Thursday, July 29, 2010
A relaxing day….we started the day with taking turns paddling on our blow up double kayak in the Rogue River. Although this part of the river is fairly shallow and lazy, the current down the middle of the river made it impossible to paddle back upstream unless you paddled close to the shore. Therefore none of us went very far because we didn’t know how much work it would be getting back. It was wonderful being out on the water and the weather was perfect. It did, however, take longer for Jim and Dave to blow the kayak and all its various compartments up than it took for all of our rides combined.  (Still worth it!) Getting it back in the box it came in may be another story.

After the wild kayak rides, Ken and Pat stopped by for a short break on their way to Portland. We tried to talk them into a kayak ride but they weren’t having any part of it.

A quick bite of lunch, and 5 of our group (sans me) left to take a 2 hour Hellgate Jet Boat ride. Feeling a little under the weather today, I opted to stay back and relax in our idyllic campsite and catch up on my reading. They all thought it was great fun!

To complete the relaxing day, we plan to eat leftovers tonight to make some room in our refrigerators for more food. This will be a hard campground to leave as it is a favorite for all of us. Tomorrow’s destination: The Willamette Valley.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010
We left Redding and headed to our next destination....Grants Pass, Oregon. Along the highway, we passed beautiful Lake Shasta on the right, with Mount Shasta on the left, covered with snow....such a beautiful area. Because of a snafu, our two fellow RV'ers left without us, but we caught up in Ashland, the home of the Shakespeare Festival. We drove through the busy town looking for places to park our 3 RV's and finally succeeded, and enjoyed a nice lunch.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon, we arrived at the Riverpark RV Resort in Grants Pass. Our sites look directly over the Rogue River and under trees in what is one of the most picturesque campgrounds we've been to. We set up our chairs and enjoyed relaxing and the view of the river. Tomorrow we plan to blow up our inflatable kayak and take turns trying to paddle in the fast moving river. (We've had the kayak for 3 years and this is the first time it will see water.)

Before dinner we played the card game "Pay Me". Dave is keeping a trip long score sheet which he said he'll be posting. I am ahead temporarily.

Food is never in short supply when camping, so we enjoyed barbecued chicken and asparagus, with the river as a backdrop. We've probably all put on a few pounds, with many more meals to go :)

After dinner we gathered in our lounge chairs around our RV's outdoor television and watched the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". We munched on popcorn (yes..eating again) and laughed our way through the movie. It was a fun evening.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Today is the first day of our caravan journey. Dave and Helen picked up their rental RV in Sacramento at Happy Daze RV. It is a beautiful, brand new, 30 foot Georgetown, class A. It is so new that it still has the plastic on the carpets. It came absolutely empty but we’ve brought enough stuff to help fill it up. We’ve decided they have the fanciest RV of the 3. During the orientation, Dave asked if they could please move the steering wheel to the other side J

We have Dave and Helen’s RV in the middle of the 3 RV’s while driving, so not only is Helen keeping Dave on his toes (and within the white lines), but he gets pointers from Mike and Jim along the way as well through the walkie-talkies.

It is a 3 ½ hour drive to our stop, which is Mountain Gate RV in Redding, CA. We relaxed in the campground with shrimp and pasta (and wine of course) after Dave and Helen had a chance to get their RV organized. Well, almost retired.....Jim forgot to turn the engine on in the car...so we had to call AAA for a jump start.....hard to remember all the details :)

Sunday, July 25
Jim and I took Dave and Helen to a few Napa wineries.....St. Supery, Rubicon...then lunch at the Culinary Institute of America (known as CIA to the in-crowd), where we had a starter of green fried tomatoes with Burrata cheese and corn relish, followed by lovely entrees. A quick visit to the beautiful Beringer Winery and then met Mike and Jill at Artessa winery. Artessa is built into a hill and has an incredible view....and then onto Domaine Carneros for a glass of champagne.

Jill's sister Judy and her boyfriend John who is orginally from Wales joined us for dinner. We're hoping for a duet from Dave and John later tonight as John is a musician and Dave is a wanna-a-be musician. Keep posted....

