White's City, New Mexico

Jeremiah sets his alarm for 06:30, and we get up and head over to Cactus Café. Google says they open at 07:00, but their sign on the door says 08:00. Sigh.

We head across the street to the gift shop. I get a necklace with a tree on a medallion, and Zelda gets a bag of colorful rocks. We have over thirty minutes before the café opens, so we head back to the hotel room to relax for a bit.

Thirty minutes later, we walk over and are seated in the restaurant. It's very clean, and very spacious. Jeremy orders Eggs Benedict, Zelda gets a half order of French Toast with fruit, and I get Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes. It's all very delicious, but a little pricey.

We settle the check and leave the restaurant. Jeremy heads back to the hotel room to finish packing up or belongings and load up the car, and I go with Zelda to a picnic area where she can run around freely, burning off some energy. We check out of our hotel and drive to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The entrance is right next to town.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

We enter Carlsbad Caverns National Park and follow the road up to the visitor's center. It's a beautiful drive in. We have a 09:30 reservation, which just means we need to be there between 09:30 and 10:30 We get there at 09:45.

We check in at the desk and make our way to the second check in point with the park ranger. The park ranger lets us know that we will be descending 790 feet (~229 meters), or about 79 stories of a building into the ground. The path is about 1.25 miles long (2 kilometers) long, so it's a steep path down, and a steep path back out. Thankfully, there's an elevator at the end to take you back up to the visitor's center.

We start the walk down with our small group. It's a self-guided tour, so the ranger stays up at the entrance. We pretty much let everyone pass us so that we don't have to rush with the toddler, and if I'm being perfectly honest, for me, the photographer. The path has a lot of switch-backs to make the way down easier, but it's still pretty steep.

We get into the cave and can already feel the drastic difference in temperature. It smells a bit mildew-y when you first enter, but then either the smell goes away or you get used to it. It's very humid, so despite the cooler temperatures, Jeremy and I are both sweating. Zelda walks the first room of the cave, but then wants uppies, from me. I carry her between taking photographs, at which point I hand her over to her father. He carries her until she asks for me again, and the pattern continues. She falls asleep in her father's arms about halfway through the cave, which, of course, makes him even hotter than he already was - in more ways than one. It takes us about two hours to get through the cave between walking more slowly as he's being cautious with carrying her, and me stopping to take pictures.

We make it to "The Big Room" - the room that is home to the elevator. A lot of visitor's come to the park, take the elevator down, and only see this room. If you can, I highly recommend walking in the natural entrance and doing the whole thing, but it is definitely a commitment. Zelda sleeps on her dad until we get to the car. We change her diaper, load her in her carseat, and start the eight hour drive to Cibolo, Texas. She falls asleep again shortly after we start driving.

Cibolo, Texas

We make it to Cibolo, Texas around 20:00, and we are so thankful that Leigh and Mason are allowing us to stay with them and feeding us, too. We arrive, and there are ribs coming off the grill and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Zelda goes to bed around 22:00, and the rest of us stay up a bit late visiting before calling it a night