Pine Top: Day 2

No one slept well our first night, but we woke up excited to see what Pine Top had to offer. We had Pop Tarts, fruit, and left over pizza for breakfast then went outside for a game of giant checkers and some time on the playground. 

At 9:00 am we joined a gathering in the resort's central room and ate doughnuts while one of the directors gave us a rundown on the resort and mentioned a few interesting things to do in the area. We decided that for today's outing we'd check out Fort Apache and the Kinishba Ruins, which were about half an hour's drive from The Roundhouse. Considering it was called Fort Apache, I think we were expecting Teepee's and Indian relics, but it was actually an old US military fort turned boarding school turned day school. Some of the old houses were really beautiful and it was interesting to read the plaques detailing the history of each structure, but most of the buildings are still in use to some degree and the kids were disappointed that they could only go inside the log cabin. 

boy's dormitories

girl's dormitories

Next to the fort there was a museum of Apache culture and a couple grass teepee's that they could explore, so that was something at least.

After walking the 1.3 mile loop around the fort, we ate some snacks then got a bit turned around trying to find the Kinishba Ruins. The map we got at the visitor's center was terrible, but we eventually made it to our destination. The looped trail around the site was very near where we parked and only 1/3 of a mile long, so Grandpa joined us to check it out. While fairly impressive looking, the ruins are not actually the remains of structures built by ancient natives but rather the failed attempt at a living history museum. According to the pamphlet about the site, excavation of the area suggested occupation by Pueblo people and an anthropologist and some students set out to make a reconstruction in the 1930's. The "rebuilding approximated the original village's form and layout, but (the) work also made liberal use of cement, saw-cut lumber, tin, and imagination." Work stopped on the project during WWII and it started to fall into ruin by the middle of the 1950's. It was fun to pretend they were real real ruins, but the concrete and exposed nails kind of took away from the wonder such a place often invokes. 

Grandma and Grandpa took the long way back to the resort, while we stopped again at Safeway for a couple things we forgot and some fried chicken for lunch. We ate by the outdoor games area then played a rousing game of Bocce Ball wherein Matthew and Hyrum absolutely walloped me and Abraham. 

We then enjoyed some down time back in our room. I read my book while everyone else watched TV. For dinner my parents took us to a restaurant called Darbi's that advertises "home cooking." We watched the last 3/4 of The Crood's when we got back from our meal, then put the kids to bed at 8:00 pm. Matthew and I went to sleep not long after.