Oregon 2010

Thursday, July 22 - And we're off... Jim and I and my cousin Dave and his wife Helen are joining us from England for this adventure. Our drive to Napa was uneventful, which is good - took about 9 hours with a lunch stop at Harris Ranch. Dave took a turn at driving the RV, with Jim in the seat next to him getting nervous and "instructing" Dave the entire time. It takes a little getting used to to keep a vehicle that wide between the two lines in the road while 18 wheelers are blowing by. This is the longest drive of the trip, with the next longest being our ride home from Mammoth. Mike and Jill welcomed us with wine (of course), pasta and salad and we enjoyed a relaxed dinner on their patio. Our RV fit perfectly in a cut out just down from Mike and Jill's home. (Mike and Jill got the neighbor's permission in advance)

Friday, July 23 - We took the ferry from Vallejo to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. It was a pleasant, easy way to avoid the traffic into the City. My cousin Randy, led Dave and Helen, and Jim and I on a tour of the City. He did a wonderful job, maximizing the time we had into seeing many sights. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Waterbar overlooking the Bay and the Bay Bridge. My lobster BLT was wonderful and the other dishes looked as good. After the fog burned off in the morning, the sun came out and the temperature rose to a toasty 70 degrees. After showing us the beautiful city view from Twin Peaks, we visited Randy and Rob's beautiful home, which sits high on 72 acres of canyon....in the middle of the City! After our ferry ride home, we returned in time for barbecued pork tenderloin and salad at Mike and Jill's.
Saturday, July 24 - After a lazy morning, we drove to Sonoma and walked around the Sonoma square before lunch at the Red Grape. The fig and goat cheese pizza was great. After lunch, Mike and Jill took us all to visit Chateau St. Jean for a wine tasting. Although we would have liked to continue on with our winery visits, it was time to go home for our afternoon siesta so we could be well rested for our Chris Botti concert at the Robert Mondavi winery. Our reserved seating was a row of low beach chairs a few rows from the small stage. It was an enchanting evening. As the sun dropped from the sky and the full moon rose, the breezes picked up and we donned our layers of clothing and it was perfect. The picnic foods were great...meatloaf, sausage, cheeses, breads, zucchini salad and heirloom tomato salad from Cindy's garden. (Tom and Cindy are loaning Mike and Jill their RV for our trip and we enjoyed the evening with them. We dropped by their home on the way to the concert which sits on top of a knoll with views on all sides of valleys, magnificent oak trees and vineyards.....an incredibly beautiful setting.) The performance was beyond our expectations. The trumpet playing amazing. The musicians incredible. A haunting duet by violinist Lucia Micarelli and Chris Botti left us in tears. (Lucia stars in the TV show Treme....quite a talented young woman.) Singer Lisa Fischer added spark to the show. All in a small intimate setting. An excerpt: "Botti's warm and engaging trumpet sound is one of the most appealing timbres on the contemporary jazz scene. He was backed by a sterling ensemble of players – pianist Billy Childs, guitarist Mark Whitfield, keyboardist Geoff Keezer, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Billy Kilson. And his two guest stars – violinist Lucia Micarelli and singer Lisa Fischer – quickly revealed the capacity to steal a show from anybody."

8-14-09

The last full day at Sprucedale (we can‘t believe how fast it went), Jim, Dale and I decided to throw caution (and our backs) to the wind and go on a horseback ride. The day was beautiful and sunny and the landscape was about the prettiest anywhere. We went on the little girls ride, so we had a nice scenic (slow) ride….and trotting was minimal. We did have to play Simon Says though. :)

After the ride was the Rodeo with neighboring ranch, Beaver Creek, which Billy Wiltbank is purchasing from Ellis. The boys did well in the rodeo even if they‘d have liked to do better. Samantha said she doesn’t like competition so opted out of participating. We were happy that she rode with us this morning, as after yesterday’s “trauma” we weren’t sure if she was going to ride at all today….but she did fine, following all the Simon Says…sometimes with a little help ……and periodically checking on her grandma.

