We finished off our trip with a visit to Sedona. That morning we hiked to Devil's Bridge, which has the largest natural sandstone arch in the Sedona area. (Since I don't think we will make it to Arches National Park this year, I feel like this was a good substitute!) Sam and J went out on the arch, but I was too nervous to try to walk across while carrying Lucy in a backpack. Sam got a little nervous himself when they stopped to pose for this picture (see above), but he told me afterward that he calmed himself down by thinking about he was going to go back to school after Spring Break ended.
The hike to the arch was lovely, and it was one of my favorite things on our whole trip. Although there was a little bit of scrambling involved, it was easy enough to do with a backpack. It started to rain for a few minutes while we were hiking, but the timing was excellent because we just happened to walk past a large sandstone ledge at that moment.
All of the cacti in Arizona reminded me of how, when I was about Sam's age, a boy pushed me down onto a potted barrel cactus plant and my mom had to pull the spines out of my bottom. I had completely forgotten this story until I saw the cacti (I probably wanted to push it out of my memory!). Sam was really intrigued by it, and kept asking, "Does this cactus look like the one you sat on?"
I love this picture of Sam in the sandstone ledge! This is where we waited for the short rainstorm to end.
At the arch!
After leaving Sedona, we drove back down to Phoenix, but stopped at Montezuma Castle (with ancient cliff dwellings dating between 1100-1450 CE) and Montezuma Well along the way. This was the third National Park Service site that we visited on our trip; I'm glad that we were able to pack in so many visits to the Park Service! I want to support the National Parks this year as a way to celebrate the centennial of the NPS.
Lucy was less impressed with the ruins themselves, but she liked the little cutaway diorama-type display showing inhabitants within the structures. She sobbed, "People! People!" when we left that area of the site.
It was really fascinating to learn that 1.5 million gallons of water flow into Montezuma Well each day. There is a large amount of dissolved carbon dioxide gas in the water, so fish can't survive in this well (and I assume that makes the water undrinkable for humans?), but the water was used for irrigation by the people who made their home in this region.
And with these last to sites, our trip pretty much ended there. We drove back to Phoenix that afternoon. Lucy had a long nap in the car (she was so worn out from traveling), but that allowed J and I to have a nice chat in the car. (I remember we had a long conversation about friendship and what it means to be a friend to someone - perhaps I will write a post about that topic one day.) That evening we dined at the Phoenix Public Market Cafe and got ready for our flight home.
We had a wonderful trip and I'm so glad that everything worked out so we could go!
We left the Grand Canyon and drove southeast, in order to first visit Meteor Crater. This is the first site that was identified as having been created from an impact meteor crater. The meteor was hit the earth around 50,000 years ago. It is nearly a mile across and over 550 feet deep! I think that the things which really helped me get a sense of scale were the telescopes at the top of the crater. Some of the things in the crater that were clearly visible within the telescope were hardly visible with the naked eye.
Sam loved seeing the crater and said that this was one of his favorite things that we got to do on the trip. Lucy didn't care so much about the crater, but she loved all of the steps and ramps that led you around the site and Visitor's Center building. She really liked the film that was introduced information about the crater. She kept loudly saying "Crash!" and "Boom!" when we watched simulations of the meteor hitting the ground.
After we left the crater, we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park. As we pulled off of the highway, we traveled through the town of Holbrook on Route 66. We immediately noticed that the Wigwam Motel and noted how similar it looks to the Cozy Cone Motel in the Pixar movie Cars. It turns out that this movie did serve as the inspiration for the movie, and then even have old classic cars sitting outside the teepee structures that have the names of Cars characters on the license plates. If I had known about this, I would have changed our motel plans so we could have spent a night here!
We arrived at Petrified Forest National Park in the early afternoon. This area is full of unique natural features partly because during the Triassic Period, this area was a tropical forest. After the continents split, this tropical forest drifted to what is known as current-day Arizona. At some point, the trees were buried, then covered with volcanic ash which helped to prompt the petrification of the logs, and now these logs are visible today due to erosion.
