Good morning from the Headley truck tent. A week and a half ago we took a flying family vacation to beautiful Carlsbad Caverns. The Caverns are incredible, but I think that they've never really drawn the 
luxury tourism crowd. Probably cause there's not much else to do in Carlsbad (sorry Carlsbad, so true though). We decided to camp since it was only once night, while Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Matty, Bryan & Boo-boo, plus Jo-johanna wimped out and stayed at a motel. However, after watching the nightly bat exodus (very cool, even to Joaquin although only for a moment) they came back to our campsite to make s'mores. (The band around my head is a headlamp, it was very dark when we got there, so we had to put them on to set up. Nerdy yes, useful, yes.) Camping, besides being an excuse for s'mores, allowed us to bring Chita along, which was helpful since her normal petsitters were with us. Would you believe the Caverns actually have kennels to keep your dogs while you're down in the caves? So Chita 
miserable whined in air-conditioned comfort and refused to eat the treats I brought her while we explored. We hiked down the natural entrance and Joaquin did really well. It was too steep to carry him so he managed the 1.25 mile descent (750 ft.) pretty much all by himself. (Johanna and I carried him for a brief time on the flat.) He was a little nervous about the cavey-ness of the caves, but with all his support blankets 
there he did fine. It's a somewhat nerve-wracking place to have a toddler though, fortunately he's always pretty cooperative about holding someone's hand. We put on his little flashing light (a gift from Mi-mo) as an extra security precaution. Really everything went very well, Joaquin's only difficulty was in keeping quiet for that long (apparently sounds carries far in the caves). Plus we got to see Caverns and I had forgot how absolutely amazing they are. Wow! After lunch the boys took the lower caves tour (oooh, aren't they cool?) and the rest of us bummed around Carlsbad (sigh) in 99 degree heat. After that much excitement joaquin was TIRED! This is how he looked about 4 seconds after starting the journey home. After he awoke he threw a mini-fit about how he wanted to go back to his camping place and the caves. At least we know he had fun!
luxury tourism crowd. Probably cause there's not much else to do in Carlsbad (sorry Carlsbad, so true though). We decided to camp since it was only once night, while Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Matty, Bryan & Boo-boo, plus Jo-johanna wimped out and stayed at a motel. However, after watching the nightly bat exodus (very cool, even to Joaquin although only for a moment) they came back to our campsite to make s'mores. (The band around my head is a headlamp, it was very dark when we got there, so we had to put them on to set up. Nerdy yes, useful, yes.) Camping, besides being an excuse for s'mores, allowed us to bring Chita along, which was helpful since her normal petsitters were with us. Would you believe the Caverns actually have kennels to keep your dogs while you're down in the caves? So Chita 
miserable whined in air-conditioned comfort and refused to eat the treats I brought her while we explored. We hiked down the natural entrance and Joaquin did really well. It was too steep to carry him so he managed the 1.25 mile descent (750 ft.) pretty much all by himself. (Johanna and I carried him for a brief time on the flat.) He was a little nervous about the cavey-ness of the caves, but with all his support blankets 
there he did fine. It's a somewhat nerve-wracking place to have a toddler though, fortunately he's always pretty cooperative about holding someone's hand. We put on his little flashing light (a gift from Mi-mo) as an extra security precaution. Really everything went very well, Joaquin's only difficulty was in keeping quiet for that long (apparently sounds carries far in the caves). Plus we got to see Caverns and I had forgot how absolutely amazing they are. Wow! After lunch the boys took the lower caves tour (oooh, aren't they cool?) and the rest of us bummed around Carlsbad (sigh) in 99 degree heat. After that much excitement joaquin was TIRED! This is how he looked about 4 seconds after starting the journey home. After he awoke he threw a mini-fit about how he wanted to go back to his camping place and the caves. At least we know he had fun! 
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