Just Remembering

Today is my grandmother's birthday. She would've been 90 years old today.

So, in her honor, I'm posting a few of my favorite pics of her and the Southwest.

In no particular order:

The street where she and my grandfather used to live. I took this pic when we were there for her funeral.

 

Near her house - these are the Franklin Mountains, which she saw daily.

Liv, near a yucca plant at White Sands National Monument.

A dune at White Sands National Monument. My first visit to White Sands was with my grandparents, when I was very little.

Oma's birthday, 2011.

Me, my mom, and Oma, right around my college graduation, May 1993.

Can't Get Enough White Sands!

I thought I'd share a few more of my favorite pics that I took when we were at White Sands National Monument on November 10th. (To quote Paul Harvey, if you want "the rest of the story," please click here.)

Most of these were taken with either my smart phone camera or my little point 'n' shoot digital camera.The two square pics were taken using the Instagram app on my iPhone.

You can click on each picture to get a somewhat larger view.

I loved the dark (almost a blue-grey) shadow in this picture against the whiteness of the sand. By the way, the yucca plant (all varieties) is part of the agave family. Agave azul is used in the production of tequila.

I love the way yuccas look. Since we were here in the fall, we had missed the prime "blooming" time of the yucca plant, hence the now dead flowers on the tall, spindly "stalks." 

It really looks snowy, doesn't it?

The low-lying area at the foot of this dune is called the "interdune" area. There are many of these areas in between the wind-swept sandy dunes. 

She likes yuccas, too. 

Made it to the top!

See the jagged peaks of those mountains mid-photo? Those are the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, NM. (Click on the pic to get a bigger view.) They were named such because the jaggedness made the peaks look like the pipes of a musical organ. Oh, and this is another good example of what an interdune area looks like (where the now-brown foliage of the desert floor is).

The mountains in the background of this Instagram pic are the Sacramento Mountains, which provided a beautiful view from my back yard in Alamogordo, when we lived there. 

More yuccas (one of these days, I'll get back there to get pics of some yucca flowers in bloom!)

Another cool view!

Favorite White Sands Views

For those of you who've been following my blog for a while, you know that I love the Southwest. I love the food, the vistas, the climate (well, not necessarily the heat, but the dryness - the heat is never so bad when there's little perceptible humidity), the activities, the culture - and on and on.

It's been quite a while since I've been back "home" in the Southwest (my grandparents lived there nearly their whole lives, and my mom and uncles were born and raised there). And while it was a solemn occasion that called me back, we did have a couple good days to explore and remember our former home (we'd been stationed in the area during our Air Force years).

After a delicious dinner on Saturday night and a good night's sleep, we had a "free" day on Sunday. We ended up going to the Alamogordo, NM area, where White Sands National Monument is located.

Anyway, I'd like to share some of my favorite views from southern New Mexico - for this post, they'll be from White Sands National Monument.

Here we are, having just arrived at the visitor center. It had been about an hour and a half drive from the El Paso area. Luckily, we'd taken an iPad with us, so Liv had some entertainment on the drive there and back. It was a "chilly" day in the area; it had been in the 50s when we first arrived, hence the jacket.

She was really excited because the last time she'd been here, she was just about 1.5 years old. She didn't remember it, other than what she's seen in the photos I took that day. 

I'm adding this photo, because, well . . . just look at how cool the adobe building looks. Right? Plus, adobe buildings are always comfortably cool in the summer and comfortably warm in the chilly months.

When we first entered the Visitor Center, we'd overheard a dad (who was there with his son about Liv's age) ask the Park Ranger about getting a Junior Park Ranger booklet. I immediately began listening in.

Apparently, at many National Parks/Monuments, kids can get booklets that teach them about the park/monument they're visiting. Once completing the activities in the packet, they get to become a "Junior Park Ranger" at that particular park/monument, even being able to take a junior park ranger oath, getting either a patch or badge, and a certificate.

The White Sands booklet has different activities for different age levels. Liv's age range (5-7 years old, if I remember correctly) was designated by a lizard icon. She was responsible for completing each activity with the lizard icon next to it.

In the booklet, she was able to describe what she was expecting to see (desert plants, white sand, maybe some desert fauna), what mineral the sand crystals were made of (gypsum). She also got to complete a "scavenger hunt" list, where she got to check items off when she saw each item listed (like a yucca plant, a cottonwood tree, an interdune area, creature tracks, and so on), as well as having a spot to write a poem  about something she saw at White Sands, and sketch something she found while hiking. Pretty cool, huh?!

