Leisurely Sunday

It was very nice to be home again. This morning Dennis and I woke up to the sound of Spike vomiting on the bedroom carpet. When I got up to clean the mess (cleaning animal vomit is my job), I found that he had eaten half a mouse, which was still intact. Uck. Later, I found the other half in front of the storeroom door in the breezeway. Uck. Not surprisingly, Spike was sick to his stomach and wouldn't eat his breakfast--the one that comes in a can. He's been moping around all day.

After watching our Sunday morning news shows on TV, we took the Prius out for a ride. We picked up Mom and drove to the grocery store in Alpine. After doing a little shopping, we drove back home, let Mom off at her house, drove to the carport and put the car cover back on the Prius. I think we are both afraid to get scratches on the car. We'll get over this, I'm sure. We didn't want to get it dirty either, but that ship has sailed.

We spent the afternoon doing a little work and resting a little, too. Tonight we are having the family over for tacos. Tomorrow, Angie and Gary are leaving the ranch to get ready for their Titanium Rally in Chula Vista on Thursday. So we thought we would have dinner together.

Homecoming

Before we left Albuquerque today, we had time to give Dennis his Waffle House fix. It wasn't that bad. The coffee was good and the meal was not too large. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the car rental return and the airport. Everything was going fine until we went through security and I realized I dropped my boarding pass somewhere. They said we could get another one at the gate, so we headed there and were surprised to see a long line. We talked with some of the people in line and they said they were there to be rerouted because their planes were grounded due to the accident. Accident? First I had heard of it. Apparently, yesterday a Southwest plane leaving Phoenix for Sacramento was flying at 36,000 feet when a seam ripped open leaving a 6-ft. hole in the ceiling. Then the flight dropped to 11,000 ft. in 4 minutes. How scary those 4 minutes must have been. Yikes! I am staying in Albuquerque for the rest of my life, never to get on another stupid airplane ever!

At least that's what I wanted to do. Of course, like a lamb to slaughter, I calmly trudged down the ramp to the Southwest airplane leaving for San Diego on time. Obviously, everything turned out all right, but I still don't like flying.

We had a great vacation in New Mexico, but I am very happy to be home again with my doggie, my horses, my turkeys, and my stuff. Life is good.

Gallup

I got my Cracker Barrel fix this morning. I had my usual: hash brown casserole, fried apples and a biscuit. That should hold me for another year or so. After breakfast we got on the road to Gallup for a day of shopping. It takes 2 hrs. and 3 minutes to get to Gallup from Albuquerque. We got there at around 12:30 p.m. and made our first stop the Indian Touch of Gallup, recommended by my friend, Betsy. They had some nice jewelry but we wanted to visit some other stores. Our next stop was the Silver Dust Trading Co. I had been there before years ago and bought some beads. This is a store where locals come to buy their beads. We looked around then went on to Richardson's, one of the oldest Pawn stores in Gallup. This is where the Indians come to pawn their jewelry for spending money. If they pay $1 a month, they keep their pawn "alive," and it can't be sold. Only "dead" pawn can be sold. I just couldn't find anything that I really wanted, so we went back to the bead store and I bought a bunch of bead strands and fetishes. Now I can make my own jewelry.

Just for fun, we went to Earl's, a restaurant where Indians come to sell their wares. They sit outside and display their jewelry on tables in front of the store. I bought two pair of earrings before we got back on the road again. Our destination was Lotta Burger. Dennis has been wanting to go to Lotta Burger our whole trip. They're everywhere. Actually they have very good burgers, made with Angus beef. They put hot chiles on the hamburgers and our mouths were burning so we HAD to get ice cream. We went to Dairy Queen and each got a small blizzard. I love blizzards. We ate the ice cream driving back to Albuquerque. Two hours later, we arrived back at our hotel for a little rest. Around 7 we went out for pie. Dennis found a Marie Callendar's about 11 miles away. When we got there we found that the restaurant was closed (permanently), so we went back to the hotel and found a Village Inn about a block away. Huh. They have good pie there. I had triple berry and Dennis had caramel apple.

