Taos for Sure

Today we are going to Taos for breakfast. Dennis is waiting for me to stop typing so we can go.

Getting breakfast in Taos is not as easy as we assumed. After our 1-1/2 hour trip to Taos, we parked near a restaurant with a breakfast sign out front. Closed. So we walked about a block west and found nothing. Then we walked around the square, saw a lot of shops, but no breakfast. Finally, we got in the car and went east some more. Eventually we found a really great restaurant: Michael's. It was actually a restaurant and bakery. While we waited for our food, a waitress came around offering fresh doughnut holes, glazed. Really, really good, especially when you're really, really hungry. On the way out we bought tonight's dessert: chocolate eclair.

After breakfast, we continued north until we arrived at the Taos Pueblo, a real Pueblo Indian village. This is a photo of the San Geronimo Church built in 1850. It is a Registered National Historic Landmark and one of the youngest buildings in the village.

Many of the pueblo "homes" have been converted all or in part into small stores offering traditional arts, crafts, and foods. While there, we made a few purchases and, as we were leaving, bought a sweet prune pie to share. We ate it in the car and it was delicious.

This is the Hlaauma/North House. It faces the Hlaukkwima/South House across The Red Willow Creek. These structures are believed to be well over 1000 years old. We spoke to a woman artist in one of the houses and she explained the structure and maintenance of the pueblo homes. The buildings are made of adobe, a mixture of earth, straw and water mixed, poured into forms and sun dried into bricks. After the bricks are stacked and grouted with more of the adobe mixture, the structure is plastered with even more adobe mixture. The interiors are coated with white earth washes. Repainting the inside and replastering the outside is done annually to maintain the structure. There is no electricity and no running water in the village.

This is the south house.

We left the Pueblo around 1:30 p.m. and headed toward the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge, the "Most Beautiful" long span (1280 ft.) bridge. According Wikipedia, this bridge was in several films including Natural Born Killers, Twins, She's Having a Baby, Wild Hogs and Terminator Salvation.

Do I look terrified?

It's a long way down there.

Driving just a little way down the road, we came upon this unusual structure. We passed it but quickly backed up and pulled in the parking area. What is this place? Turns out it's the World Headquarters of Earthship and the Greater World Earthship Community, the world's largest self-sufficient residential development (650 acres). Dennis splurged $5 each for the self-guided tour and was so intrigued by the energy saving and use of recycled materials that he plunked down another $50 for the DVD.

It was getting a little late by then, so we started the trip home to Santa Fe. We had in mind pizza for dinner; either that or a burger at Lotta Burger, a big deal in this part of the country. Pizza won, but we decided to eat it at Whole Foods while we shopped for a few healthy breakfast foods to counteract our sugary dessert.

All-in-all not a bad day, and my feet don't hurt.

Our Neighborhood Candy Store

My sister emailed this link to me: http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=14338292

So in this morning's email I was greeted with a video showing Larry Himmel at our neighborhood candy store: The Wisteria Candy Cottage. We just visited there a couple of weeks ago and I posted some photos of the cottage on the blog. I'm glad the candy store is getting some publicity because it is one of the last (maybe the last) handmade chocolate shop in the city. I love their macadamia turtles. While we are in Santa Fe, NM, we visited a candy store that had turtles about 1/4 the size of Wisteria's. 

If you are ever in Boulevard, California, you MUST stop at the Wisteria Candy Shop. In years past, they packaged and shipped chocolates all over the world. I know they are working on their website, so you may be order online soon. 

Cliff Dwellings

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We started the day intending to drive to Taos, NM. We had a light breakfast first at Tia Sophia's, a couple of blocks from the condo. Then we walked back to the condo and picked up the car, setting our Tom Tom navigator for Taos. Somewhere along the way, our plans changed, deciding we would stop and see the cliff dwellings. The first stop was at the Puye Cliff Dwellings south of Espanola. We were about 5 minutes late for the 10 o'clock tour, but they told us we could catch up with the group who had already climbed up to the cliff dwellings. It was too steep for me, so Dennis ran up and I went back to the visitors' center. The guide at the visitors' center said she would take me on the mesa tour, which was a drive up to the top of the plateau to look at the Anasazi ruins. So I got a private tour and was able to see the dwellings that had been partially reconstructed on the original site. About 1000 years ago, a thriving community of Anasazi indians lived on the top of the mesa during the winter, moving to the cooler cliff dwellings during the hot summers. It was beautiful on the mesa and quite windy.

The guide told us that the Bandalier National Monument had an even larger area of cliff dwellings and ruins, so we headed there next. This time we both took the 1-mile self-guided walking tour past the ruins and up to the cliff dwellings. It really was an amazing display of an ancient civilization. This is a photo of a very large kiva where the men of the tribe would gather to pray and carry out their tribal responsibilities.

What an interesting day.

When we finished the tour, we had a snack at the visitors' center and got back on the road. We drove by the Los Alamos National Laboratory and stopped at the Bradbury Science Museum to learn more about the Laboratory and the development of the atomic bomb during WWII. 

Obviously, we didn't make it to Taos today. We came back to the condo to rest before dinner. Later in the evening we walked to the Pink Adobe restaurant about 5 blocks away, had dinner and then walked over to the Old Town square on our way back home. Another long day with lots of walking and my feet are sore again.

The rest of the day

After breakfast we drove about 5 miles to the flea market north of Santa Fe. The flea market just opened for the season about 3 weeks ago and not all the vendors were set up yet. It was cold and windy, but we managed to do some shopping.