Here she is at the beginning (before we left the visitor center to experience the dunes), answering some questions about how the white sand dunes were formed, as well as answering some questions about local flora.

Here she is, filling out more of her booklet. I think this was the part where she had space to sketch something she found interesting (some buzzing bees pollinating a flowering plant - their buzzing was unexpectedly loud!).

Yep, it's definitely sand and not snow. She kept saying, "It looks so snowy!" Though, because of the various factors (the sun's rays bouncing off the whiteness, for one), she learned that the sand underneath the dry top layer was cool and somewhat damp.

She's observing a "pedestal." The plants at the top of the sand send their roots way, way down to get water, and to keep anchored (so they don't blow away or get "run over" by shifting dunes). The water gets soaked upward toward the plants, wetting the surrounding sand. Well, the wet sand surrounding the roots eventually hardens and forms these "pedestals" when the wind moves the surrounding dry sand around. Voila - after time, a pedestal has formed. Nature's cool, isn't she?

 She's trying to slide down the sand dune. When I was young and my grandparents lived in El Paso, we'd head up to White Sands with my cousins and some aunts and uncles, and we'd sled down the dunes with those disc sleds (then we'd have a picnic afterward - they had a designated picnic area that we hadn't visited on this trip). It was a blast.

I hadn't thought to get one of those sledding discs for Liv on our way to the dunes.

 She is posing with a couple yucca plants and the blue, blue New Mexico sky.

It's sun squint! The white sand is really reflective! And they were facing the sun so I didn't have to aim my camera phone directly into the sun.

And here she is with her Junior Ranger Certificate! She was really proud of having earned it. She was able to get a stamp on it indicating the date she earned it. (I have to go get a frame for it so I can hang it up somewhere.)

Since I have so many photos - and a lot to say about them - I'll split my favorite views and the accompanying commentary into a couple different posts. I'll try to get some of the remaining White Sands/Alamogordo pics, as well as some mountain and/or miscellaneous views in an additional post or two in the next couple days.

A Virtual Vacation

(Yes, two posts in one day. Can you tell I'm procrastinating?)

Okay, so it's midway through the semester. I have a ton of research, writing, reading, and studying to do.

And yesterday on the first day of spring, I caught a cold that feels like it's throwing a frat party in my body. Yeah, one of those colds.

So I figured I needed a little vacation. Since now is not the time to pack up and take an actual one, I figured I'd look through my photos from when we lived in New Mexico and take a virtual one. I found three photos from White Sands National Monument that I haven't shared, yet, so here they are.

These were from February 2007. We'd gotten some winter rain earlier that week, if I recall correctly. So as we were driving around looking for a place to park, we'd occasionally drive past pools of water. They looked so cool against the white sand, which itself was stunning against the bright blue sky (though the sand is stunning no matter what). Since Livie (almost a year old at this point) had fallen asleep in the car, I pulled over to the side, left Andrew in the car with her, and jumped out to get a few photos, including a couple water ones.

Homesick, Again

In my classes at the University of Iowa, we're at various stages of talking about native peoples of the American Southwest. Well, as some of you may know, I used to live in the Southwest (El Paso, Tucson, Alamogordo). So it's nice to read about the area. It's almost like I'm going back there mentally at a time I'm not able to go back physically.

Anyway, we've been having typical late winter weather here in Iowa, meaning Mother Nature is being fickle - one day giving us sleet, freezing rain, high winds, overcast skies, and the next, teasing us with one day of clear, blue skies and sunshine . . . only to go back to multiple days back-to-back of oppressively gray clouds.

It's days like this, with a lack of sunshine, our natural source of Vitamin D, that I begin to miss the Southwest. I was really homesick earlier this morning, having seated myself at my desk (supposedly to do homework), seeing my framed photo of "UH" (my Uncle Hector from Albuquerque) and Livie in my grandparents' house in El Paso, and another photo of White Sands in southern New Mexico.

I was so homesick, I could close my eyes and almost visualize sitting in my grandparents' home in El Paso, or my own home in Alamogordo, looking at the mountain ranges displaying various shades of copper, reds, oranges, milk chocolate, the sky an intense blue (and at dusk, purples, raspberry pink, blues, black). 