We decided to hike several of the trails in the park. First we took the Long Logs trail loop at the Visitors Center, and then we went to the Crystal Forest (shown below) to look at some of the logs which have petrified with sparkly bits of quartz.
The Blue Mesa was my favorite section of the park. We did only part of this trail, because we needed to get to the Painted Desert before the part closed. But I really loved the stripes and lines that were created by deposits of blue, purple, green and black mudstones with sedimentary rock. We often kept commenting that we felt we were like we were visiting other planets that are featured in Star Wars movies, because the landscape looked so unique and unfamiliar. J and I also joked that the Blue Mesa was Nature's manifestation of Color Field painting.
The last section of the Petrified National Forest is called the Painted Desert. We decided to hike the rim trail here, in order to get some spectacular views of the red and white hills below.
We left the park as the sun was going down, and we got to see some really lovely views of the Arizona sky as we drove west toward Sedona.
We got to spend a day and a half at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. When we got there around noon on the first day, we found out that we were going to overlap with our friends the Roses. (We knew that we would be at the Grand Canyon on the same day, but that morning we weren't sure if the timing would work out for us to meet.) We were able to meet up for just about fifteen minutes along the Rim Trail. It was so fun to see them there, even though we see them on a regular basis when we are at home.
Rachael took this picture of us - we were supposed to meet them at the Geology Museum, but they started to walk down the trail the opposite direction so as to meet up with us. Rachael pulled out her phone and snuck up on us so she could document our reaction!
I like to imagine that B's arms are outspread because he's saying something to A and Sam about the scale of the Grand Canyon.
After saying goodbye to the Roses, we continued to explore the Rim Trail. We walked over to Mather Point and then went to the Visitor's Center.
You can really get a sense of scale when looking at our small bodies next to the canyon.
The next morning it was a little bit drizzly, but not bad. I actually really loved walking around outside that morning, because after the rain the air smelled fresh and sweet from the scent of sagebrush. We started the morning going out to Desert View Tower. There were some amazing views of the Colorado River there!
Sam is holding up his medallion with a picture of the Desert Tower on it.
Just outside Desert Tower
We then went and visited some nearby pueblo ruins within the park. Sam also completed his Junior Ranger workbook, so we sought out a ranger so that Sam could officially become a Junior Ranger. Here he is taking the Junior Ranger pledge. I love that without any prompting he held up his Junior Ranger certificate to his chest while he took the pledge.
It began to rain more heavily after that point, the low clouds started to come into the canyon and block our view. We decided to back to the motel for a bit, and we spend the afternoon swimming there and attending an IMAX film about the Grand Canyon at the National Geographic theater nearby. Probably the most interesting thing I learned in the film was that John Wesley Powell, the main who first led a group to successfully navigate the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon by boat, was a one-armed veteran of the Civil War! Here is a quote by Powell that puts his risks and derring-do into a new perspective:
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.
After the movie ended, the rain had let up and we were able to go back to the park. The afternoon and evening light was really lovely, and we decided to hike the Bright Angel Trail. This hike may have been my favorite thing that we did in the park, since we were able to descend a little bit down the side of the canyon. We hiked down to the second tunnel, so the overall hike was a little over a mile and a half. This hike also was nice because Lucy fell asleep in the backpack, so I got to have some good one-on-one conversations with Sam. And the changing light due to the descending sun really enhanced the textures and colors of the canyon, so everything was just beautiful and peaceful.
We got really close to some of the deer that were eating alongside the trail. One was only about three feet away from me; I think it the closest that I have ever been to a deer in my life.
This is one of my favorite photos from the whole trip.
We made it to the second tunnel!
Sam was such a good hiker on this trip. He didn't really complain, but just kept walking and chatting. He later said he was motivated to just finish, so he could go have a cheeseburger for dinner, but I like to think that he enjoyed himself too!
