WHERE THE DEER BUT NO ANTELOPE PLAY!

Today was an uneventful day for us. We met Bev and Larry for lunch at The Sweet Shop in Raton. When we lived there in the 50's, it was located downtown and was primarily a candy shop that served a few sandwiches at the counter as well as making all their own candy if I remember correctly. Well ... they should have stuck to making candy. I had a chicken salad sandwich which seemed like a safe bet, and when it arrived, it was toasted which was certainly not expected.The most that I can say is that it was very different.

The Stolarczyk's left for Santa Fe right after lunch and then they would be on their way in the morning to Las Cruces for Lisa's graduation. I'm sorry that we could not have been there for this special event since we have know Lisa since she was about 2 years old. She's a terrific young woman and has done quite well for herself. I'm sure that her folks are very proud of her. We certainly are!

After lunch we went back home and just took it easy the rest of the day. Frank had to run to the Super Save in the afternoon and he decided that we would not try our luck at any more local places and have fried chicken at home tonight. Seemed like a good plan to me!

We brought our take-outie food in and watched the elimination program of So You Think You Can Dance. We love that show and it was a very good episode. Those young kids are SOO talented!

We had one more day in Raton, so the next morning we decided to drive to Angel Fire, NM for lunch. If you haven't already figured this out, this entire trip will be focused on food. We love to eat and Santa Fe has some delicious restaurants, so we keep going back on a regular basis with many interesting stops along the way.
To get to Angel Fire, you have to go through Cimarron Canyon and then on to Eagle Nest. The drive through the canyon is beautiful and you pass by an area which is called the Palisades.
The rock cliffs are spectacular.

Once you've left the canyon, you descend into a little town called Eagle Nest which is situated on a small lake.

When Frank and I were engaged, I went to New Mexico to meet his folks, and we ended up having to spend the night in Eagle Nest with the entire family which was huge. As it happened, there was no bed for me to sleep in, so I ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator. What one will do when she's in love. Today I think the Holiday Inn is roughing it!
Once we left Eagle Nest, we left the main highway and headed for Angel Fire. There is a mountain on the way to Angel Fire named "Old Baldy" (all of the mountains seem to have names in New Mexico) If you look closely, you can probably figure out why it got that name.

Frank's family owns a gold mine near there at the foot of the mountain. The only problem is that no one has been able to find it! We have the deed, but back when his family staked their claim there many years ago, all the description said was that is was so many feet past a certain marker and then turn either east or west until you come to a pile of rocks. No one has ever been able to find it, but we can still say that we own a gold mine!
We arrived at Angel Fire just in time for lunch.

They have torn down the old clubhouse and built a new one that is wonderful. It has a restaurant, gym, spa and there is a great golf course. We used to own acerage there but we gave it to the church.

We were both a little weary from driving and soaking in all the beautiful scenery, so we decided to have a beer and a burger on hte terrace outside of the pro shop as the main dining room was not open for lunch.

The weather was perfect, but as we finished our lunch, the skies clouded over and we decided that we had better head for cover and start for home. As threatening as they look, stormy New Mexico skies are beautiful.

The storm didn't last long, so on the way back through the canyon we stopped at the Old Log for a drink of crystal clear mountain water. When we lived there, we would take Sunday drives and bring some of that great tasting pure water home. It was always a treat for our children to stop at the old log. It made us feel like pioneers.

As we came back through the town of Cimarron, we decided to stop at the St. James Hotel. It's a pretty famous local hangout.
Many well-known people stayed there over the years. Wyatt Earp, his brother Morgan, and their wives spent three nights at the St. James on their way to Tombstone, Arizona. Jesse James stayed there several times, always in room 14, signing the registry with his alias, R.H. Howard. Jesse James’ nemesis and would be killer, Bob Ford, also stayed at the St. James.
Buffalo Bill Cody, who was a goat ranch manager for Lucien Maxwell for a short time, met Annie Oakley at the hotel and began to plan and rehearse their Wild West Show. When Henry’s son Fred was born, Buffalo Bill nicknamed him "Cyclone Dick” because he was born during a blustery snow storm, and he was soon asked to be Fred’s godfather.
When Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley left Cimarron to take their show on the road, they took an entire village of Indians from the Cimarron area with them.
Other notables who have stayed at the historic inn include Bat Masterson, train robber Black Jack Tom Ketchum, General Sheridan, Kit Carson, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Clay Allison, Pat Garret, artist Fredrick Remington, Governor Lew Wallace, and writer Zane Grey. The Hotel was later renamed the St. James and continues to cater to travelers today.
They have recently renovated the place and have restored it to it's original beauty. I forgot to mention that it's also supposed to be haunted, so that adds to the attraction of the place.