After lunch on the patio, as the rain clouds moved in, we went back to the cabin for a nap and then packing up our things for the long ride home. Tomorrow night we’ll be staying at a hotel in Phoenix where we’re looking forward to having dinner with our niece, Breanna and her boyfriend. Breanna is in the Air Force and is stationed in Phoenix after completing tours in Iraq, Germany, and Italy. Sunday we’ll all be driving home from Phoenix in our RV…..2 days of driving in the RV…..but it will be worth it

Friday night is skit night. Each cabin is supposed to do some kind of skit or entertainment. Our two cabins failed miserably at coming up with something. The adults kept hoping the kids would rise to the occasion. We finally talked Jim into getting up and doing his "wine bottle cork trick" and his "cheerleading routine". He had insisted all week he wouldn't participate in a skit, and in the end, he WAS the skit. The kids got a kick out of it...especially his cheerleading routine which never fails to get a laugh. Both Cory and Samantha were chosen to help out with other cabin's skits. Cory and two other male guests challenged 3 female guests in the old "pass the spoon down your pants" game.

After the skits, the Rodeo ribbons were given out. Cory and Ryan each earned a second place in two different events, and Cory earned first place for barrel racing. The surprise was the special cowgirl award, which went to Samantha for being a good sport and agreeing to get back on the horse (she was definately a favorite amongst the guests) and to Brian, who had talked her out of walking home (and missing dinner).

Back at the cabin we were all a little sad that it was over already and Cory and Samantha talked back and forth in their beds about how they hoped to return again someday soon.　

Sprucedale 8-13-09

This morning Cory went out with a couple of the wranglers to round up the horses from the pasture for the day’s ride. It was fun to see him herding the running horses along the dirt road, past the ranch house and into the corral. It’s a tradition for all the guests to leave their breakfast on the table and run out to watch the horses gallop in. Today is the all day ride. I remember from years past that the horses follow a narrow, steep trail up a mountain where it’s sometimes best not to look down.

Jim, Dale and I went fishing again. This time to the nearby Black River where we got to practice our fly fishing casting. Jim caught a beautiful golden trout which jumped from his line back into the river just before I could get my camera, but not with a fly. He used a lure. Both Dale and I got some strikes, but weren’t able to hook them. The river was beautiful, despite the fact that it rained almost the entire time.

The kids came back after their 6 hour ride, cold and drenched to the bone despite the rain gear. We were wishing for rain...weren't we? Samantha had a little “incident”. Her horse was acting up and at one point she got upset. The wrangler offered to switch horses with her, but Samantha said she didn’t want to get back on any horse. One of the guests, Brian, said he’d walk home with her if she’d rather…but she would miss dinner. Samantha wasn’t going to miss dinner so she got on the wrangler’s horse and made it back without any further incident. She was a considerable distance behind the group, however, and was surrounded by several guests who took her under their wing. One of the guests (from La Canada), Will Moffat, sang cowboys songs to her on the way back.

Sprucedale 8-12-09

Today the boys are out on the “Wilderness Ride” which is normally an 8 hour ride, but was shortened to 4 hours by trailering the horses and riders out to the end of the ride and having them ride the horses back. I think 8 hours was too much for anyone’s backsides. Samantha was happy to be going out with one other young girl and her favorite female wrangler, Katie, for a shorter ride. Tonight is the hayride. Last time we were here, there was a terrific lighting and thunder storm while the kids were out on the hayride. We were anxious for their return. When they drove in (they do the hayride on a flat-bed truck), Cory was in the cab of the truck. Ryan was in the back, drenched to the bone.

We haven’t seen rain yet which is unusual. The creek on the ranch is very low. The “weather” is part of the experience here, and we’re hoping for a good drenching soon. There are lots of dark clouds in the sky and some pretty good thunder rumblings, so today may be the day. Of course, the kids have no raingear with them, but then they think getting rained on while riding is cool.


