2007 NM Sat. Feb 3

Sat Feb, 3

We checked out of our hotel in Taos, sad to leave it, but looking forward to coming home.

We planned to stop at the Rio Grand Gorge Visitor’s Center as we were heading out about 10 am. We had been by the Center 5 times and had never seen it open. We figured on a Saturday morning it just had to be. Nope. So far it holds a perfect record. We know it is open from 9 am to 3 pm – just not any day we happen to be there, apparently! Your tax dollars at work!

We drove down to Los Alamos and toured the museum there – it was interesting, but they managed to make a fascinating subject kindof boring. They need to get someone from the History Channel to help them make films that are more interesting! We did see replicas of Fat Man and Little Boy – Fat Man was named after Winston Churchill and Little Boy was supposed to be Thin Man after Roosevelt, but the name got changed. Such small things to cause such terrifying destruction!

Their main job is to figure out if our nuclear weapons are still viable, without doing any nuclear tests. In order to do this, they have invented any number of creative things.

After Los Alamos, we went to Bandelier, which has a lot of trails that tour cliff dwellings. It was nearly 4pm, so it was too late to do that, but we plan to do it another time.

We headed back to Albuquerque and vowed next trip to not head there at 5 pm! It is an hour driving due west, straight into the sun! We did get to see the Sangre de Cristo mountain range at its' sunset best. I think I mentioned this last trip, but the name means “Blood of Christ” and the Spanish named them that due to their pink color at sunrise and sunset.

So, the trip is almost over and we had a wonderful time, but we are looking forward to getting home.





I am pretty pooped, so how about some more gorgeous pics of New Mexico? These are taken on the drive from Pojoaque to Los Alamos and Bandolier. (Yes, the sky is really that blue!)

2007 NM Fri Feb 2

Fri Feb 2

Keith got up early and skied a half day while I lolled around in bed until noon! I couldn’t get to sleep the night before and took a sleeping pill about 2 am and it was doing its business. That is one of the side effects of altitude on me, poor sleep.

Keith came back home just as Gil and I were discussing the latest batch of photos he had brought in for us on cd. He is such a kind person. One of the pictures was of the head in the mountains. It looks like George Washington and they say it looks like a skull from some angles. I could see George, but I never saw the skull. Good thing he circled it or I don’t think I would have seen it at all!


We went out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and marveled at the scenery.
















We took the (very) little hike down to the bridge from the parking lot and I was so glad to have my new snow boots! I couldn’t have gone down there without them. Keith held my hand the whole way as I am very leery of slipping! (Memories of two broken legs within 9 months still are pretty vivid!)

Once on the sidewalk of the bridge I noticed a strange thing. It looked like people had been clearing the bridge with their feet. I thought, how odd! Why would they do that? Then once we were over the river, I knocked some snow over the edge and immediately understood. It is very cool to watch the snow chunks fall 850 feet down to the river and to see the breeze pick up the snow crystals and make patterns in the air with them. I ended up clearing a good bit of sidewalk with my feet!

It was the most glorious day – that deep blue sky and bright sunshine. In town the wind had been whipping, and we thought we would get even more wind at the bridge, but there was only the slightest of breezes out there. It was pretty cold, but without the wind and with such low humidity, it doesn’t really bother you. Speaking of wind, here is a picture that is amazing. It was so windy in town that as the snow melted off the roof, it was blown sideways and these sideways icicles formed! Funny, huh?

We spent a couple of hours just soaking in the scenery on the bridge, then decide to head back to town for some lunch – well, dinner really. It was now about4:30 and neither of us had had lunch, so we were pretty hungry.

We decided to go back to the Trading Post, where it was too crowded to get in the other night. Good decision! I asked after Gata, the resident cat, once we were seated. Michelle, the hostess, told us that about 6 months ago somebody called the health department and reported Gata being in the restaurant, so now she is shut in her room until right before closing. Imagine that, she had been there for ten years, not hurting anything, and now she is a pariah! Humph! Busybodies! After dinner was over, we asked if we could say hello, and Michelle brought her out for a quick visit.

