Family Visit

I was blessed to have my family visit me in the middle of nowhere Nevada last weekend. My parents were in UT for BYU's adult education week and tacked on a few extra days to come see me. It was a wonderful, but much too short, visit.

I was on duty at the visitor center desk when they arrived. It had been slow all morning, and as soon as they got there, the masses descended upon me. I finished my shift a half hour later and we went next door to the cafe for lunch.
The family came on my 3pm cave tour. To prevent the spread of White Nose Syndrome to the western bat populations (horrid fungus decimating bat populations back east), we screen all visitors to make sure they're not spreading the fungus. Since Adam had been in a cave in the past year, he got to put his shoes in a disinfecting solution. Way to protect our bats, Adam!

As one of my friend's commented last summer, we never grow out of playing show and tell to our parents. It was great showing them the beautifully decorated cave.

Saturday night we went to the park's astronomy program. The sky was perfectly clear and we could clearly see the Milky Way. There were two large telescopes set up and we saw all sorts of cool stuff and I could actually make out the different constellations. What a difference being able to see all the stars makes in identifying constellations.

Sunday night I had my campfire program at the Wheeler Peak campground. I had to go up early to rove the campground so my folks drove up separately. The program went well and Mom and Adam were even able to participate in the program.The next morning, it was back up the scenic drive. We hiked to the bristlecone grove, part way to the glacier, then down to Teresa and Stella Lakes. We couldn't have asked for better weather. On the way to the glacier, there was still snow and Adam scrambled down to it and then threw a snowball at us.Family at Teresa Lake.

They left Tuesday morning. As I said, much too short but I'm so glad they were able to make it for a visit. It looks like I'll be out here through October, so anyone else wanting to visit...especially as the fall colors begin to turn....