6:00pm - Mid day, a big storm blew in, dumping lots of rain. It wasn’t the kind of rain that rolls in and rolls out. It looks like it will be around for awhile. We were feeling sorry for the boys as it was coming down pretty good and it was getting cold. It turns out that they were so far from the ranch on their wilderness ride that they avoided the storm altogether until they came back to the ranch. After dark, Jim, Samantha and the boys went on the hayride and listened to scary stories about wolves and mountain lions and were lucky enough to see a shooting star. It is incredible how many stars there are in the night. The moon doesn’t come out until quite late which makes the nights dark and the stars that much more visible. Dale and I stayed back in the cabin and played games and enjoyed a glass of wine.

Sprucedale Ranch

Sprucedale Ranch 2009

8-9-09 and 8-10-09
Last night we all enjoyed a fun dinner at Buca de Beppo for my birthday. We had way too much food, but we gave it our best shot. I was so stuffed I had to try to sleep sitting up. I loved my birthday gifts, especially from Cory, Samantha and Ryan. Cory gave me a silver horse charm for my bracelet in honor of our much anticipated Sprucedale vacation (I suspect Andrea had something to do with that :) ). Samantha made a beautiful card and a plate that she painted and fired at a pottery shop. Ryan gave me a unique mirror brush and nail brush which will be handy on this trip. We had breakfast in the hotel, and were on the road by 8:00am.

We were the first family to check into Sprucedale at around 3:00pm. The 7 hour ride from Albuquerque wasn’t so bad. We had lots of snacks and watched 2 movies, Mall Cop and RV. The weather was perfect and the scenery beautiful. The last 13 miles were gravel and dirt. We unhooked the car so that the car could lead the way for the RV. Most of the road was in decent shape till the last few miles which were rutted and bumpy. The RV did a lot of bouncing and dipping. We kicked up plenty of dust. The car rear window was completely obscured with dirt.
Other families started to roll in and by dinner all but one family had arrived. One of the families is from Laguna Beach and we got to know them a bit when we were here 3 years ago. In fact, we discovered that every family here is from Southern California. One family is from La Canada, Will and Lynne Moffat....the dad was on the LCF school board for 8 years…and another family is from San Marino and know our friends Gary and Linda Talbert. It’s a small world.

There aren’t as many kids this year as prior. The week we chose to come (between summer school and start of football practice for Cory and Ryan) is a week where most schools are back in session. The La Crescenta schools start later but they plan to adjust that in the next year or so.


Monday AM, 8-10-09, …..the first ride. Samantha chose to ride with the younger kids and they were the last ride to go out. Cory and Ryan went on the “teen ride” which was a small group of 4 plus 2 wranglers. They both did well, including enjoying a game of Tag on horseback. Jim decided to go on only one ride for the week, and thought he’d be keeping Samantha company on her first ride. As it turns out, Samantha didn’t need company and the ranch hands discouraged parents (and grandparents) from going with their kids. The boys were going on the much faster teen ride and didn‘t want any adults slowing them down….so Jim went by himself (with other ranch guests) on a longer than anticipated ride (2 hours). He came back pretty darn sore.
The kids discovered this year's new puppies and kittens. There are always new puppies and kittens at Sprucedale in the summer. Guests fall in love with them and take some of them home. A cute little white kitten with bright blue eyes has adopted Ryan. They are cute as can be, but Jim told Dale that if she brought one home in the RV, it would have to ride in one of outside storage bins. :)

In the afternoon was rodeo practice. There’s a new, much larger rodeo field out in the pasture You can really get practice in on a number of maneuvers….figure eights, barrel racing (actually cones), etc. It looked like fun and I thought I could get my horse fix over by giving it a try. With my back, my intention was to take it slow. The horse had other ideas. He raced down to the other end of the field where I attempted to turn him but didn’t have control and came very close to falling off. Then “Ocho” the horse and I came to a complete stop by the fence at the end of the field. I was afraid to kick him because I figured he’d take off running again, so I stood there pitifully and hoped someone would come rescue me. Eventually he came back by himself. This humiliation followed my trying to get on the horse in the first place. I didn’t used to have a problem heaving my weight onto a horse…but no longer. I had to get a butt push. That’s the end of rodeo practice for me. A little ice and a lot of Advil and I’ll be good as new.