Before dinner, a little lady came around showing jewelry she and her daughter had made and I got a nice silver wire wrapped around copper cross. Her name was Josie and she does the bead work and her daughter the silver and wire work.

Dinner was the best yet! To start with, they give you hot fresh bread that you dip into balsamic vinegar and olive oil – yum. Then we split a salad of spring greens, with slices of fresh tomato and buffalo mozzarella cheese and a half of a full size steamed artichoke. Boy was it good!

I had escargot with a fabulous sauce and a clump of crispy angel hair pasta. The pasta had been cooked, then made into a patty, then fried so it was very crunchy. Tasty, tasty.

Keith had the steak with garlic mashed potatoes, a skewer of grilled shrimp, a small spring salad, and fresh vegetables. Vegetables included fresh carrots, zucchini, and spinach. All in various yummy sauces. We traded food back and forth, of course. Everything was so good.



They had a bunch of quilts on display on the walls inside the restaurant, all selling at $900 plus!



After dinner, we waddled out to the car and came back to the room to sit in torpor for awhile! Then we started the process of packing up. Being a week in one room, we have really spread out and it seemed unlikely that everything would fit back in the suitcases, but I know it will. Whether it will be less than 50 pounds is another matter! I guess we will just estimate it as best we can and if it is too much at the airport, we will rearrange things! Keith thought of a good idea, to get one of those fish scales that you could hang a bag from and weigh it!

Sat Feb 3

Today we plan to go to Los Alamos, there is a science museum there. (Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you, the hippieish couple we talked to yesterday, Adam and Cara, his parents both work at Los Alamos “building nuclear bombs” as Adam said. Don’t you know they have some interesting discussions!) Near Los Alamos is Bandelier National Park, with cliff dwellings and other cool stuff to see. If the weather is nice and the snow not too deep, we may prowl around on foot, otherwise we will take the driving tour. We may take a quick foray through Santa Fe, depending on the time, or just eat dinner there. Then it is back to Albuquerque and fly home on Sunday.

2007 NM Wed Jan 31

Wed Jan 31

I made another trip to Walmart today! Just can’t stay away. I needed some shoes I could walk in the snow in, as I neglected to get any in Florida. My sneakers with the mesh top just don’t cut it when it is snowy and slushy outside. I got some cheapo shoes and wore them outside – they weren’t very comfortable, but they were waterproof. Keith wasn’t happy that I had gotten cheapos, so we returned them on Thursday and got some good boots for me. They are comfortable and warm, so now I can walk through the slush with impunity. I always forget how filthy it is once the snow stops coming down. Slush and mud and dirty water and dirty snow everywhere! Well, except out in the mountains, of course.

After Walmart I went downtown to find a cute little shop named “Wabi-Sabi.” Wabi-Sabi is some sort of Japanese philosophy, I think. I got a book about it, so it will be interesting to see what it says. This little shop was very interesting and Siring, the owner, and I had an interesting chat about the China-India-Burma theater during WWII. Her uncle flew the hump and of course Keith’s dad was a flight chief on those planes. We were talking about it when another lady came in and asked for some help with tea when we were done.

Siring (the shop owner) said, “No problem, we were just talking about the war.”

The lady said, “Oooh,” in a very disapproving tone of voice.

Siring said hastily, “Oh not that war, World War Two.”

The lady replied, “Oooh,” in an approving tone of voice.

It made me smile to myself.

We are very much in the minority here, both as Christians and as conservatives. And they aren’t shy about letting you know that either. Hate Bush stuff is all over (those of you liberals whom I love would probably love it!) I imagine the native population tends to be more Catholic, since that is the historical religion, and I did see one Baptist church here, but there is a lot of Buddhism, Hinduism, of course Native American religion as well as animalism and Wiccan. Quite an interesting mix. Some of the nicest people I have ever met here, though. Everybody is friendly, and Keith says everybody at the ski slopes was too. The lift operators, the rental shop people and especially the boot place. He has been in about 5 or 6 times to get his boots adjusted.

