Day 7: Albuquerque, NM

Carlsbad's main attraction is the caverns. I've been here before, but... have you ever been inside the earth? It's ridiculous! Last time we went, we toured King's Palace, a highly decorated part of the caves. Sounds really fancy, but the best part of this tour is when they sit you down, and then turn out the lights. The blackout lasts about three minutes, and it's the blackest black I've ever been in. Ever. I could not have seen my hand, even if it were touching my face. There is absolutely no light, and for three minutes, you don't care whether you're in a box, or a stadium. It wouldn't matter, because it's DARK! As much as I wish we had done this tour again, I'm sad to say that we didn't. We ended up going on the Big Room tour. This is a self-guided tour that lasts about an hour. The Big Room is about the size of sixteen football fields, so yeah...I was impressed. Hold tight, we are headed for Albuquerque!

Can I just say: Crepes are overrated. They are just big, thin pancakes made of eggs and something else. They really don't have that much flavor. You can probably just guess that we had crepes for dinner, and that I wasn't impressed. What I was impressed with however, was the waiter. He pronounced every French word like it was the easiest thing, which, if you've ever tried to say anything besides "Oui", is very difficult. We were all pretty amused with this guy because his facial expressions were so...ever changing! Every time I looked at him (this was really hard to do without losing it, because he held eye contact for way too long) his face was different. I ended up having to pull one of those "intently looking at your menu" things, so that I wouldn't laugh. This is a very hard thing to do, especially when you know the person next to you (in this case John) is having to do the same thing. Then it is always a relief when they leave the table and you are free to laugh as much as you want. The other funny thing about this guy was how slowly he spoke when he wasn't impressing everyone with his speedy French. He would quickly say the name of an appetizer, and then draw out the explanation of what it was. As if it wasn't hard enough not to laugh, there were about six different specials. I'm proud of myself for not blowing it.

Day 11: Durango, CO

Durango is one of those really artsy towns that you see a lot of college people in. It's also a very recreational vacation spot. In the summer, it is all about whitewater rafting, mountain biking and hiking. In the winter, skiing and snowboarding. Since it's summer, the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was open, so we booked seats for a three-and-a-half-hour ride to the small town of Silverton. The views we got were some of the most beautiful mountain scenes I've ever seen. In fact, this railroad is one of the top ten best in the world! It runs parallel to the Animas River, and comes up through steep dropoffs. We only got to stay in Silverton for two hours, but you can pretty well get the gist of it in that amount of time. It's very touristy, because the main source of income is the railway itself. One thing my brother really wanted to do here was buy a knife....I guess it's just one of those things you have to eventually do to stop it from bothering you. We walked into a really macho hunting shop and my brother and cousin immediately rushed to the knives, while my mom and I wandered around a while, admiring all the taxidermied animal carcasses. I got bored with that and walked over to where the guys were and started looking at knives too. Before I go on, let me just say: I think knives are cool. I appreciate them, however, they do make me nervous sometimes. The man at the counter started giving us a spiel about which ones were the best, which eventually led to him teaching us about all the weapon laws and knife laws in the state of Colorado. Yes, switch blades are illegal in every state but Oregon, unless you are in the military and have specific orders to carry one, or you are a police officer.