Dinner was great….roast beef, new potatoes, corn picked that very day, raw veggie salad and home baked bread. Bread pudding finished the meal. We’ll all have a little extra weight to add to the RV on the way home.

After dinner, we gathered around the bonfire and listened to some of the old stories. Most of the families know each other and have been coming for many years. The young adults had stories about some of the mischief they got into as teens and Cory and Ryan were listening intently. Several of the guests have worked as wranglers for a few summers. Working as a wrangler for a summer turns a good rider into a great one.

There were lots of stories about the Wiltbank kids (all 7 of them), especially JJ, who is still a “wild one”, according to his daughter who shared some interesting tales, several of them recent. Whitney, the youngest, is now CEO and apparently calls some of the shots from afar. The ranch is now run by Ellis and Cathy, Ellis's sister. Ellis runs the horses and anything to do with animals and rides, and Cathy runs the “business” side of it and the kitchen, which is constantly working to feed the hungry families 3 times a day with rib-sticking, ranch-style food. He is a very nice man and does a good job but we miss the energy and humor that Little Emer (not so little) brought to the job when we visited 3 years ago.

A good first day…we all slept well. Lights go out at 10:30.…so you’d better be in bed or have your lantern ready!

Sprucedale 8-11-09

Today we all went fishing right after the kids went on the morning ride. The kids gave up rodeo practice for the chance of bringing back a string of fish. The kitchen hands made us a picnic lunch in an ice chest to take with us, peanut butter and jelly and ham sandwiches, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies and waters. First we gave Big Lake a try. It was a good sized lake with no trees immediately around it so casting wasn’t a problem. Dale caught two guppy sized fish, otherwise we got skunked. Jim was doing his best at being patient (and losing the battle) as he was the hook tier, line untangler, bait expert, snag fixer, etc. It seemed one of us needed his assistance at every turn. Ryan was happy as fishing is the thing he likes to do best.

Late in the afternoon, we decided to pack up our gear and give nearby Crescent Lake a try. Packing up our gear was not an easy thing, since we had 6 fishing poles, a tackle box, a reel box, an ice chest of food, and chairs, etc….and 6 of us in our small 5 seater Saturn. Samantha sat on my lap and Dale put a hat on cuz she was on the side of the car where all the fishing poles and their hooks were stacked.

Crescent Lake was smaller, but more scenic. Aside from two men in float boats, we had the lake to ourselves and as the afternoon got later, the sky was prettier. We enjoyed the quiet and solitude and the many birds. It didn’t really seem to matter so much that we didn’t catch any fish.

Jim was sure he knew how to get back to the ranch, despite all the protests in the car and we got lost. All we had was a little miniature map and there were no road signs. We traveled quite a few miles on dirt roads and came to the conclusion that we weren’t going to be back for the “porch party”. Sometime later we considered the possibility that we were going to miss dinner (dinner is served at 7:00pm). Then we started to consider that we might still be wandering around in the dark and only had ¼ of a tank of gas left. In all the time we were on the road, we only saw one person. And thanks to him we found our way back.

The nice part was we got to see lots of wildlife on the roundabout ride home. We came upon a herd of cows and a bull who were in the middle of the road and not too anxious to move. Next was a huge elk with an enormous rack of antlers smack dab in the middle of the road, a bit further we saw a herd of elk and then a group of wild turkeys on the side of the road.


We arrived back at 6:50pm and the kids let out a whoop. They were happy they didn’t miss dinner. They changed clothes quickly and scampered to the dining hall. Despite the dirt roads, ride dust and fish bait smell, showers had to wait till the next day. At 8:15 there was dance practice. Jim, Samantha and I practiced the Texas Two Step, the electric slide and a few other dances, one exclusive to Sprucedale. Samantha was quite the social butterfly and danced with guests and wranglers, as well as Jim and I. Cory and Ryan stayed at Dale’s cabin (they were afraid someone would ask them to dance) and fell asleep early while watching a movie on a little DVD player. (I posted the photo of the dance on yesterday's blog)

Santa Fe 8-7-09

Here we are at our last day of our 2 week adventure in New Mexico. We started the day with a 10:00am massage at the Ten Thousand Waves Japanese Spa. Before the massage, we soaked in the communal hot tub...clothing optional...(we were clothed, the others weren't...interestingly enough it was the unclothed people with piercings in strategic places who would volunteer to jump out of the tub and bend over to reset the timer). After the massage, which was wonderful, we relaxed in the meditation room, where you sat or laid on cushions set on straw mats and listened to music through headphones. We had no desire to leave.