We stopped to look around and ran across these bikers in the bar. They looked as if they had just stepped off of the set of "The Milagro Beanfield War", so we decided that we should join them in a little libation ourselves, so I had a Vodka Tonic and Papa had a Margarita.

We watched them drive out into the almost sunset and then we took a quick tour of the place.

We used to drive to Cimarron to eat in the restaurant in the St. James on Sundays after church and sometimes on Saturday night when we could find a sitter. It was a nice drive and the food was really good. The place needed a "face lift" and the new owners did a super job restoring it. I'd like to have MY face lifted, but I couldn't stand the pain!

When we left Cimarron we drove through Philmont Scout Ranch which is the National Headquarters for the Boy Scouts of America. It was there that we saw this herd of buffalo.

Little did we know that when we saw the buffalo, we would soon see the deer playing (but no antelope today!)

They were in the velvet and were beautiful. In the wink of an eye, they were over the fence running past the buffalo and then they disappeared. I'm certainly glad that I was ready for that Kodak moment.

We then drove past headquarters. It's a lovely old home. We went to a dinner party there in the early 60's and had buffalo steaks. That was before it was the fashionable food of the month and I felt like a woman in a Wild West movie !

The scouts don't stay in such comfortable quarters, but they seem to always have a great time.

When my honey was a young man, he used to go to Philmont in the summer. I later found out that he was really a girl scout rather than a boy scout since he and his buddies would sneak out at night and visit the girls at Cimarroncita which was an exclusive girls camp right down the road. Most of the girls that attended this camp were from Texas. I suppose he was scouting for me at the time but didn't know it ;-) With those kind of antics it's a miracle that he ever made Eagle Scout!
We arrived at Bearadise just before dinner and were ready to call it a night (or day)!

We wanted to get an early start tomorrow as we would be on our way to Santa Fe, so we had a light supper, watched a little TV and went to bed. In the words of Miss Scarlet, "Tomorrow is another day!"
XOXO, Pcasso

IT'S TIME TO BLOG AGAIN!

We have spent the past several weeks in The Land of Enchantment, enjoying the high desert, mountains and crisp, cool air!

Our first stop was in Raton, NM, where we lived when we were first married. This flag is at the top of Goat Hill and the sign is lighted at night so travelers might find their way there.

Raton Pass which is located just north of the town center had been used by Spanish explorers and Indians for centuries to cut through the rugged Rocky Mountains, but the trail was too rough for wagons on the Santa Fe Trail.
Raton was founded at the site of Willow Springs, a stop on the Santa Fe Trail. The original 320 acres for the Raton townsite were purchased from the Maxwell Land Grant in 1880. In 1879, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway bought a local toll road and established a busy rail line. Raton quickly developed as a railroad, mining and ranching center for the northeast part of the New Mexico territory, as well as the county seat and principal trading center of the area. This is where Frank and I lived when he got out of dental school and set up his first practice. Here you see our first apartment.

It was very cold in the winter, so in order to save money, we would turn the heat off at 6:00 p.m. right after dinner, go to bed and snuggle under an electric blanket to keep warm. Those are the kind of things that make good memories!
We arrived at our favorite Raton "hangout", Bearadise, and started on our vacation.

We spent a great deal of the time doing absolutely nothing but sitting on the couch, watching movies on TV and relaxing. A great way to start a vacation.

Our good friends who own this guest house, Beverly and Larry, were in town only one day and then they left for Las Cruces as their daughter, Lisa, was graduating from medical school.
Bev and I have been friends for nearly 1/2 century and it's always good to get together with her even if it's only for a short time. After all, it's not every day that your daughter becomes a physician!

Her husband, Larry, is not only Frank's fishing buddy, but he also runs in very lofty circles. He's a scientist and spends a lot of time in D.C. as well as Europe and Russia. It's nice to have friends who have friends in high places ;-)

That first evening we went to Trinidad, Colorado which is just over the pass to Cougar Canyon Resort for dinner.

