Petroglyphs and missing Aunt Sarah

We dropped off Aunt Sarah at the airport today -- a send-off that Anika missed, as she was lightly snoring in her car seat, but one that was apparent when we returned to the empty, quiet house and realized it was ours alone again for another four days until Mando returns from Asia.  He has taken to Skyping at 3 in the morning his time, fresh back from the clubs, to tell me all about how he finally understands why there are some in the far-flung parts of the world who refer to Americans as savages.  Apparently their airports are so clean and high-tech they look like Apple stores, and no one wears sloppy shorts or tee-shirts or their jogging shoes to get on an airplane or pick up a few things at the store or even just meander down the sidewalks in their own neighborhood.

Also, most of the urban and urban-southern Chinese are tall and good-looking.  Contrary to lots of American stereotypes out there.  Just in case you wanted to know that.

Meanwhile, back in the land of the savages, Sarah, Anika and I took a short walking tour of some of the petroglyphs that are just a stone's throw away from our house.  After a very unusual rain that lasted all day and all night, the drawings were a bit difficult to make out on the wet volcanic rocks, but once the sun started burning off the clouds we were able to make out lots of the drawings, etched mostly on southern and eastern-facing rocks between 400 and 600 years ago for ceremonial and social purposes.  (I swear I saw one that said "Bob was here," though, so a few may be newer than the U.S. Park Service cares to admit).  Overall, tho, it's really cool to have these cultural phenoms in our backyard, and to hike through the high desert landscape on what a certain number of hundreds of thousands of years ago was covered in hot lava and longer after that with people who had a very real connection to this beautiful landscape.  Today's hike was complete once we saw a jackrabbit flash by us and a beetle meander beneath us with legs so long he appeared to have his own ready-made stilts.  Plus, Anika was able to take her requisite 15-minute a.m. snooze in the baby carrier and get some fresh air to boot.  (Nothing smells better than the high desert after a long rain, btw.  I do not miss the smells of the Potomac one bit.  Crab cakes are delicious but seafood stench is for brave souls indeed.)