And - eyes closed - I could almost smell the desert - the dryness, the piñon, that distinct wet mineral scent (mixed with creosote and other desert flora) that the land emits after a brief rain.

Opening my eyes, I had an intense feeling of saudade - a Portuguese word, hard to translate - meaning something along the lines of a fondness and longing for something that you know you probably can't reclaim, or some similar such place to which return is unlikely.

While I'm sure I'll be able to visit the Southwest at some point on vacation (which I'm sure I'll greatly appreciate), I'll always feel a tiny bit of saudade because it won't be to my grandparents' home, or the home in which Livie, Andrew, and I lived when we were stationed in Alamogordo.

Anyway, I guess that's enough boo-hooing over my dislike of multiple days of overcast skies. 

So I'll end with a couple photos of my backyard in New Mexico, taken the day we moved in. It had been a bright, sunny day, that day I'd gotten the keys. But within an hour of being at the house, I noticed clouds moving toward us from over the Sacramento Mountains.

The next thing I knew (maybe within 15-20 minutes?), these stormy looking clouds were right over the mountains, and it looked like it was raining hard.

The rains never made it to our backyard. The storm dissipated, clouds dispersing into thin air in that space between the mountains and the backyard.

Memory Lane Friday - Cookouts and Barbecues

This week's Memory Lane Friday topic is "Cookouts and Barbecues."

I've loved cookouts for about as long as I can remember. There's just something about eating outside, eating food that was prepared on a grill that makes everything just so delicious. And fun!

Back when my grandparents lived in El Paso, TX and I spent lots of time with them (as a very young girl), I can remember an occasional cookout at White Sands National Monument. My cousins and I would be out on these fantastic white sand dunes playing (and "sledding") and working up an appetite, while somebody would be preparing the meal on a grill (which the park had for public use).

We'd all be famished by the time the meal was served. It didn't matter if it we were eating hot dogs or something much fancier, it was always downright tasty!

I took this photo of White Sands a few years ago, when I lived in New Mexico.

I can also remember times as a student at Culver Academies, that we equestrians would have a cookout on the Riding Hall terrace, overlooking the parade field and Lake Maxinkuckee. Typically, a few of the riding instructors would man the grill and cook steaks (or burgers, or whatever) for us during one of these cookouts, all of us teammates having a good time, enjoying the company and the food. 

Those didn't happen too often, but they were fun when they did happen. 

When I was older (after college and also while I was in the military), I'd sometimes visit my grandparents and have the opportunity to grill steaks on their backyard grill. Oma would usually be inside, fixing a salad and/or other side dishes while I was outside tending to the steaks. Sir Rafa would sometimes accompany me outside to "supervise."

Occasionally, we'd even eat outside on the patio after I finished grilling the steaks.

This wasn't too often, so I tended to really appreciate it when the opportunity arose.

While in the military, we'd occasionally have unit cookouts, with family members invited. It was always about the camaraderie, getting outside and enjoying some downtime together . . .and it was also about the food, of course.

Andrew and I would also grill a lot (steaks, chicken, veggies, burgers, hot dogs, whatever) when we were stationed just outside Boston, especially when the weather was nice. I'd gotten a nice Weber grill as a "present" for both of us as an anniversary gift our first summer there.

We loved getting jalapeño/cheddar burger patties from the meat department at a specialty grocery store down the road from the base. They were so delish! 

However, the last time I ate tried to eat one of those burgers . . . well, it wasn't pretty. Andrew had just been deployed and my mom was out visiting me and baby Livie (who was about 3 months old at the time). 

I'd picked up some of those burgers for my mom and myself. But after I'd fired up the grill, Livie decided it was time to nurse, so I went upstairs to nurse her. My mom offered to throw the burgers on the grill and prepare them for us, so they'd be ready by the time I'd finished nursing Livie.

But she was is not a griller . . . she'd left the burgers on the grill too long, turning them into charred little hockey pucks. So sad. 

Of course, there were also times when we would go out for BBQ, like to a BBQ restaurant for a meal - like my whole office (such as when I was stationed in Tucson - we'd go to a place called Jack's BBQ - I think I even took Andrew there once when he came out to visit). It was always fun getting out of the office for an hour or 90 minutes and having some tasty BBQ. (Of course, we'd also go out for sushi for lunch . . . but that's another story.)