He knew had really hard to fit feet. The boot store at the mountain is one of the best in the country which is why he wanted to get them there. Lots of the Everest climbers go there to have their climbing boots fitted. In little Taos! Amazing. He would ski, then get them adjusted, then ski, then adjust. You can’t really tell the fit until you have skied with them, so this was perfect.

After I visited Wabi-Sabi, I just felt like coming back to the room and finishing my book, so that’s what I did. It started snowing again just after I got in. By the time the guys got back, it had snowed about an inch. We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant next door and were glad we did. We walked over and were welcomed by a practically empty restaurant and a blazing fire! (In the fireplace ;) ) We got to sit right next to it and be toasty. Roger had salmon with dill sauce and Keith and I had trout with a great fresh chopped tomato and herb sauce. Very nice salad bar too. It was delicious. We walked back through the snow and then watched American Idol Los Angeles tryouts and howled.

Keith and Roger went out to see the Rio Grande Gorge before skiing and here's a picture of it with snow.






Thursday Feb 1

It snowed nearly all night and we had a little bit of excitement. Well, not excitement, exactly, but an experience. Our room heater had been performing so well that we had to keep turning it down and down to keep from getting toasted. Then about 9 or so, it seemed to be blowing only cold air. We turned it off for an hour or so, thinking maybe it needed to reset itself, but no indeed. It did not reset and blew cold air only all night. We called first thing in the morning and it was a matter of minutes for the guy to get a part it needed and ship it back into shape. Now it is once again heating properly.

Today, Roger headed home and Keith took a day off from skiing. He ran into Gil in the hall, and they came back to the room and we all talked for about an hour! He brought us two more cds of pictures, one of Yellowstone, and another one of the Taos area. He also brought me a couple of photo editing programs to see if I liked them. He is a real sweetheart! (Gil and I at left.) After I got him to let me take a picture with him, he took a picture of Keith and I together.

He said he had told his wife he has a new girlfriend and she said, “Another one?”  He also brought in a photo album to show us some of the pictures he had taken of his niece. At the high school here they have a Mariachi band. They have very cool black leather uniforms with silver conches down the outsides of the legs. Very smart looking.

We returned the crummy boots to Walmart and got some good ones from the ski shop! The guy working there was from Cornwall, England, just here on a 6 month work visa, to snowboard and ski. My new boots are quite warm and comfy and I had great fun tromping through the slush and snow without a care. They aren’t very dainty looking, but they are kindof cute.

We then browsed in all the shops around the plaza, looking for a sweatshirt for Bev, to thank her for lending Roger to us, especially during this difficult time. Those stores are more touristy (or, as the grammar checker suggested "touristier") so I hadn’t been in them, but they were the best place to find a shirt with a Taos theme. We found a lovely pale green sweatshirt (which is what Roger said she wanted, and he hadn’t had time to shop for one for her.) This picture is of me and my new friend (whom I felt positively svelte next to!)

Keith and I then went up to a local bakery to have lunch – or breakfast. They had French toast that they make with cinnamon nut bread! And pecan waffles! Yum! While we were waiting to order, we got to talking to a couple seated next to us. He was very olive skinned with dreads past his shoulders. Turns out he is a native Taosan, for many generations back and she is from Vermont. They met in Hawaii! He was teaching children there perma-culture. This is a sustainable earth friendly type of farming. She is an herbalist. He was telling us how he makes a living. In the spring he sells seedlings to people who are planting their gardens. In the summer he sells the harvest from his farm and teaches. In the fall they sell homemade soap and other herbal products that she makes from the herbs they grow. Very nice couple.

While we were waiting to order, the power went out. We stayed and talked to Adam and Cara for about 20 minutes, then gave up on it. We went back to the Bent Street Café where I had eaten lunch on Tuesday and they had power. I had a good bacon, onion and tomato quiche and Keith a “Zesty Breast,” (a turkey breast sandwich.) Don’t you know he had fun ordering that from Marybeth, our waitress!

