It's always fun to see the beautiful things of our area through a visitors eyes, to see the awe as they turn the corner and witness the grandeur of Delicate Arch in real life instead of on a Utah lisence plate, for instance. But it has been a whole new experience seeing these things through the eyes of not only a visitor, but a foreigner to our country. I was talking with Marie-Laure, the delightful French girl who has been staying with us for the past several months, and told her that in France, their castles were my favorite things to visit. She was mystified as to why that would be. In France, castles are everywhere. "You have no castles in the United States?" she asked. "No." "Why no castles?" she asked. I explained that our country was not only too young for castles, but that we had never been ruled by a monarchy - no kings and queens have ruled here - well, unless you count the King of England, but he didn't bother building a castle, which is why we kicked him out. So we took Marie-Laure to Mesa Verde to see the oldest buildings we have in the United States - which would be basically on par with the age of those fascinating castles we visited while in France.
I'm not sure you can really refer to Indian ruins as castles, but it was the closest ancient thing I could come to, so we climbed the 32 foot ladder into the Balcony House to see, well, a castle.
And I'm not sure a cute 19 year old girl was appropriately impressed with the ruins, which may have had more to do with her lack of understanding of our English speaking guide, but the rest of us were.
We also made a point to tour Cliff Palace since we were on a castle tour. I think you will agree that this is pretty castle like. Although she still thinks her visit to Las Vegas was better, at least I will know that she will go home in a few weeks having seen some of the most beautiful parts of our country. Some of our history, our legacy. Our castles.
It's always fun to see the beautiful things of our area through a visitors eyes, to see the awe as they turn the corner and witness the grandeur of Delicate Arch in real life instead of on a Utah lisence plate, for instance. But it has been a whole new experience seeing these things through the eyes of not only a visitor, but a foreigner to our country. I was talking with Marie-Laure, the delightful French girl who has been staying with us for the past several months, and told her that in France, their castles were my favorite things to visit. She was mystified as to why that would be. In France, castles are everywhere. "You have no castles in the United States?" she asked. "No." "Why no castles?" she asked. I explained that our country was not only too young for castles, but that we had never been ruled by a monarchy - no kings and queens have ruled here - well, unless you count the King of England, but he didn't bother building a castle, which is why we kicked him out. So we took Marie-Laure to Mesa Verde to see the oldest buildings we have in the United States - which would be basically on par with the age of those fascinating castles we visited while in France. 
I'm not sure you can really refer to Indian ruins as castles, but it was the closest ancient thing I could come to, so we climbed the 32 foot ladder into the Balcony House to see, well, a castle.
And I'm not sure a cute 19 year old girl was appropriately impressed with the ruins, which may have had more to do with her lack of understanding of our English speaking guide, but the rest of us were.
We also made a point to tour Cliff Palace since we were on a castle tour. I think you will agree that this is pretty castle like. Although she still thinks her visit to Las Vegas was better, at least I will know that she will go home in a few weeks having seen some of the most beautiful parts of our country. Some of our history, our legacy. Our castles.
3 comments:
What a good host you are! Those ruins real are amazing.
Looks like fun! I've never been, but hopefully one day!
Good to see you're finally posting again. It's fun to see those places again, and recognize them. I can't believe she wasn't impressed! I thought they were amazing! Maybe it's because the castles that she is so used to are cooler. Glad you guys had fun!
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