Speaking of BBQ . . . there was this BBQ place Andrew and I found when we were stationed in the greater Boston area. It was down the block from the ballroom dancing studio in West Newton, where we took weekly lessons. This place, Blue Ribbon BBQ, was AWESOME!! 

They have the best, best, BEST baked beans. To this day, they are my favorite baked beans, ever!! My mouth is totally watering, just thinking about this place (and their baked beans). I usually got either the pulled pork or the pulled chicken to go with the beans - you know, so I wasn't just eating baked beans. 

Most weeks, we'd go there for dinner (either before or after our lesson, depending on what time our lesson started - the dancing lesson and dinner ended up being our "date night"). When we ate there, I always said, "the better the BBQ, the messier it is," because I usually dripped BBQ onto my clothing when we ate there. So if we planned on eating there (instead of the pub down the street), I'd need a spare shirt to change into (in the studio bathroom, of course), because I usually spilled BBQ sauce (or baked beans) on myself.

Another favorite BBQ place of mine is called Dinosaur BBQ in New York (NYC and upstate NY). I've only been to the one in Syracuse - a couple times while I was active duty with other members of my unit, as well as a time Andrew and I were on a road trip and spent the night in Syracuse. 

As soon as he and I checked into our hotel, by the way, I insisted we go to Dinosaur BBQ for dinner, for both the food and the ambiance. 

If you click here, you'll see that a lot of bikers stop there. It made Andrew a little nervous at first, for some reason, but then he realized it was all okay! 

Besides, not only is their BBQ awesome, they also have the most delish fried green tomatoes . . . and the desserts? I love their key lime pie and their pecan pie! Yum!! 

And now I am so incredibly hungry for BBQ!!

Memory Lane Friday is hosted weekly by Lisa at Two Bears Farm. Please click on the button below to read her entry this week, as well as other participants' posts:

Your Sunday Best - 30 Apr 2011

Here's this week's photo for Your Sunday Best, hosted by A Rural Journal.

White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo, NM, February 2007

I've posted this photo before, but it's one of my favorite New Mexico scenes, and one I wanted to share again. 

I took this photo at White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico, when we still lived in Alamogordo. It was in February 2007, just a couple weeks before Livie's first birthday. She had fallen asleep in the car on our way to White Sands (it was about a 20-25 minute ride, so of course, she fell asleep). Andrew sat in the car with her while I got out and took a few photos, the above being one of them.

I miss the vibrant skies of New Mexico, where we had 300+ days of sunshine per year. At least I have photos to look at when I'm homesick for the Southwest.


Please click on the button below to view all the "Your Sunday Best" photo entries:

I'm disappointed

Yes, I'm disappointed.

I mentioned back in late September that I'd entered a photography contest (check out my "The suspense is already driving me nuts!" post for all the details).

The contest's online rules FAQ page stated that the winners' photos would be published in New Mexico Magazine's January 2011 issue, to be delivered to subscribers around December 10th, and on newsstands around December 15th.

Winners, by the way, would receive e-mails around December 10th, verifying mailing addresses for prize delivery (with prizes being sent out in late December).

So, for the past few days . . . okay, okay, since around December 1st, I've been checking my e-mail a few times a day, just waiting and hoping for one of those e-mails, verifying my mailing address. As the days crept closer and closer to December 10th, I found myself checking my e-mail more often throughout the day.

And each time, I failed to see any such e-mail.

But I kept telling myself that It's not December 10th yet. Maybe I'll get something on the 10th.

Then December 10th rolled around - still no e-mail. I knew what this meant - none of my photographs had been chosen.

However, I still held out hope that maybe, just maybe, one of my photos had been chosen, for Honorable Mention perhaps.

So I ran out to the mailbox in hopes of finding my January 2011 issue.

Nope. I had Christmas cards (for which I was thankful), some junk mail, and that was it. No magazine, yet.

It was only Friday, so I still held out hope that the magazine would arrive on Saturday. You know, because the magazine must be somewhere on some sort of Post Office transportation making its way from Santa Fe, New Mexico to my snow-covered Iowa mailbox. And, because I inferred that the December 10th delivery date was simply an approximation, as in "on or about" December 10th.

But that didn't explain why I hadn't yet gotten one of those "we need to verify your mailing address so we can send you your prize" e-mails . . . you know, since e-mail doesn't get stuck on a truck, or in weather-related traffic.