We had crab legs and made a complete mess of ourselves and the table, but they were delicious. There's nothing better than to be bathed in butter!

We reminisced about all the times we had driven over Raton Pass to go to different restaurants and clubs when we were young. We had so much fun back then and we still do.
That night after we had gone to bed, we heard a noise and discovered that there was a bear outside (they didn't name our place Bearadise for nothing!) The bears love to visit the "big house" at the top of the hill where Bev and Larry live but now they have decided to come and visit us.
A couple of years ago when we were there I photographed one of the uninvited "visitors". When Frank found out that I had done this he was furious. He said, "And just exactly what would you have done if the bear decided to run after you?", and I told him that I had a plan. I was going to go into the garage with my trusty Nikon and pull down the door. I had no idea that bears could run so fast. They're big, so I assumed that they would be slow. He said that the bear would have probably been inside the garage waiting for me and we would have been closed in there together! So much for my plan. At any rate, here are a couple of the shots that I took. I guess that it was worth the risk.

You can see where Frank had been cooking outside the night before! I've never been very comfortable in their wonderful yard since that experience.

Several days later, a bear tried to get into the big house. Here are some photos that they took right after we had left for Santa Fe of the bear at the window and back door of their home. Their dog, McKenzie, is having a fit and I would have been having one as well if I'd been there. Talk about the Wild West!

Stay tuned ... many more adventures and much more excitement to come!
XOXO, Pcasso

GRADS, HARRY AND THE DUCKS

We have had a very busy week. We attended a school function for Ian who just graduated from Key Elementary School.

Like his younger brother, he finished the year with many honors and some of the top awards in his class. We're so very proud of him.

This beautiful little girl is one of his classmates. She also took many awards (I think she should have won most beautiful, but that award wasn't on the itinerary)

One of Ian's good friends, Grayson, was awarded the top honor of the 6th grade. I am so proud of him. He's such a polite and well mannered young man along with being very bright. He's a pleasure to be around.

Grayson's Dad and Franklin, our son, were roommates in college and have remained good friends throughout the years. Ian participated in a math/science project and was also rewarded for this. They received medals as well as certificates.

They're all a group of smart young people and they did their school proud.
After the awards ceremony we were treated to a brunch. The food was good and it was great to see the young people having such a good time. It wasn't Brennan's, but it was very tasty.

We all posed for photos when the brunch was over and then everyone scattered and tried to figure out what they would do in their spare time this summer.

The proud grandparents had to get in on the act as well :-)

Here he is with two of his best buddies.

I have to interject here that our daughter in law, Beth, received a commendation from the school as the person who is most most active and involved at Key Elementary. This was certainly well deserved recognition. She's at the school every day and gives a lot of her time and energy there. She does an excellent job. I don't know what they'll do when Connor graduates as no one will be as committed as she has been over the years!

We kept Harry, our Granddog this weekend and we had a great time. That's the way to have a pet ... a few days and then he goes back home.
As much as we travel, we really can't have an animal as it wouldn't be fair to any of us. They need full time care and we aren't ready for that just yet.

Harry is such a good boy and such a delight to have around, that we keep him every chance we get.
The Scottish Festival was going on this weekend and Franklin and Beth were working there, so that's why we got to keep Harry. When we were about to leave for church yesterday morning, Frank came running down the hall shouting "get the camera", so of course I did. I had no idea what was going on but I never pass up a Kodak moment. He led me into the kitchen and lo and behold, there was a mallard and his lady friend swimming around in our pool!

I couldn't believe my eyes, so I zoomed in for a closer look and there they were, as big as life. What a delightful surprise on a Sunday morning.

I hated to leave, but church called. We brought Harry into the house so he wouldn't disturb them but alas, they were gone when we returned.
On Thursday afternoon we hosted a swim party for Ian's friends. They all had a great time and were here for over 5 hours. It was the perfect end for a great school year. The slide show is in the following post, so be sure and scroll down.
I don't have much more to tell. Still studying Dante's Purgatory and it's a real witch with a capital "B". Papa's at the baseball game tonight and I'm ready to curl up with a good book which is the quickest way for me to fall asleep. Have a great week and we'll "chat" again soon.

XOXO, Pcasso

Graduation Day