Too Much Fun

What a great fall vacation we had in Taos! The first night there, we went to the Adobe Bar and heard fabulous music played by the El Rito Rhythm Kings. Viv, the group's lead singer, was belting out "Chain of Fools" as we walked in, and continued to rock the house for the next hour or so (we entered the bar late into their last set). It turns out that Viv spent five years of her childhood in our hometown of Birmingham, MI--her father was the rector at Christchurch, Cranbrook, and the family lived on Chesterfield. Her husband, John, is from Toledo; he's the band's lead guitarist and also builds guitars for a living. They're hosting a concert at their house on New Year's Eve, and we've been invited to attend. They live in El Rito, which is just up the road from Jim and Rebecca's home in Cerro. It's a bit of a drive from our house, but John and Viv assured us that they like to go to bed early, so the party will be ending well before midnight, which suits us fine.

On Sunday, we drove to Cerro so that Steve and Jim could watch the New England Patriots defeat the Dallas Cowboys. While the guys were vegging out in front of the TV, Rebecca and I went to Wild Rivers to do a little hiking. We saw a few mule deer:and hiked part of the way down the gorge where the Red River flows into the Rio Grande:The scenery was spectacular, especially on this lovely fall day.

On Monday evening we drove with Ginger to the home of her artist friend, Ann Cole, who lives in a loft above Bryan's Gallery on Kit Carson Road. Ann was getting a little lonely in Des Montes, where she'd been living for the last eight years, and wanted to try living in town, close to the plaza. Ann just rents the loft for now; she still owns her home on the rim road overlooking Valdez. She also has a little casita there which she rents out to tourists, and that's how Ginger and Kris came to know her. Ann's paintings range from representational pastels to abstract oils. She became an instant success after moving to Taos, gaining all sorts of recognition and winning awards for her work. She's a lively hostess, and we had a wonderful time at her place eating homemade tamales and lemon meringue pie. The view from her rooftop patio was nice, too--we could see Taos Mountain poking above the treetops.

On Tuesday, it was our turn to entertain, and we invited our neighbor Deonne over for dinner. Deonne is the music critic for Tempo, the arts magazine of the Taos News. Until recently, she was also working full time for Dimond Mortgage as a loan officer, but due to the slowdown in the housing market, she was laid off. Fortunately, she made enough of a profit from the sale of her home in San Francisco three years ago that she can afford to live as a lady of leisure. She'll be enrolling in an MFA writing program at either NM State in Las Cruces or UNM Albuquerque (depending on where she's accepted) next fall, but will still maintain her residence on Hondo Mesa. Deonne will be visiting us in Minnesota at the end of October; she and her mom are taking a road trip from Rapid City, SD to the Twin Cities to visit an old friend of her mother's. Deonne will be the first of our New Mexico friends to see us in our native habitat--should be fun.

We paid a second visit to Gutiz during this trip on Wednesday for lunch (we had breakfast there on Sunday). This time we saw 11-month-old Zola, daughter of owners Eduardo and Shawn. She's a cutie--looks just like her dad. Gutiz is always very busy, which makes Eduardo happy, but he works awfully hard.

Thursday was our day to catch up with everyone before leaving Taos. We met our friends Jim and Rebecca (not everyone we know has a web link!) for lunch at Sushi Hattori , where we had the daily special, sesame chicken. Rebecca has changed from weaving to beading, and she now makes beautiful earrings which she sells at the Questa farmers' market. She'd promised to give me a pair that she was working on when we visited them on Sunday, but instead she gave me three pairs, all with lovely color combinations and imaginative designs:The least we could do after receiving such a generous gift was treat them to lunch.

After lunch we went to Taos Peublo, which is at its most serene in the fall:

A dog posed for us just outside the courtyard of the Pueblo's San Geronimo church:

Later in the afternoon, our neighbors Maggie and Mary came over for a non-alcoholic mountain mellow hour, and then we all went to a new Italian restaurant called Pizanos. Lots of great pizza and pasta dishes are on the menu there, and we can't wait to go back in the summer and sit on the patio, which faces Pueblo land and Taos Mountain. M & M are doing well and are ready to break ground on their next project, a house on a one-acre lot adjoining the land that belongs to the fellow who lives in the little cabin-like manufactured home.

After saying goodbye to Maggie and Mary, we dropped in at the Cottonwood Inn to see our friend, Brian, who's the innkeeper there. Brian is very knowledgeable about all things green, and we discussed the advantages of converting our propane-powered radiant heating to a solar-powered system. Our neighbor Deonne changed to solar power last year and has saved nearly $2,000 in heating costs. There are federal and state rebates and tax credits as added incentives, and if we can get a reasonable bid, we'd like to switch to solar power in the summer of 2009.

Friday was a warm, clear-blue-sky day, so we decided to drive to Georgia O'Keefe country near Abiquiu to do some hiking. We'd been told by Ginger that the Chimney Rock trail at Ghost Ranch was the best, and she was absolutely right. The views from the summit were amazing, and it was wonderful to see Georgia's favorite mountain, Pedernal, up close after all these years of viewing it from 40 miles away. Some scenes from Ghost Ranch:

We went to Restaurante Rancho de Chimayo for a late lunch (the prickly pear margaritas and sopapillas are the best!) and climbed around the nearby hills to see the pretty fall colors:

Saturday was our last full day, and once again we decided to take advantage of the warm fall weather by hiking. This time we went up the Devisadero trail off Kit Carson Road in the Carson National Forest. We'd tried that same trail back in 2003, but only went halfway (guess we were less energetic then). After a fairly steep climb, we were rewarded with fabulous views of the town of Taos and beyond: I'm sure this hike will be an annual fall event from now on.

The finale of our Taos vacation was a performance of the Taos Chamber Music Group at the Taos Community Auditorium. Fortunately we'd bought tickets in advance--by 7:15 the concert was sold out. This was the TCMG's 15th anniversary, and they'd asked the Pueblo's famed flutist, Robert Mirabal, to perform with them. Of the five pieces they played, his composition called "The Ancient Language of Breath" was our favorite. (We'd met Robert's younger brother, Patrick, while at the Pueblo on Thursday; the family has a music shop there where they sell native flutes, and Patrick played a song for us. We were tempted to buy a flute but bought a pair of earrings instead!). Ginger's friend and fellow flutist, Nancy Laupheimer, is the founder/director of the TCMG, and we enjoyed seeing her play. And in one of those small-town moments, we ended up sitting next to Rafael Vega, the carpenter/sculptor who built our deck.

Leaving Taos is always hard, but this time it was all the more difficult because we ran smack into a blizzard on our way to the airport in Denver. Luckily we made our flight with lots of time to spare, but it was white-knuckle driving all the way. In the airplane on our way home, we marveled at all the things we'd managed to do in seven days and realized that we'd done more socializing in a week in Taos than we've done in Minnesota all year.