Throughout the day, I would occasionally check my e-mail, still hoping for that e-mail. But it never came.

At some point that afternoon, I stopped obsessing about it because there was nothing I could do about it.

Saturday morning finally rolled around, and what did I do, first thing? Yep, I checked my e-mail. Still no e-mail.

After Livie and I went out for a bit to get her hair cut and to run some errands, we came back for lunch, and I returned to the computer to . . . yep, check my e-mail again. Nothing.

Then I ran outside in the freezing rain to check the mailbox. The mail hadn't come yet, even though I'd seen the mail truck down the street.

At this point, I finally resigned myself to the fact that it was true - none of my photos had been chosen - and I stopped checking my e-mail every couple hours.

When yesterday's mail finally came, much later in the afternoon, there was still no magazine. 

I began to think back to last year's winners. It dawned on me that while my photos definitely had that, "Hey, that's cool" aspect about them, they didn't elicit a "Wow! That is absolutely spectacular!" response, like last year's winning photos had.

And you know what? I guess that means I need more practice. I mean, I haven't taken a photography class, or even a general art 101 class, for that matter, since I'd been a student at Culver Girls Academy. And it's been just as long since I'd been a part of a photography club, like I was at Culver.

So I guess that once I start grad school (for my M.A. in English), I could maybe enroll in a basic photography 101 class, partly for fun, and partly to refresh my memory. Because I know all those photography skills I learned in photography classes and photography club must be somewhere in my little gray cells, still. Right?

And, in case you're curious, here are the photos I entered.

I took this photo from my front yard one summer day.

Clouds rolling into Alamogordo, before the storm hits.

I took this photo from my back yard, right after moving into our new house in Alamogordo.

A summer storm hovers over the Sacramento Mountain Range, Alamogordo, NM.

This was taken from my back yard on a late December afternoon.

Winter has dusted the Sacramento Mountain Range, Alamogordo, NM.

Here's a famous Santa Fe view, taken when Andrew and I spent a day in Santa Fe.

St. Francis Cathedral Basilica, Santa Fe, NM

Here's a view of White Sands National Monument. I took this photo on a windy, February afternoon.

Sand dune, White Sands National Monument, outside Alamogordo, NM

So I didn't win anything, not even an Honorable Mention prize. And for that, I'm disappointed. 

But you have to admit the photos are cool. Right? 

And now I can at least say that I entered a big photo contest with hundreds of entries.

(And since I still haven't gotten my January 2011 issue yet, (maybe Monday) I'm still curious about which photos did win.)

Memory Lane Friday - No Theme

This week's Memory Lane Friday is another "No Theme" week. So what am I going to write about? Well, I sure had to think about it this week.

I ended up deciding to write about one of my favorite places, and the adventures I had there - the Southwest in general, and New Mexico in particular.

When Andrew and I were stationed in southern New Mexico, we tried to do a lot of fun things with Livie. And when Abuelita would visit, sometimes she would babysit so Andrew and I would do what Livie now calls "Mommy and Daddy adventures."

So one time, just before Livie's second birthday, Andrew and I decided to take her to White Sands National Monument.

I'd been there plenty of times, but neither Andrew nor Livie had been there. I was trying to tell Andrew that the sand was so white, it was like snow. He'd seen photos of it, but it's never the same as seeing it in person. So off we went.

Of course, Livie fell asleep during the 15-20 minute ride from our house. She slept when we pulled into the White Sands area, and stayed asleep while we slowly drove around enjoying the scenery.

At some point, I found a place to park so I could get out and take photos (like the one above). I found out it was really windy that day, so I figured that it was alright that Livie slept; I was afraid she'd get sand blown into her eyes, nose, or mouth.

I did get a photo of her with the stunningly white sands outside the window. It's so glaringly white, it almost looks like the after-effects of a blizzard, doesn't it?

She had one of those half-moon "pillows" so her head wouldn't bob around while she was asleep. We were just about ready to leave when she woke up and smiled at me.

Another fun memory of New Mexico was when we'd take trips to Mesilla. Click here to read about our favorite restaurant in Mesilla: Memory Lane Friday - A Restaurant.

And then there was the time my mom babysat Livie for about 24 hours, just after Andrew got home from his 120+ day deployment to the middle east. This was when Andrew and I went on the first of our "Mommy and Daddy adventures" - we'd headed to Santa Fe to spend the night in a great inn. Read about our experience by clicking here.