After showering all that great massage oil off of us, we explored some of the neighborhoods around the spa and went into an open house. The home was a newly built 3 bedroom, 3 bath, 3400 square foot single-story pueblo-style, but modernized. It had an incredible view.....more than 180 degrees.... the kind of view where you can see very far off all the way to the mountains in the distance. It was listed for 2.4 million. No screaming bargains here!

We had a late lunch at The Shed Restaurant after waiting quite awhile to get seated. Although it was recommended by our Frommers book, it was just OK. Jim liked his tacos (blue corn tortillas, not crisp but not soft...eaten almost like an enchilada) one chicken and one ground beef, both mixed with green chiles, with boiled pinto beans and posole.....like hominy but almost stew-like with pork and green chilies. My caesar salad with salmon was not very good. It wasn't anything like a caesar salad. The marguerita was pretty darn good, though :)

In the late afternoon we visited the Gordon Peters art gallery and then ended the day with the Georgia O'Keefe museum, just in time to take advantage of the once per week (Friday's from 5 to 8pm) free entrance. Georgia O'Keefe is the only female internationally renowned artist who has her own museum. She lived till she was 99 years old and it was interesting to see how her style of art changed through the years.

On the way home to the trailer park, Jim decided to take the car through a do-it-yourself car wash. I'm not sure why, because by Sunday, it will be covered in Sprucedale mud.

We had a late dinner at the RV....another great meal out of the Foil cookbook. Some of our best meals this trip have been the ones we've made at "home"!

We've been taking down lights and preparing for tomorrow's drive back to Albuquerque to pick up the family at the airport. We'll have dinner at Buca de Beppo which is conveniently located directly next to the hotel. We also need to pack tonight for the hotel and the ranch from the stuff we have in the RV. Luckily, we think we'll be able to park our RV next to our cabin. That will be an odd site. :)

I am not sure if the hotel has internet access, so this may be our last post until we return from Sprucedale. The ranch has no means of communication and in fact only has electricity, by generator, certain hours of the day. I won't be able to check my Blackberry every 20 minutes....it will be great!

Thanks to all who have been reading our blog and following along on our adventures and especially those who have posted comments on the blog, called or emailed us. It's been wonderful and we will certainly miss the beautiful cloud formations and the colorful night skies.

Santa Fe 8-6-09

We got a bit of a slow start today. We barely made it on time to the appointment we had with the folks at Christies Great Estates at 11:00am. Kay Coughlin, the founder, met with us and one of her staff showed us around. Since Dilbeck is a Christies affiliate and their headquarters are only 10 minutes away, I decided to call on them. Besides, maybe it will make some part of the trip tax deductible! I was sure to have our picture taken so I could prove it to the IRS.

The parking spot we found for our visit to Christies was directly in front of La Boca restaurant which was recommended in our Frommer's travel guide as a good spot for Tapas. Of course, we didn't have any tapas and opted instead for a ham and cheese sandwich, salad and fries. Go figure.

After lunch, we shopped around the plaza. I bought a pair of turquoise earrings (getting into this turquoise jewelry thing) and some Ugg short boots for all the cold weather in Southern California, and Jim bought a t-shirt and a cowboy hat (with a little coaxing). We figure that one of the boys will get some use out of it at the ranch. We dread getting our American Express bill when we get home.

A few more art galleries and we made a visit to the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi a block east of the Plaza. It stood out from all the Pueblo architecture as it was built in 1869 by a French architect and Italian stonemasons. A chapel on the NE side of the cathedral is a remnant of an earlier church built in 1692. The keystone in the arch has a Hebrew tetragram on it to honor the Jewish merchants who helped provide the necessary funds for construction of the church. We were told there's a pretty large Jewish population in Santa Fe, and they are credited for much of the development of the city.