A few weeks ago, when prepping for a new school quarter, I realized that the university planned to cancel classes on the morning of a certain day in April. I realized, happily, that this cancelled class coincided with Sam's spring break, and that we could take a family trip for a few days since I wasn't expected to teach. My spring break has never coincided with Sam's spring break, but this was the closest thing to having that happen. We quickly made plans for a trip to go to Arizona, since we have been talking about visiting the Grand Canyon for a few years.
Just before takeoff! J took this photo to show his mom that we made it onto our plane.
We chose to stay downtown in Phoenix, within walking distance of The Children's Museum of Phoenix and the Arizona Science Center museum. The Super 8 motel we stayed at was pretty dingy (I even scrubbed the bathtub myself, so the kids wouldn't bathe in black foot scum), but we did like that the motel was so close to our destinations within the city.
Outside the Children's Museum
Inside the giant "treehouse" construction in the Children's Museum
Sam gave Lucy several rides through the "car wash" at the Children's Museum
Playing with digital bits of paper in the Science Center: you could "catch" them on the screen as they fell
Sam lying on a bed of nails!
Motel pool babe! This is one of my favorite photos of Lucy from the trip.
It was really hot that day (around 99 or 100 degrees) and the pool was freezing, but it was nice to be outside together.
Swimming was one of Sam's favorite things to do on our vacation. We swam here once and also swam once at the indoor pool in Tusayan a few days later.
We had hoped to visit the Museum of Musical Instruments while we were in town, but we didn't end up having time to go out that way since Lucy needed a nap in the afternoon. Next time, Phoenix!
I had hoped to write this post about James Dean a few weeks ago, but we recently returned from a vacation and I haven't had a chance to organize my thoughts until today. I also wrote a post on my art history blog about James Dean's interest in art, which is meant to complement this post. I feel like I have learned quite a bit about James Dean, mostly from reading the biography James Dean: The Mutant King: A Biography by David Dalton. This was a pretty good book, although sometimes it was a little redundant or unnecessarily Freudian.
In many respects, I feel like I understand James Dean and can connect with him: his mother died when he was nine years old, and although my mother died when I was in my late twenties, I think that we are both influenced by our mothers (both in their presence and absence from our lives). One cute anecdote from Jimmy's childhood was that he and his mother played a "Wishing Game" together: Jimmy would write a wish down on a piece of paper and place it under his pillow; during the night, his mother would remove the paper and try to make the wish come true the next day.
I think that James Dean reminds me a bit of the stereotypical thespian (or "drama freak") that you might find in high school: eccentric, aloof, with both a devil-may-care attitude and a slight disdain for those who follow the norm. In some ways I can relate to this type of person, since I had many "drama freak" friends in school and even referred to myself in that way (although I was a bit of a poser, since I mostly just participated in the annual school musicals). I feel like it's easier to think of him in this type of high school context though, because his poetry seems a little bit rough and overly eager. That being said, I think there are some nuggets of value in the poetry I did read. Here is one example of a poem which James Dean wrote, titled "Old Creek" (it reminds me a little bit of Mary Oliver's poems, with the interest in nature imagery):
I took a little drink from an ample stream I fear thereby result in fertile jest to her source Her current swift direct and crystal There is a want to be there and drink long Nature's plea, ovum, stem and pistil But there is more to streams Than the water to gorge on Plunge your face in a brook To wash the desire away A fool to drink To drink and not to taste.
It seems to me that James Dean was a very passionate person, and he wanted to wholeheartedly thrust himself into whatever he was doing or thinking at the moment. This is probably why he was a practitioner of the highly-personal acting theory called The Method, in which an actor tries to genuinely replicate and feel the emotions, mannerisms, etc. of the character that he/she is feeling. In other words, in many ways James Dean tried to really be his characters, and it sometimes took him hours to prepare for a shoot or performance.