There was one other time in the Southwest that I remember fondly - the time I really appreciated having an extra set of helping hands.

Andrew, Livie, and I still lived in New Mexico, and were in El Paso at my grandparents' house for the weekend. It was right around the time we'd celebrated our 4th anniversary.

My uncle Hector was visiting at the same time. Andrew and I always enjoyed having lengthy conversations with him over cold bottles of beer - we'd talk about books, movies, history, grad school . . . you name it.

Plus, he was really good at entertaining baby Livie (about 10-months-old at the time). He could always get her to smile or laugh, always enjoying being on the floor with her, keeping her company.While Andrew was deployed, he was always willing to babysit Livie if I needed to run an errand or two.

This photo of Livie and Uncle Hector was taken over a 3-day weekend (Veterans' Day), when Andrew, Livie, and I visited my grandparents' house.

Well, during our mid-December visit, after realizing Andrew and I had just celebrated our anniversary, Hector offered to babysit baby Livie for the evening so Andrew and I could go out for dinner to celebrate.

When the time was right, I gave Livie a bath, got her pajamas on, nursed her, and put her down for the night. Then I made sure there were a couple bottles on hand (just in case). After handing the baby monitor to Hector and letting him know about the bottles plus the location of the diapers and wipes, Andrew and I headed out.

Andrew and I went to the Olive Garden near Cielo Vista Mall (in the parking lot, actually) in El Paso. I think I had the cheese ravioli. I don't know what Andrew had. And I had a margarita! It was all soooo good. I'm not sure it was the food or the fact that we had a couple hours alone to leisurely eat a meal, uninterrupted.

When we got back, Hector said Livie had slept soundly the whole time. I think he may have peeked at her once, and she was just fine.

It was such a nice treat that Hector had given us, those couple hours to enjoy a meal.

Please come back next week, when the topic will be "Something You Hated."

Don't forget to click on the button below to read the rest of this week's Memory Lane Friday posts.

Memory Lane Friday is sponsored by Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs.

The suspense is already driving me nuts!

Okay, a couple months ago, Andrew reminded me that New Mexico Magazine holds an annual photo contest for amateur photographers. Any photos entered, by the way, must have been taken in The Land of Enchantment.

He then casually mentioned that I took a few really cool looking photos while we lived in New Mexico, that I should consider submitting them.

Hmmm. Yes, I had to agree that I thought they were cool, and obviously, he thought they were cool. By the way, if you scroll up to the top of the blog, you'll see the photo that inspired him to encourage me to enter the contest.

So I found the contest rules, and went to work going through all my New Mexico photos (hundreds of them), to see if there were any that even remotely stood a chance among other more talented, more experienced photographers' entries.

Well, after a lot of deliberation, I decided that the storm-clouds over the Sacramento Mountains (seen above) would be one entry (of the 6 possible entries I was allowed).

I had another photo that I thought was awesome . . . I took it at White Sands National Monument one brilliant February afternoon. It's a landscape photo, the "subject" being a snow-white, rippled sand dune against an amazingly vivid blue sky. That was photo #2.

Then one more of the Sacramento Mountains on a somewhat snowy winter afternoon, with the beautiful, late afternoon's golden light turning everything rusty.

Plus one of more storm clouds . . . just the storm clouds with the brilliant blue sky (again) as a background.

And finally photo #5 was of the St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe.

(That's right, I only chose 5, though I was allowed to send up to 6.)

I followed the instructions in the rules, then sent off the photos and CD with the digital copies to the photo contest address in Santa Fe.

Now all I can do is wait. And wait . . . and wait.

The contest deadline was just a couple days ago, September 27th.

Winners will be announced in early December, according to the rules, with prizes being shipped in late December. In addition to prizes offered for "Grand Prize," "First Prize," "Second Prize," "Third Prize," and "Honorable Mention," the winners' photos will be published in the January 2011 issue of New Mexico Magazine.

So, while I have a feeling that I won't be winning the Grand Prize (or maybe not even 1st, 2nd, or 3rd), I'm hoping that I'll at least get an honorable mention. Of course, it would be AWESOME if I won a category, and I picked what I thought were my best photos, because I want to win.

I'm just starting to doubt my ability because it's been a long time since I've taken any photography classes (the last one being one of Mr. Duff's classes while I was a student at Culver); it's also been a long time since I was a part of the Culver photography club, trying to take artsy photos. I'm a little intimidated because the judges are professional photographers/artists.

