On Thursday Abe drove me up to Ojo Caliente hot springs spa and left me there the whole day. Ojo Caliente is built over natural hot springs that are different from each other in chemical composition. It is the site the Apaches used to use for peace talks.
I ate breakfast, did yoga in a yurt, bathed in the iron springs, the lithium springs, the soda springs, and the arsenic springs. I skipped the mud pools and then ate lunch. At first I tried to be healthy and just eat a carton of fresh tomatoes for lunch, but then my stomach growled and I ate a salad and bread pudding before going to get an two and a half hour massage and facial treatment. It was insanely self-indulgent and I would have felt guilty if my conscience were more alert, but honestly I just enjoyed myself the whole time. Going through a faith transition in the heart of Utah County and raising four kids has really taken it out of me, and Abe was so wonderful to insist this day happen.
I didn’t take any pictures except for while I was waiting for my massage:
And one right after of one of the arsenic pools:
In the meantime, Abe was super-dad-ing it with all of the kids. He took them to the Santa Fe Children’s Museum and to Petroglyph National Monument in Albequerque. They thought the museum was sooooo fun and didn’t ever want to leave.
Clarissa spent a solid thirty minutes at this machine:
They all painted each other’s faces. Lydia painted Abe’s, Abe painted Clarissa, Ammon painted himself, and Abe can’t remember who did Mary.
Ammon and Mary fell asleep quickly in the car:
For dinner Abe took the kids to Village Inn or Denny’s. I can’t remember which. It was someplace that does smiley face pancakes and breakfast for dinner.
