The kids had a 5 day weekend, so we left town and went back to Santa Fe. We stayed a bit north of town, so we were able to visit a few new areas.
It was a bit of a long drive, so I worked on a project of mine--stitching up our names like Grace wrote them last summer. And I finished it. Now it is ready to become a pillow. Too bad I couldn't do that in the car too.
This new place is called Nambe casita and I really liked it.
I think it was primed for a new coat of paint.
The first day we mostly just had time to unpack, eat dinner and get settled in. We ate at Gabriel's which had a gorgeous view. Grace wanted me to take her pictures there.
This was my lesson in subject placement: centered (above)--good, off-center (below)--awesome.
I don't know what was up with the hands.
We also spent some time exploring around the casita, especially in the afternoons.
This was on the ride back down the mountain, one of the better ones from a moving vehicle.
We stopped for a hike. A storm was off in the distance but seemed to be moving away.
As we moved along, we discovered that while the storm might be somewhere else, it was pulling a lot of wind at us. And sand.
And the path was a bit treacherous for us to do with a four year old and a ten year old. They did fine but us grown ups looking down the cliff on one side with our kids just trucking along on this foot wide ledge--it required a lot of deep breathing.
See that line across the middle of the mountain? That was the path. I think it would've been better if the wind wasn't so gusty and dusty. And if we didn't have our kids with us to make us more worried.
We got midway and then realized two things--the storm seemed to be backing up toward us and the path was getting ready to get even steeper. So we turned around and hiked back down. This meant we were facing the lightning, which worried Grace a bit, but we made it back down in time.
This was the path. We made it to the the far right, but not quite to the ladder.
It was beautiful there. And peaceful, since we were about the only people there.
We headed back to the casita, amazed at the amount of dust blowing about. I made some cookies and while they cooked, the rain started falling. We had some family downtime, with milk and cookies.
After dinner, I took the kids outside. They had been cooped up long enough. We went down to the local riverbed to figure out a path down for our hike there the next day. The road there passes through an interesting farm. We watched the sun go down--and then walked back quickly before it got too dark.
And that is a good place to end this post. We had one more day, but that is enough pictures for now. I'll try to finish up tomorrow.
It was a bit of a long drive, so I worked on a project of mine--stitching up our names like Grace wrote them last summer. And I finished it. Now it is ready to become a pillow. Too bad I couldn't do that in the car too.
This new place is called Nambe casita and I really liked it.
The first day we mostly just had time to unpack, eat dinner and get settled in. We ate at Gabriel's which had a gorgeous view. Grace wanted me to take her pictures there.
We also spent some time exploring around the casita, especially in the afternoons.
On Thursday morning, we took a drive up toward the Santa Fe Ski Basin for a hike along the Aspen Vista trail.
This was on the ride back down the mountain, one of the better ones from a moving vehicle.
We ate lunch at Cowgirl Cafe that day. I love the food and I LOVE the playground out back to occupy the kids while we waited for the meal.
I started to get BBQ, since that's what they are famous for, but then decided to go for something I don't usually order. I ended up with the House Nut Burger and ate it all up.
On Friday the Tesuque Flea Market was open, and I wanted to try it. I definitely had some North African market dejavu. The prices seemed better than at some of the other places we went--and the prices weren't fixed like at the other shops in town.
After this we went to Los Alamos. The drive up there was beautiful, from what I could tell. I was driving and in some parts, well, I kept my eyes glued to the road. We drove there to visit the Bradbury Science Museum, a free museum.
It was a well done museum. The kids and Shannon liked it.
I just couldn't get past the results of the bombs. I know their use helped end the war and many of the associated atrocities. But their use (and the more recent generations of them) also created their own atrocities.
My attempt at a picture on the drive down--as a passenger. A better view of the canyon is on the wall behind Grace a couple of pictures up from here. Much less bugs in that view too.
We stopped for a hike. A storm was off in the distance but seemed to be moving away.
As we moved along, we discovered that while the storm might be somewhere else, it was pulling a lot of wind at us. And sand.
See that line across the middle of the mountain? That was the path. I think it would've been better if the wind wasn't so gusty and dusty. And if we didn't have our kids with us to make us more worried.
We got midway and then realized two things--the storm seemed to be backing up toward us and the path was getting ready to get even steeper. So we turned around and hiked back down. This meant we were facing the lightning, which worried Grace a bit, but we made it back down in time.
We headed back to the casita, amazed at the amount of dust blowing about. I made some cookies and while they cooked, the rain started falling. We had some family downtime, with milk and cookies.
After dinner, I took the kids outside. They had been cooped up long enough. We went down to the local riverbed to figure out a path down for our hike there the next day. The road there passes through an interesting farm. We watched the sun go down--and then walked back quickly before it got too dark.
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