We recently went to Taos, NM for a friend's wedding. We decided to take a couple extra days and splurge a little since we were traveling so far. Our first night we spent at Ojo Caliente. It is a spa with natural mineral hot springs. It was so delicious to slip into the hot pools under the stars and full moon!
We had arranged to have a massage the next morning. But our room included a free soak and wrap. So you go into the bathhouse and they run all this hot mineral water in a private bathtub. After you have lain there for 20 min. they take you into a quiet room and wrap you in a cotton blanket and then lay a wool blanket over you and then tuck it all in so you look like a burrito mummy. I guess we were supposed to be getting all zen and relaxed, but that was really funny...
After the massages, we went to the pools for the morning. They have a mud pool that is really fun. You dip, then slather yourself with mud, lay in the sun and rinse. They had an arsenic pool, soda pool, iron pool and mixtures of all.
We got sunburned, of course, and then drove to Taos. On the way, we checked out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It was kind of scary. You can walk across it, but it shakes like mad when a truck crosses. This is the Church of San Francisco de Asis which was actually just a few minutes from our Inn.
We stayed at the Adobe Pines Inn and it was sooo dreamy. The Innkeeper, Louis, made us amazing breakfasts and they are softies for rescue animals. They had a new dog there- a very shy Great Pyranees/ Retreiver mix named Bebe. Everyone we met in NM was really nice, talkative, and actually formerly from the Northeast.
Our room was great. We had a kiva fireplace in the bathroom and the bedroom! There was a soak tub and a sauna. It really does get cold enough in the evening to want a fire and we made one every night and morning.
I am still obsessed with flowers and the macro setting of my camera. But look at this poppy!!!
This is the Taos Pueblo: a Native American community that has been inhabited for 1000 years. It is a large village and they have struggled to survive the invasion of the Spanish and US and have won back the ownership of much of their land including a sacred Blue Lake in the Sangre de Christo Mountains.
These are adobe ovens, called hornos, in which they build a fire until it is the right temperature and then place the bread inside. Each family would have one outside their home. There is a deep sense of peace and connection to the land and community.
Many of the homes have converted to shops that have food, jewelry, pottery, drums, leathergoods, clothing and weaving for sale. There are also dogs running free every where.
The bride and groom. Isn't her dress Amazing?!!
They had a fearless band there called Vanilla Pop. Everyone was up and dancing.
Is Mr. double fisting it? Well, look who he is talking to....haha, jus kidding.
So after the wedding we headed down to Santa Fe. Besides being the oldest capital in the US, it is also a magnet for artists, musicians, scientists and free thinkers. This is the Cafe Paris in Burro Alley.
Mr. took this lovely photo. We went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum- which is small, but still inspiring. We were only in Santa Fe for about 36 hours.
Also, we had been asking people what to do in Santa Fe and we were told that we should go to a Japanese spa called Ten Thousand Waves. I thought we had already spa-ed at Ojo Caliente, but Mr. said we might as well. So he arranged a private tub and couples massage the night we arrived! Aren't we spoiled?
We had to catch a 6am flight out of Albequerque- so we spent our last night there. When we arrived I said I would like to catch the sunset and there just happened to be a big moutain east of the city. AND it happened to have a tram that went to the top.
The wheels that...moved the cable? It is the longest tram in the world and goes up to 10,000 feet.
It was just a little scary and very very beautiful. I have to thank F. and A. for planning their wedding here- it was such a great trip. We had wonderful conversations and adventures in navigation. Saw some good friends and got a lot of sun, but a lot of water and fire too.
My garden was plundered again- both geranium plants disappearing under suspicious circumstances. The marigolds are really not that great- so Mr. went out and got new plants. I told him to get whatever he wanted and he did so well! I am sticking to bedding-like plants as opposed to plant-like plants. People, I guess, are less prone to grab a little green leafy thing rather than a large flowering thing. Although it is entirely beyond my scope of imagination as to who would steal other people's plants at all.
I needed to be in Westchester over the weekend- so we rented a car and took the dog for a little outing. It was fun- he got to swim in the Long Island Sound and also in the reservoir.
He really loves the water.....
When he is soaking wet- he looks so skinny. His fur is super puffy. This is such a funny expression. I think he is saying, "I'm not chubby, I'm just hairy!"