I think that there is so much emphasis on the three major films that James Dean completed, that some of his other work gets forgotten. He not only had roles on the stage, but also had some minor roles in television and film. I was particularly interested to learn that James Dean served as an extra in Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin's film Sailors Beware (1952). You can see him in the clip below, as one of the supporting staff members at a boxing arena:
That being said, James Dean did make his biggest impact on America (and the world) through the three major films that he participated in. Here are just a few thoughts that I had on these films:
Rebel Without a Cause (1955): This movie has several intense moments! I think that James Dean has some very poignant acting moments, particularly in the opening sequence (which he improvised himself), and in the scene when he argues with his parents on the staircase. One thing that I was interested to learn was that this movie opened four days after James Dean died. Everyone wanted to be James Dean after this movie, and thousands of red jackets were sold from Mattson's, where the cast had bought their clothes off-the-rack (Dalton, p. 317).
East of Eden (1955): I think that this is my favorite out of James Dean's movies, perhaps because I really like the book by Steinbeck and I like the way that Dean portrays Cal Trask. I think there are some interesting expressions of emotion and frustration conveyed in this film. Probably one of my favorite things that I learned was that James Dean, as a Method actor, was compelled to deviate from the script during the scene when he tries to give his father money as a birthday present. The script called for Cal Trask to storm away in anger after his gift was rejected, but Dean felt compelled to try and hug his father. His co-star, Raymond Massey (who plays the father Adam Trask), was so shocked by this deviation from the script that he could only exclaim "Cal! Cal!"
Giant (1956): I thought James Dean was fine as Jett Rink in this film, although the final scene with him as a blubbering drunkard in a banquet hall was a little clumsy. In fact, his speech was so muddled and incoherent that the audio needed to be re-recorded, but Dean died before that could happen (so someone else's voice was recorded). My favorite scenes are when Elizabeth Taylor's character visits his home (although I especially like the part when he is fumbling around to make tea, and I can only find a clip online of what happens later in the scene), and when he strikes oil.
One thing that struck me during this film was that James Dean reminds me a little bit of Johnny Depp, particularly in terms of their acting styles. In fact, sometimes Jett Rink's mannerisms reminded me a little bit of Jack Sparrow's character. I think that Dean and Depp portrayed their characters with a similar sense of abandon: these characters feel free to do whatever they want, and their loose and limber bodies seem to emphasize that idea.
It's interesting that all three of James Dean's films were released after his death. Although he had come into some renown as an actor before this point, he really didn't achieve widespread fame until after he died in an automobile accident, after a car turned into his path. Many people presume that James Dean was speeding and therefore couldn't slow down enough to avoid the collision, but the study presented in this documentary suggested that neither vehicle was speeding when the accident occurred. In retrospect, probably one of the most ironic things that was filmed during the time of Giant was a Public Service Announcement, in which he asks people to drive carefully, saying at the end, "Take it easy driving, the life you might save might be mine":
I have had several moments lately when I have been proud of Sam and struck by how grown-up he is. He was such a help to me and Jeremy during our recent family trip to Arizona, and I noticed several times when he forewent his own interests in order to help keep Lucy happy and entertained. Lucy had several rounds of laughs on our trip, and I think they were mostly because Sam made her laugh.
I also have noticed how grown-up and skilled he has become with his piano practicing. He is good at exercising discipline in practicing, and he is starting to learn more complex songs. I actually took the picture of Sam at the piano (shown above) at a moment when I heard him playing some more complex music, and I realized that he was growing up. I tried to get a picture of him playing the piano, but he noticed what I was doing and turned to give the camera a sweet smile.
Sam also is aware of the importance of self-control, even if just in small increments sometimes. After our trip, he said, "I know I got to play the iPad a lot on this trip, so I'm going to not play the iPad for two straight days!" (He is allowed to play it every-other-day usually.) I'm glad he is aware of the importance of restraint.
Most recently, J and I have both been really proud of Sam's scholastic achievements. This week we got a letter in the mail, stating that Sam did exceptionally well on a standardized test called the CogAT. He tested in the 97th percentile for his grade and the 99th percentile for his age. As a result, Sam was invited to be transferred into the Discovery Program (the district's Highly Capable program) for advanced instruction, starting the next academic year. He will be in a self-contained classroom with other students in the same program, but at present we are pretty sure he will still attend his same elementary school. We are so proud of Sam!
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