratched the word out as best they could; it took us some effort to figure out what it was. I'm against vandalism, but really, you couldn't find some better copy for your plaque?