We returned to town and did some walking around. Old Town Santa Fe is much like Old Town Albuquerque. Shops and restaurants surround a central square with monuments and museums close by. Indian vendors and other artists come every day to sell their wares. The best bargains are at the square. The shops are more upscale (expensive) and rarely negotiate on price. Everyone was friendly though.











A monument in the square memorializes the Santa Fe Trail. A wagon trail starting in Independence, MO, and ending in Santa Fe, NM.

This is a magnificent cathedral and museum situated at the end of a street in Old Town.

After doing some sightseeing, we had lunch in a small Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. We made our way back to the condo shopping at the street vendor area and window shopping in some of the upscale stores.

By the time we got back, my feet were sore again.

We stayed in tonight, snacked on apples and cheese then split a Tres Leches piece of cake we bought yesterday at Whole Foods. We watched a movie about the life of Georgia O'Keeffe in preparation for a visit to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. We'll probably walk there tomorrow as it is only 5 blocks away.

If it's Sunday

Normally, our Sunday mornings consist of watching the morning news shows: Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, Meet the Press ("If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press."), and Fareed Zakaria's GPS. Today was similar, except we missed Fareed's show because we don't have a recorder here. Also, we didn't have ranch chores to do. To be honest, Dennis usually does the ranch chores on Sunday, but not today.

We thought we would start the day conservatively with breakfast foods we bought yesterday at Whole Foods. Dennis had fresh berries and granola and I had yogurt, berries and granola. A good start.

Billy the Kid Slept Here

There's a plaque on the outside of our time share, Otra Vez en Santa Fe, commemorating the three-month stay of Billy the Kid during the winter of 1980-81. At that time, the structure was a miserable windowless one-room adobe building serving as the Santa Fe, NM, county jail. Today, however, Otra Vez offers lovely vacation-stay units in the heart of Old Santa Fe.  

We started our vacation at 3:30 a.m., waking up very early to catch a 7 a.m. flight to Albuquerque, NM. The San Diego airport is about an hour away and we have ranch chores, thus the early rise time. Also, I always like to start early so I have time to remember everything I forgot the night before. As it turned out, I forgot my Kindle (yikes!) as well as my wrist-zapper that keeps me from getting motion sickness. Not a very good start. 

After negotiating the airport gauntlet, we had an easy 1-1/2-hour flight to Albuquerque. We left cold, rainy weather in San Diego to arrive in a warm, sunny climate. Why did I pack all those sweaters? 

We had a spicy Mexican breakfast at Little Anita's Mexican Restaurant in Old Town Albuquerque then took a leisurely walk around the town square.  

Our first stop was across the street to visit the Candy Lady, ostensibly to pick up a walking map of Old Town. However, once there, Dennis engaged the owner in a discussion of "hot" chocolates, chocolate candy with hot seasoning. He tasted a couple and bought several. I picked out one peanut butter chocolate and 8 red vines. We haven't eaten any yet. We did do some shopping as we strolled around the square. You can hardly not buy anything since the square is surrounded with boutique shops featuring jewelry, clothing, and food. 

We ran across two shops where I had purchased beads online: Sun Country Beads and New Mexico Bead and Fetish. Dennis was very patient.

Then we took some photos of the cathedral, park and the many bronze statues associated with the museums in the area.

Exhausted from marathon shopping and sightseeing, we took off in our rented Liberty Jeep and headed north to Santa Fe. On the way, we passed a sign for the Sandia Peak Tram, touted as the longest tram in the world. We saw the little white dots (trams) going up and down the mountain. Dennis declared he'd "always wanted to ride that tram." I said, "Huh?" No way. "But look at the view," he said. I looked and saw an expanse of brown nothing. No thanks, I'm not risking my life for that. We just got off an airplane that was way, way up there. I'm done. Well, maybe we'll go back later in the week and take the tram at night, have dinner at the fine restaurant on top (at 10,000 feet) and at least see a view of twinkling lights. Sigh.

Onward another half-hour to Santa Fe, where we checked into our time-share condo. Turned out it was a 2-bedroom rather than the 1-bedroom we expected. We're on the corner and there's a bookstore below us! Yea. We are surrounded by shops and restaurants all within walking distance. This will be a fun week. We are happy with our accommodations, compact but nicely appointed in the southwest style.

We unloaded the car and unpacked our stuff, then took advantage of the good weather and sunlight to walk about 1 mile to Whole Foods to pick up some odds and ends. My feet were sqawking after the 2 mile walk, but in about a half-hour, Dennis suggested we walk about the area and have a light dinner. So off again. We had dinner a couple of blocks away in the tiny Burro Alley bakery/cafe. We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food there. We split a 3-cheese salad and had French onion soup, both of which were delicious. They kicked us out at closing time (8 o'clock), but were very nice about it. Down the street we found a performing arts theatre. It was closed, but we looked at the posters and found we had just missed Arlo Guthrie. Oh, well.

At last we arrived back "home" and were able to kick off our shoes and relax with a movie Dennis had recorded on his iPhone. We watched The Fighter, which was a pretty good flick. Actually, I watched it while Dennis took a nap on the sofa. Just like home. After the movie, to bed. Finally.

Spike is Back

Yesterday morning I drove through the rain and fog the 30 miles to Alpine to pick up Spike from the pet hospital. I hate it when he has to stay overnight. He hates it too. When we got home, Spike ran up the little hill from the carport to the house and blasted through his doggy door. By the time I caught up with him he was giving me his "feed me" stare. So I did. And then I did it again. He was starved. He ate a whole can of Mighty Dog instead of just a half can. Then he wanted a cookie. Is that great or what?