Saturday, January 29, 2005

San Quintin

Kind of a boring day; I don’t even feel like taking the time to document it.  If nothing else, I have lots of pictures (especially of the kids, for Papa and Tata) so here goes.

Left Sordo Mudo about 10am and headed down MX1 for the first time.  Ensenada was pretty tranquil - good thing we passed through on a Sunday.  It is a HUGE town of about 400,000 people.  Rolling through mountains, then hills, then flats, my eyes actually began to hurt from the emerald coloring everything.  It is amazingly green and I know this is not the typical Baja landscape.  They’ve had unusual rains and the desert is in absolute bloom.  We stopped in Colonet for lunch and Sissy and I tried tacos tripitas.  Yup.  Tripe.  Tasted a lot like liver and now that I’ve finally tried them, I know I don’t like them.  HEY DAD!  I found out what "abarrotes" means.  It is a store that sells food.  Asked the taco vendor.  We picked the campground we’re in because it is supposed to have laundry facilities.  They do, but all washers are broken.  :)  Should have gone to the expensive place in San Quintín (Old Mill).  Tomorrow we’re hoping to hit Cataviña, but will stop in San Quintín for Internet access, ATM, gas and groceries.

On the road today, we were humming along, straight road (for a change), green fields, and the windshield was suddenly full of what sounded like large hailstones.  It stopped as suddenly as it started and either we hit a large swarm of bees or butterflies.  It was shocking - loud and sudden.
The kids are in their element; but really it takes nothing to put them in their element. Some dirt, some water, some rocks - the boys made underground homes for Pooh and Piglet.  Along the way, Piglet acquired a wife.  They have paved pathways (Piglet has one large flagstone pathway, Pooh has several small stones making up his pathway).  Inside their domiciles are tables (rock), chairs (rock) and a bed (did you guess?).  They are quite the gardeners, these animals; daisies, trees and grass adorn the outsides of their homes.  Before breakfast, both boys hurried outside to work on the homes once more.  Before making their homes, Jesse fashioned a "car" for Piglet and dragged him around behind him on his bike.

(warning: math brag)  The last two mornings, the kids have enjoyed "Holiday" Chai from Oregon Springs?  something like that.  I found a box in the back of the van while putting stuff away and the kids are LOVING it.  This morning, Jesse was reminiscing about the Chai we bought for Aunty Chris (a case) for Christmas and wondered how much we spent.  I told him the price per box (not a round number) and the total I spent on the case.  He then proceeded to figure out how many boxes we bought.  Just because.  It is sure nice to know that they can do this stuff without ever being "taught".  That they will, on ocassion, decide to figure something out just because they want to know and not because it is a "word problem" on a math test.  As an unschooler, I’m constantly worried that we’re not doing enough; that they aren’t learning and that they are having a "less than" childhood.  These little experiences help to satisify my need to know that they are learning and growing.

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