Come to think of it, the last time I entered a photo contest was while I was at Culver. I submitted a black and white photo of the Riding Hall, at an angle very similar to this:

Fog-enveloped Riding Hall at Culver Academies, circa 1987

Of course, the photo I submitted was taken one very sunny morning, so there was a lot of contrast between light/dark, with cool shadows.

Anyway, I guess I'm just going nuts from the suspense and having to wait forever (okay, just a couple months) for the results. I just really wanna know if I won something.

What a Daydream! . . . or, My Favorite New Mexico Locations, vol 1.

A number of years ago, circa 2004, while Andrew and I still lived in the greater Boston area, and before Olivia was a twinkle in our eyes, I started watching the Travel Channel. There was a particular show that had caught my attention, and I was absolutely fascinated with it. It was called Great Hotels and was hosted by a charming Samantha Brown.

Now the reason I was so captured by this show was because Samantha would spend time in these fabulous destinations, many of which were places I, too, wanted to visit and explore. She would go off on all these adventures, and she always looked like she was having such a great time. Plus, she stayed in these beautiful, luxurious hotels that I more or less could only daydream about.

One of these locations was Santa Fe, NM. I had always wanted to go there. It is such an old, stately, artistic town, the capital of New Mexico, rich in its long history, distinctly Spanish, Native American, Mexican, American, and yet, a combination of all of these, the sum of which is uniquely Santa Fean. I longed to go there. And after seeing Samantha Brown's Santa Fe episode, it was definitely at the top of my "Places to Visit if We Ever Get a Chance" list.

First of all, I already loved New Mexico. As a young girl with family in El Paso, TX, I had spent a lot of time in southern New Mexico. El Paso, after all, wasn't too far away from the Land of Enchantment. We'd spend hours upon fun-filled hours on day-trips in southern New Mexico - at White Sands National Monument, just outside Alamogordo, and Mesilla, which is just outside Las Cruces. (I'll spend time talking about adventures to these places another day.) Plus, I have a fun memory of a long-weekend my grandparents, a cousin, and I had at the Inn of the  Mountain Gods in Mescalero, NM, just outside of Ruidoso (again, a topic for another day).
 
And then in 2006, Andrew and I found out we would be stationed in Alamogordo. I was SO excited. We'd be a little over an hour's drive to my grandparents' home in El Paso, as well as Las Cruces and Mesilla. Plus, we wouldn't be too far from Ruidoso and the Inn of the Mountain Gods.

To top it all off, I could envision a trip to Santa Fe!! Finally!

Of course, when it was time to move, Olivia was just a 4-month-old baby, and Andrew was deployed for 120+ days.

So any trip to Santa Fe would have to wait.

However, it dawned on me that since my mom was visiting us every month for about a week at at time (and spending time with my elderly grandparents in El Paso, too), that perhaps a trip to Santa Fe wouldn't be as far off in the future as I'd originally thought.

Andrew was due home in early October. My mom would be back to visit mid-October. Hmmm, I had the seeds of an adventure blooming in my mind.

I knew that Andrew would have a couple weeks off once he finally made it back to the states and FINALLY home to our new New Mexican home, one he had yet to see firsthand.

So I spoke to my mom, and found out that she and my dad would be in the area mid-October for a reunion of hers in El Paso. I told her my idea, and she agreed to give me a hand.

See, I'd come up with this plan: when Andrew got home, in-processed with his new unit in Alamogordo, and on leave for 2 weeks, my mom would care for Olivia in El Paso at my grandparents' house for a weekend while Andrew and I spent time exploring Santa Fe, staying at a luxurious hotel that Samantha Brown highlighted - basically having time to ourselves, reconnecting after his 4-month long deployment. Actually, it would end up being for a day, a night, and most of the next day, with us meeting back in Alamogordo, at our new house.

Here's what happened. My mom bundled up Olivia in a car seat, grabbed the bag of supplies I'd prepared, and headed the hour's drive south to El Paso, around the same time Andrew and I headed north for Santa Fe. It must've been around 11 AM.

It ended up taking us about 5 - 5.5 hours to get up there (and believe me, I was very impatient to get there). The ride was beautiful, stark, and before nearing Albuquerque, desolate.

