It is nice to be home and back into the old habits. Some late night British tv and Halloween costume knitting.

It isn’t everypony who gets to share their birthday with the theatrical premier of the new My Little Pony movie. Peter and his girls are counting themselves very lucky!

Our dear dragon with her self made wings was pleasantly surprised to find that she cut and impressive shadow in the alley during the parade tonight.

On our way through Pennsylvania today, our last long push toward home, we made a quick stop at Chocolate World in Hershey. We were lucky to find a parking spot as there was a huge auto show going on, but our timing was just right. And once we wound our way thought the line for the ‘factory tour’ ride we found that it had been updated since we were last here three years ago. How exciting!

The singing cows definitely still make our day!

We almost passed by Monticello. The cost of admission for the three of us was well above any other activities we have done on this trip, by quite a bit. I tried to convince myself that we could come back anytime and visit then, but it kept calling to me. We were so close and thanks to Hamilton the girls have a particular and current interest and knowledge about Jefferson and his contemporaries. How could I not take the opportunity?

I am so, so glad we went. The weather was perfection and the grounds were spectacular. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and professional and completely charmed by Esme (as was the whole group of retirees we toured the house with). Catherine was fascinated by Jefferson’s collections and adaptations of technology in the house and I was just so happy to have an experience in my mind now to pair with what I know about Jefferson’s life.

We toured the house from William Pitt Greenwich CT, walked the grounds and took the Slavery at Monticello tour. We did a drive by of his grave site, watched the site video and took selfies with his statue. It was completely worth the admission fee and I would, dare I say it, be willing to pay it again for another visit in the future.

The whole experience was excellent and both girls and I really learned quite a bit and enjoyed putting our Hamilton references into context. I highly recommend visiting Monticello to everyone, whether you are familiar with Jefferson or not.

Several people have wondered, both before and during this trip, whether I thought the girls would get sick of each other, being in the backseat together for so long. With just a couple of days until we get home and after a marathon 12.5 hours of driving today, I can say that they are coping just fine. And, if anything, have developed more and different ways of being together.

I’m so in love with them.

Dancing with the stars, on the hotel TV has inspired them!

Poverty Point is not the showiest National Park, but it is an Unesco World Heritage site and they are very proud of it! The general theme of the park is that there are five large earthen mounds and several concentric ring mounds, all built by Native Americans between 1700 and 1350 BC. All the experts agree that they have no idea what they were for or why they were built, but are convinced that this was a large city of importance. Very interesting.

I texted Peter later in the day and described the park ranger as “a really friendly Ron Swanson.” He might have been a little too friendly! But he was super great with the girls and he taught us to throw spears, and even (hesitantly) let Esme have a go at this pump drill.

There is such a benefit to being the only visitors in the museum. We love having rangers all to ourselves!

All around the country we have heard about paleontological research and the information gleaned from it. But Waco Mammoth National Monument jumps right to 11 in that regard.

Have you ever heard of it? I hadn’t either. Here’s a quick history- in 1978 a three foot femur bone was found on a dairy farm. After preliminary excavations they found fossils of an entire Nursery heard of Colombian Mammoths in the clay stream bed. Most of those fossils have been removed for storage in a museum, but other fossils have been left in situ and a ‘floating’ building has been built above the dig so that visitors can walk through and see. These in situ fossils will remain there, but the dig is still active and there are other fossils (mammoth and otherwise) that will continue to be excavated.

This was a small park with a 1hr tour, but it was really fantastic. If you are near Waco you should definitely check it out. We really loved it.

It was a soggy day in San Antonio, but we braved the rain to visit Mission San Jose and the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The park video was very informative and I liked walking the grounds. I was disappointed to see that the chapel was closed, but I loved seeing the exterior. Especially the remnants of the original paint.

The elevator at Carlsbad Caverns is currently out of order. That didn’t bother us as we began our descent into the entrance. These are only the first five or six of about a hundred switchbacks on the way down.

The NPS gives a few warnings/tips but otherwise is pretty nonchalant about your hike in. “Your safety is your responsibility” signs line the pathway on the surface and we were reminded that, “there isn’t a secret employees elevator. Every step you take down you have to make up.”

We made it down and back up again with no problem, but it was quite a hike!