After lunch, I took him to the bookstore so he could meet Ruby in person. She was delighted to see me again and purred and even sat on my lap … well, her front paws were on my lap. After I petted her awhile, I picked her up just to see how heavy she was. She looks like a sofa cushion, but she isn’t very heavy – probably not much more than Missy (12 lbs,) but she is a wide-body and that long fur makes her look even wider! She has big paws like Missy – she looks like she may have some Maine Coon in her. I took another picture of her, of course, and she posed very nicely.

After that, we poked around a few more stores and then picked up fresh donuts from Daylight Donuts. (Something to Crow About!) we stopped to get gas and poor Keith! It took forever to fill up the car, which couldn’t have been more than 6 gallons. The pump was going so slow, and he was standing in the wind, temp was 28 degrees! Brr. After that, we headed back to the room for fresh coffee and donuts and some relaxing. He is reading while I am writing this. So, more later!


Bye for now!

2007 NM Tues and Wed Jan 29-30

Update:
Couple of things I forgot to tell you about. Albuquerque must have a large homeless population and one park by the river was full – looked like a convention. I am assuming it is due to this that this store has implemented this security device. We saw a clamp-like device on one of the wheels, but aren’t sure how it would work. And isn’t it funny how they address “Shoppers,” when you know they really mean “Street People.”

They have another interesting thing here in NM, I told you about a couple of trips ago, but I don’t think I had a picture. They want to be sure you approve of their restrooms – look at this sign. You get to push the button next to the “YES” or “NO” and register your opinion.

Let’s see…
Monday afternoon, I roamed around and found a fabulous bead shop – actually the biggest one I have ever seen! I talked a good while to one of the workers there – she was from Alabama! I ended up only getting one little string of pale green beads – there were so many and I knew I wanted to visit the paper store, so I was spending conservatively.

The paper store – actually an art supply store, had a nice selection of hand made paper. They had a very good way to display the kinds of paper they had for sale. They cut a 12” square of ache kind of paper and had they all displayed where you could feel them and really look at them. Then they would get the whole sheets for you. I got about 10 sheets – some beautiful lacy tissues from Japan, a gorgeous green and purple sheet from India. Fun!

That pretty much took the afternoon, not forgetting the daily stop at Walmart, of course! Today was picking up a bar of real soap (the hotel’s soap seems to be made of self-destructing soap like substance. As soon as you start to use it, it breaks in half, you pick up a half and try and use it, it breaks in half, etc, until you have a handful of crumbs! And this is within five minutes of opening a new bar! I have never seen anything like it. So, I bought a bar of real soap.)

Keith and his cousin Roger had a great day of skiing. He got his new boots and a boot dryer – a wonderful thing to have so your boots are warm and dry the next morning. We had dinner at a wonderful pizza place that puts sesame seeds on the handmade crust. Yummo! They have a ton of gourmet toppings to select, such as gorgonzola cheese, toasted walnuts, smoke salmon, artichoke hearts…lots of good stuff. I was feeling a little blurky, so we got a plain mushroom, but it was great.

Tuesday
While Keith was out getting breakfast this morning, he ran into Gil Gallegos, the hotel guy I talked with the day before, and Gil gave him two CD’s and a little package of magnets. One cd was of sunset pics Gil had taken around Taos and the other was various scenery – lots of gorgeous fall pictures with the aspens like scatted gold streams among the evergreens. The magnets were pictures of painting his niece has done. All Native American themes and very nice. He had stayed up til midnight the night before making the cds, he told Keith! I was so touched!

He and I had another great chat this morning, about all sorts of stuff. My new bud!

I ventured around exploring the outskirts of the town – it looks like snow tomorrow, so I want to be sure I get to do my driving today! Here is a little grouping of Oz houses.