A couple views of our drive north. The first photo is the view to the east:

This second photo is the view of the road as it heads west:

Maybe you can see the moon in this photo:

We finally arrived at our destination, and headed directly to our "great hotel," La Posada de Santa Fe, a beautiful resort within walking distance to Santa Fe's historic Plaza.

Let me tell you, it was even MORE beautiful in person. We were greeted promptly, and were checked in, our car parked for us, and our luggage taken directly to our room for us. As we walked down the outdoor path to our room, there was this awesome scent lingering all around us, sage, crisp, clean high-altitude mountain air, apple-wood-burning fires. And since it was October already, there was a bit of chilliness in the air, but that somehow added to the magic. 

When we got to our room, I was amazed. The ceiling had these exposed log ceilings, very New Mexican in feel. There was a kiva fireplace and a stack of wood available so we could have a crackling fire to relax by when we returned to our room for the night. I couldn't wait to sit by that fire! And the king bed looked so comfortable and inviting, with down pillows, a down blanket, and in the closet, warm bathrobes.

We then made reservations at La Posada's restaurant, Fuego. Since it was nearly 5, and our reservations weren't for another couple hours, we decided to walk to the Plaza to have a look around. 

On our way off the property, we stopped in the gift store to pick up a map. As we chatted with the lady behind the counter about "must see" locations (Loretto Chapel, Palace of the Governors), we ended up chatting about how Andrew and I were in the military. She thanked us for our service (which I greatly appreciated), and we went about talking about Santa Fe before Andrew and I headed out on our pre-dinner walking adventure. 

We headed down to the Plaza, seeing the Palace of the Governors and planning to head there the next day to browse through the portico, where Native Americans' sold their hand-made jewelry and art (it was after hours, so no one was there). 

Then we headed to the Loretto Chapel, to see the famous, miraculous spiral staircase. It was fantastic, beautiful - an experience I will remember, and I hope to return. 

Outer view of the Loretto Chapel:

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha statue:

 

Outer view of the Loretto Chapel (with Andrew posing nearby):

The famed spiral staircase:

Another view:

Another interior view:

After leaving the Chapel near closing time, we walked around a little more, soaking in the city, enjoying our time together, and looking forward to dinner. 

Here's some of the scenery:

Anyway, when we got back to our room to freshen up for dinner, we received a call from the manager. Apparently, the friendly woman at the gift shop had spoken to him about us as we headed out on our walk.

He wanted to thank us for our military service and was calling to ask if he could send a bottle of wine to our room, curious if we preferred red or white, and a fresh fruit plate. I was floored with this level of customer service! I thanked him and said that we were heading off to their restaurant, Fuego soon so we wouldn't be in the room to receive it. He said he'd leave the bottle and fruit in our room for when we returned from dinner.

I regret to say that I can't remember the name of the wine, but when we opened it and drank it at home later, it was absolutely delicious!

So after freshening up and putting on sweaters (it was chilly in October in high altitude Santa Fe!), we headed to the Staab House bar for drinks while waiting for our table at the restaurant. Now a couple fun pieces of info on the Staab House: first, they have excellent margaritas and tequilas, if you're a fan of these types of adult beverages. Second, the Staab House, (once owned and occupied by Abraham and Julia Staab and their children) is supposedly haunted by Julia! Apparently, she loved her house so much, she couldn't bear to leave! ;)

And dinner at Fuego? Outstanding! Yes, it was very pricey, but was it ever delicious! Especially the Mexican hot chocolate we had to top off our meal!

After returning back to our room and getting the crackling fire started, we relaxed and chatted by the warm fire, and upon climbing into bed, fell asleep promptly and slept soundly.

The next morning, everything went by in a blur - heading to the Palace of the Governors to browse (and buy some turquoise/silver earrings, a lapis/silver ring, a silver/turquoise book mark, and a Navajo doll for myself), grabbing some lunch and rushing back home to Alamogordo.

See, my mom called and said she, my dad, and most importantly, Olivia, would be back at our house in Alamogordo by a certain time (maybe around 4? I can't remember now), and we were still nearly 5.5 hours away. So off we rushed, because I wanted to beat them home, unload the car, change, rehydrate and wait for them.

Well, that didn't quite happen. They beat us home by about 45 minutes. Ah, well.

Nevertheless, it was a beautiful, memorable trip, our less-than-24-hour journey to Santa Fe.

And I can't wait to go back.