We circled back to our car (Jim had to go back several times with more quarters to feed the meter) and drove up to Museum hill where 4 more museums could be found with nice views of the city. Unfortunately we were too late to go into any of them. Along the way, we enjoyed looking at the pueblo style homes. My guess is that the pueblo architecture is required within some geographical limit, as all homes we saw were of that style. The pueblo style blends well into the environment...low slung, a reddish clay similar to the color of the land, with only a spot of bright color, usually red or turquoise on the front door and sometimes the window frames. We loved some of the Southwestern art....it makes you want to move to New Mexico just so you could decorate your home in that style!

It was a cloudy and cooler day today which was great. We're eating a simple dinner at "home" tonight and Jim tells me he's going to get back to reading the book Ken gave him (we'll see).

Santa Fe, NM

Today we visited the new New Mexico History Museum. The newer museums have more interactive displays, videos, etc. It followed New Mexico history from the American Indian, to the Spaniards, to the Spanish-American war (it's always hard to hear about all the atrocities your country committed while getting to the size we are) through World War II and the "code talkers" to today. Many feel that growth and commercialism have gotten out of control and the available water resources cannot keep up with the growth.

Next to the History Museum was the Palace of the Governors, the oldest public building in the country.

We walked around the Plaza which was lined with merchants selling tourqoise jewelry and pottery, each with their own few feet of space and their wares spread out on a blanket on the ground . There was a live band in the middle of the plaza and lots and lots of people. It was hot, about 90 degrees before the clouds moved in, so the museums were a cool option.

The next museum we visited was the New Mexico Museum of Arts where we viewed art from several centuries.

Too early for our dinner reservation at the Inn of the Anasazi, we opted to give up our coveted parking space (impossible to find a place to park...no public parking lots...only street parking) and drive out to 10,000 Waves Japanese Spa. It's a serene spa known for their baths and was also recommended by our friends, Mike and Jill. We decided to treat ourselves and made a reservation for a massage on Friday, the last day before departing Santa Fe and going back to Albuquerque to pick up the family.

We're now home (the RV is now called home) for an hour to rest a bit (and post to the blog), we will soon be heading back to town. One of the biggest reasons we wanted to come back to the RV was to make sure the afternoon winds hadn't ripped off the awning and our pretty lights....all is good :)

Santa Fe, New Mexico

First, we want to thank our son, Brent, for fixing our blog each time we mess up. It sure helps to have a computer genius in the family. The same comment goes for Ron, his partner. We also want to thank all who have posted comments on our blog. It is so fun to hear from those you care about while the two of us are "on the road". The latest comment was from our 11 year old granddaughter, Samantha, who told us she reads our blog daily and is looking forward to Saturday when we head to the ranch.

Before we report on today, we want to make mention of last night's dinner. Maria's truly did have over 100 margueritas. They have almost as many brands of tequila. We had dinner in the bar where people lined up for tequila tastings. 3 tastings for $12 of any of the silver, resposada or anejo tequilas. The ultra tequilas were more expensive to taste. They served the tastes in glasses designed for tequila-tasting by Reidel. We remarked that Todd would love the place. The conversations at the bar were getting more interesting as time went on. We opted for one (you only needed one!) of the many margueritas instead of the tastings. We chose a silver Patron. Unfortunately, we didn't like the margueritas as they were all made with freshly squeezed lemons instead of limes. Also, no sugar is added so they were pretty tart. The food was equally disappointing and way too spicy for our gringo tastebuds. So much for following the recommendations of a river rafting guide.

We started today with a trip to the Farmer's Market in the Guadalupe district. There was a nice selection of fruit and vegetables and lots of friendly people. We were just in time for a cooking demonstration by the chef/director of the Santa Fe Cooking School. He made tamales like we've never tasted before. The corn meal was mixed with pureed squash and stuffed with goat cheese, fresh corn and toasted and ground pepitas and corianders. The sauce was yellow carrots, roasted and pureed with a little cream and salt. The tamale was garnished with more toasted pepitas. We plan to visit the cooking school before we leave and hopefully see another demonstration. The chef spoke passionately about buying food from local farmers. Jim surprised me by buying me a cookbook from the cooking school, signed by the author which I'm looking forward to reading!

