Barbara Hart Radisavljevic
In 1987, our family took a trip to Colorado. We wanted to see Mesa Verde National Park, ride the Durango-Silverton train, and use a cabin at Lake Vallecito in Durango as our home base. Jason was about nine then, and Sarah was thirteen. We had not yet started homeschooling, but we did try to give the children as many educational experiences as possible. That meant most of our vacations were also opportunities to make history, geography, and science come to life.
We stayed in the cabin at the lake for about three nights. The gentleman in the next cabin taught the children to fish, something we weren’t equipped to do. When they weren’t fishing, the kids played outside the cabin.
When we visited Mesa Verde, we saw the Native American cliff dwellings, meeting places, etc. Then we went to a museum at the visitor center where there were models of structures we’d seen.
That night after dinner, Sarah went outside to play. I can’t recall if Jason were with her or if he was fishing. I’m sure they could see each other. When we came outside, Sarah showed us what she had made. We shouldn’t have been surprised, since she was artistic. What surprised us more was that she did this completely on her own, without anyone suggesting it. It showed us that she had integrated what she saw into her understanding of history and it had become part of her. Â The top photo shows the results of her learning and creativity, using the materials she found close at hand, just as the Native Americans had.
The last picture shows all of us at Mesa Verde. I think another tourist took the photo for us with my camera. I’m wearing the neck brace because I’d been rear-ended a few months before our vacation.
Lovely story to recall happy memories. Our family also fished as well, it was our food for the table.
My mom and dad caught fish for the table. Our kids didn’t catch anything where we could cook it, but at camp the camp cook used what the kids or the adults caught.
Fishing on river or lake, that is a life! Love.
My parents loved to fish, but I never got into it. Maybe that was partly because I never lived close to a lake or river and my mom didn’t like to travel.
Throughout my life, our ‘normal’ vacations have been to go camping. However, in 1961, our folks took us to the western US National Parks. It was fascinating and enlightening. I wish I’d been a little older so I might have appreciated it more.
I wish our kids had been a little older when we went to Washington, D.C. My daughter couldn’t figure out why George Washington wasn’t home at Mt. Vernon. She was eleven by then, but in special education classes. She still had no concept of history outside her young life. We had to work on that.
Nice memories in photos
I’m very thankful for photos. They help us remember happy times we might otherwise forget.
Such wonderful memories for you. I am sorry about Jason and Sarah. We keep going as they would want us to. Thank you for sharing.
That’s about all we can do. I’m thankful we still have good memories.
Memories are what help us go on with life, as you know.
What beautiful memories! Your kids were very bright and creative 🙂
They were. I really miss them. I wish Jason had been able to grow up. He lived only four more years after that photo was taken. Sarah got as old as 34.
beautiful place, thank you for sharing!!!
It was more beautiful than my photos would indicate. This was before the age of digital photography and I had to scan physical photos that had been in an album for a long time.