Finally we went back to the hotel and stayed there. Tomorrow we are flying back to San Diego. I think we are both ready to go home. It will take me about a month to lose the weight I've gained this week.

I Survived the Longest Tram Ride in the World

Thursday evening we rode the Sandia Tram. It was very windy--30-40 mph. The tram swayed a little with the wind. It took 15 minutes to get from about 6500 ft. to 10,000 ft. at the top of the mountain. I didn't like it.

However, the dinner at the High Finance restaurant at the top was very good and romantic. As the sun set and the lights of the city came into view, it was really breathtaking. The only drawback was the forthcoming trip down the mountain. I didn't like it.

I'm glad we went because Dennis really wanted to ride the tram, but it isn't something I would repeat--ever.

This is fun

This is fun. You can add these words to this blog's url and get some different views for reading the blog. For example: http://sandycreekranch.blogspot.com/view/flipcard. Here are some of the different views you can get. Try it.

Flipcard: available at [blogURL]/view/flipcard

Mosaic: available at [blogURL]/view/mosaic

Sidebar: available at [blogURL]/view/sidebar

Snapshot: available at [blogURL]/view/snapshot

Timeslide: available at [blogURL]/view/timeslide

Farewell Santa Fe

We are leaving Santa Fe today. This morning we started early as we always do, having not gotten out of the "farm" habit. We walked to the square and had a great breakfast in the La Fonda galleria. After breakfast we walked back to the condo, picked up the car and drove over to The Railyard, a shopping center made where the old Santa Fe railroad station was located. We walked around but there weren't many shops open. From there we drove to Ziggy's international market looking for blue corn flour or meal. They didn't have it so we went to Whole Foods and found it there but didn't buy it because we can get it in San Diego. Down the block from Whole Foods was a chocolate factory, so we felt obligated to stop in and sample some. We bought some, too, for later consumption. One more stop before returning to the condo: we found the Chocolate Maven that we were told was a real bakery, not like the bakery-cafes we'd been in.  We were told the truth, the Chocolate Maven, located in an industrial-type building was a thriving bakery. We snagged some samples there and bought some chocolate chile hot chocolate mix and a chocolate-cherry tart. Are you seeing a trend, here?

Now we are packing up to leave for Albuquerque.

Hump Day

It was a relatively uneventful day today. I didn't even take any pictures. We stayed around Santa Fe, starting off with breakfast at home and then going to some of the local shops we had been wanting to visit. While Dennis took care of some business on the phone, I walked a half block to a yarn store. I didn't need anything, but I like to get my yarn fix. Dennis was done by the time I got back, so we walked across the street to the Lucchese boot shop. Couldn't afford anything in that shop. Around the corner was a hat shop we wanted to visit. We went in and talked with the shop owner for awhile. I found a leather hat band with what I thought was several sterling silver geese around it. The shopkeeper said they were actually wild turkeys. Turkeys! We had to have it. So we left the hat to have the band sewn on.

Next we walked over to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum near the central square. Interesting, but I only like some of her work. She was an interesting person, though. We walked a few doors down and found a pet supply and grooming shop. We went in just to get our doggie fix. No dogs, but we looked at doggie things.

We were hungry by then, so we went to the Blue Corn Restaurant a few blocks away. After lunch we went back to pick up Dennis's hat, but the shopkeeper was at lunch so we went to another museum, the New Mexico Museum of History. Now my feet were beginning to hurt, so we went next to pick up Dennis's hat and go home for a rest.

I think we are getting tired of being on vacation. Dennis has had to handle some work issues and I am way over my 4 day limit. I am, however, getting a lot of ideas for my own jewelry making. I hope I can remember what I'm seeing by the time we get home.

Tonight, I think we are going to go out for a little dessert. We are still stuffed from lunch, so we won't go out to dinner.

Tomorrow we are leaving Santa Fe in the afternoon, driving back to Albuquerque so we can ride the tram. Friday we will drive over to Gallup to see what they have in the Pawn. We'll stay overnight in Albuquerque, then fly home Saturday.

At least that's the plan.