The dome really makes sense in a snowy part of the country – I would imagine snow just falls off the roof and you have no worries. The adobe houses here all seem to have flat roofs and the girl at the bead store says they have to replace the roof every ten years.

I went downtown after the drive, stopped in to see Ruby, who was presiding over the bookstore with her usual grace and charm.
Next stop was a new paper and misc. stuff store where I found fun stuff for Mom as kitty sitting presents! Across the way was a glorious fabric store and I was very glad I wasn’t into fabric! They had things arranged by color – my favorite organization method.



After this I was a bit hungry, so I stopped by the Bent Street Café, named after a governor named Bent. I had a salad plate with baba ganoush, crudités, pita triangles and hummus. Yum.

I headed home after this and read until the guys got home. We went to dinner at a New Mexican restaurant. Good enchiladas, with lots of shopped romaine lettuce, the obligatory refried beans, and Posole, which is a spicy hominy dish! I had never seen it before on a menu and none of us knew what it was, but it was good. They also served a side dish of fresh sopapillas – as bread, not as dessert. I was too full to eat more than a bite of it though.

After dinner we went back to howl in front of American Idol, and cursed the TV schedule once again. I don’t know what the deal is here, but we don’t have a local paper, so we depend on the web for TV listings. We haven’t ever been big TV watchers, but 24, American Idol and House have captured our attention. Well, on Monday night at home, 24 comes on at 9pm which is 7pm here. So, I looked it up on the web – the cable in the hotel is on Comcast and the schedule is on the web. It listed 24 as being on at 10pm. I double checked that the program on at that time corresponded to the listing and felt confidant I knew what was what. Au contraire! We turned to the proper channel at 10 to see The Simpsons starting! Grrr! I went back to the web to see if I misread Comcast’s schedule, nope, it showed 24 at 10. Then I went to the local station’s listings and there it was, at 9pm, just like at home! Grr! I checked in with Mom and she gave me the rundown and said I didn’t miss much. Lileks agrees – he said, “Bottom line: an episode that managed to be everything the previous 120 weren’t.” i.e., boring, I assume.

So, Tuesday night I checked the local station schedule and it said AI at 8 and House at 9. Turned on TV after we got home from dinner at 7:30 and AI was half over! Grrr! Ah well – got the whole episode of House anyway. AI gives me a major laugh several times each show – people who are just so clueless as to their complete lack of talent! It was interesting, at the auditions in NYC, the people they told “no” to were very argumentative, in Birmingham, Alabama, they thanked the judges! Southern politeness!

Wednesday

Today the guys went out a little early so they could take a detour to see the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge – a very beautiful bridge and gorge. Roger hadn’t seen it and thinks he will head home tomorrow instead of staying until Saturday. Beverly’s (his wife) mom is on her last days and had gotten dramatically worse over the past couple of days. They discovered she had stage 4 lung cancer, lymphatic cancer, and a brain tumor in early December, 2006. She had radiation for the brain tumor, but the others are basically untreatable as they are so advanced. Bev called Hospice and they came out yesterday and started helping. Bev says her breathing has really changed over the last 2 days and it sounds to us like it is very near the end. Bev is an only child and lost her dad years ago, so she feels all alone in dealing with this. She insisted Roger come on this trip as he could be home in one day if he needed to be.

Today I think I will hit the museums. There are about 5 of them here, I don’t know how many I will get, we’ll see. Of course I have a couple more shops to check out also – well there are probably a hundred little shops here, but I have to be selective! Not being much interested in clothing does help reduce the stores I need to visit. Too bad you aren’t here Mom, you’d have a ball!

It snowed a few inches last night, but I imagine the main roads will be clear – I am not venturing off them, for sure! If Roger does go home early, Keith and I may head off to other parts of NM to explore! We’ll see!