While we were there, our friend Tom Trowbridge called. He and his wife Marcia are about to embark on a trip to Alaska in their RV. They just bought two kayaks which they've fastened to the top of their jeep/pull-car. We are very excited for them and hope they'll do a blog as well on blogspot.com so we can track their travels.

Good food is big here. In close proximity is a Trader Joes, a Wild Oats, and a Whole Foods.

From the Farmer's Market, we drove to Canyon Street which is lined for blocks with charming art galleries and a few really good restaurants. After visiting some of the galleries, we had lunch at the Compound Restaurant. A $$$$ restaurant, lunch was the more economical way to go. I had a glass of Gruet sparkling wine (a local winery), and a crab and lobster salad that was just perfect. Jim had salmon and risotto with a wonderful sauce which he loved. Since we didn't have a reservation and the restaurant was packed, our table was next to the kitchen where we could hear the food orders being barked out and the cooks chastised. It didn't take away from the experience. We made a great choice both in our meals and the restaurant.

Next we drove to the Plaza and checked out the the restaurant at the Inn of the Anasazi, another well known restaurant. We made a dinner reservation for tomorrow night...which we are looking forward to. We plan to visit a couple of the museums in the Plaza prior to dinner.

Tonight we are barbequeing a small filet mignon roast and some of the great veggies from the Farmer's market. We "decorated" our campsite by putting up our twirly balloon-wind toy (which is twirling like crazy now) and the brass awning lights Todd got Jim for his birthday. It looks very festive and we've had a number of neighbors comment on it. Several said they would be in trouble with their wives when they saw them. One asked if we were having a party. Another asked if we planned to stay for awhile. Jim humphed a bit while we put them up, but they're looking pretty nice right now. We're hoping it doesn't rain before we have a chance to eat outside and enjoy the lights. I thought about putting up our chimes too, but I was afraid our neighbors wouldn't appreciate it, especially considering how windy it gets before a rain :)

As I write this a big, beautiful, diesel Country Coach ($$$$) is pulling into the site next to us. I hope they enjoy our decorations too.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

This morning we rafted down the Rio Grande River with Reese, an energetic guide from the Big River Rafting Company. The 6 1/2 mile run is called "Racecourse" and is normally very fast moving with class 3 and 4 rapids. By this time in the summer the water is down considerably which exposes lots and lots of rocks that have to be maneuvered around (or bumped into) which makes the ride more work (more rowing) but no less fun. We rafted with a very nice family from Texas. The guide did a great job of keeping us rowing and safely in the boat. He told us a story about the desert willow. It's a plant brought in from Africa by the state to prevent erosion along the river. What they didn't realize about the plant is that it grows like a weed, chokes other plants out, and sucks up gallons and gallons of river water daily. They can't figure out how to get rid of it. They call it another New Mexico "oops". It has spread to other states and is causing water problems wherever it grows.

After the raft ride we left Taos for Santa Fe. It was only 80 miles so didn't take very long. We chose to camp in Trailer Ranch RV Resort which is a 55+ "community" which means there aren't a lot of kids and it's quiet, plus it's located in town instead of 10 miles out and close to a bus stop that goes to the nearby Plaza and museums. The part of town it's located in isn't very impressive....lots of small car dealerships and the like.....the seedier part of town, but it's a nice RV park with decent sized spots, some grass, a pool rec room, laundry, cable, wifi, etc. We don't have a lot of outdoor things planned for Santa Fe....mostly museums, art galleries, a visit to Christies Great Estates to say hello to a few of the people I've met through Christies association with Dilbeck and lots of eating.

Santa Fe is known for their many great restaurants and it's going to be hard to choose between them. Tonight we're going to Maria's New Mexican kitchen which was recommended by our river rafting guide. They serve over 100 margaritas and their claim to fame is having the best margaritas in town. That's a good enough reason for us to eat there tonight. Hopefully the food is good too!