2007 NM Sunday Jan 28

Sunday Jan 28

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in NM. Right outside our hotel was a bunch of petrified wood, Keith hadn't seen it before, but being a geologist’s daughter and growing up around petrified wood and dinosaur bones, I recognized it at once. Pretty cool. We checked out and went to the 66 Diner to eat lunch. I went to Roadfood.com to find locally owned good restaurants and they were one of them, I had a half a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of split pea and ham soup – greatly surprising Keith. He didn't know I liked split pea soup as I don’t like any other type of peas. I don’t eat it often, in fact the last time was when I was in Solvang, CA with Mom and had it for lunch there.

We drove up to Taos along the river canyon drive and it was just beautiful. Two weeks ago they had 3 feet of snow on the ground, but it has been warm since then and there isn’t a lot of snow left. The roads are perfectly clear. The mountain has had a ton of snow – feet and feet over the last month or so. We got into Taos and checked into our hotel, the Comfort Suite – very nice. We have a large room with a king and a queen bed, a separate living room, like Amerisuites. We have a microwave and fridge, so we went and go a little breakfast food. And tons of water!


Keith’s cousin Roger got in about 5 and we all went to eat at Pizza Emergency. It was a good little pizza restaurant.

Monday January 29, 2007

Keith and Roger headed up to the mountain about 9 am. Keith is going to get his ski boots (thanks Mom for that birthday and Christmas gift!) and Roger is getting his skis waxed. The boot shop there is one of the best in the country and Keith is very excited to have his own boots! Fitted to his own exacting feet! They will get a half day ticket and ski from noon to 4 today.

I had a leisurely sleep-in this morning. I did a little internet research and had a nice chat with one of the men who work here (Gil Gallegos.) He was translating for the maid, who spoke only Spanish, and we just got to talking. Turns out he uses different computer programs to correct old pictures – we had a good talk comparing this software versus that software. He does a little craft stuff and told me where a craft supply store is, and also told me the front desk girl is a mixed media artist, so I will talk with her about local stuff. It will be neat to see stuff other than tourist shops.

Well – about to head off now, it’s another gorgeous day here. BLUE skies! Hanna, you could use a week here every winter, assuming of course it was a sunny week! more later.

2007 NM Sat Jan 27

Sat 1/27/07
We had great flights out, no hassles, and no delays – very unusual! At the Jax airport we got a bagel sandwich for lunch and saw a lady with the most unusual hairstyle. She was a black lady and she had her hair sculpted into a do that was a foot high with swoops and swirls in it. It was a burgundy color. I asked her a couple of questions about it, but did not have the nerve to ask if it was a hairpiece or her real hair. She says she has it done about every 3 weeks and does it in a different color and style each time. I wish I had thought to take a picture.

We had a dog and 3 babies on one of our flights and nobody made a sound! We flew to Atlanta and changed planes and then to Albuquerque. That flight was a little over 3 hours so we watched the last episodes of “Firefly.” That was a great show – we couldn’t believe they cancelled it after only 13 episodes. We were trying to figure out why and guessed that maybe it wasn’t “simple” enough. No laugh track, very creative dialogue, wonderful characters. It took a little thought to get into their world and understand what was going on, so maybe that was it – who knows. It was a really good show, and one we will need to get on DVD.

We got into Albuquerque in great time and had two very interesting people sitting in front of us. One was a little lady, looked to be in her mid eighties or nineties, dressed to the teeth, very chic. Black sweater, antique gold jewelry, long plaid skirt and black boots all topped off with a very stylish black hat. She had lived in Albuquerque for years. Next to her was a young boy, about 16, flying out to live there. His dad had moved there a month before and his mom was driving from their old home in WV because she wanted to stop along the way and visit Graceland. He had caught a flight earlier than the one planned and was arriving about 7 and his father didn’t expect him until 11. He didn’t know his father’s phone number, but he planned to borrow a cell phone from someone and call his mother and get the number from her to get his dad to pick him up early. Kids! We suggested he could take a taxi to his house, but he didn’t know the address. He zoomed off once we landed and presumably worked it all out.

Hotel fine, now on to the day of Sunday…