Monday, May 27, 2013

Our Trip Home

Our trip has ended:-(. We left Santa Fe in the morning.  I took one final picture of our town house we stayed in and we were off to the airport to drop off Wynona and catch our flights. 
Took some final pics from the road too





After dropping off Wynona we caught the shuttle bus from the rental car lot to the airport.  As you can see everyone, including Super G, is excited about our flights.  



Here's Amy waiting for our first flight

And Clare waiting for our second flight (after she tried to hide Super Grover from me...evil Clare...)

So we had to catch a 1:25 flight from Albuquerque to Houston then had a 3 hour layover to fly from Houston to Boston.  Here are the reasons I will never fly United Airlines again. 
1. There was a 12pm flight going from Albuquerque to Houston.  It was delayed.  You could see the engineers working on the engines on their plane. The attendant at the gate kept coming on giving updates saying "it's messier than they thought".  Really?!!!  That's the message you want to give people who are about to get on your plane?  Needless to say our flight took off long before theirs.  

2.  They don't assign seats to everyone.  I booked 3 tickets.  One would think they would put us in the same row (or at least same area of the plane). For both flights Clare was assigned a seat but Amy and I were not and had to see the agent at the gate. On the first flight Amy and I were seated in the front and Clare in the back and on the second flight Amy and I were in the back and Clare was up front. 

3.  Where's the leg room?  I'm 5'4 and my knees were touching the seat in front of me. The guy across the aisle from us had to stretch his legs into the aisle. 

4.  The flight attendants were obnoxious and rude. For starters, I was in the aisle seat, Amy was in the middle and a woman who only speaks Spanish was at the window. The flight attendant came by with drink/ snack service. She asked the other woman, in English, if she wanted a cheese and crackers for a snack.  The woman didn't understand. The flight attendant then asked if the woman spoke English and she said no. So the attendant started yelling, in English, "cheese and crackers".  Note to the united flight attendants: if a person only speaks Spanish, yelling English at them won't make them understand. 
After, as they were handing out drinks, they kept hitting me in the head, as I was trying to sleep. And never once apologized.  They woke Amy up too as they continued yelling to the woman in English. 

5.  People in the aisle when the fasten seatbelt sign is on.  We were in turbulence and the captain had the seatbelt sign on.  People were getting up and walking to the back of the plane. One girl, who couldn't keep her balance, elbowed me in the face.  Why do the flight attendants not tell people to keep their seats?  They never once announced  for people to keep their seats like other airlines would.  

So those are my grievances with United. I'm sure Amy has others.  Clare, on the other hand, was put in a row up front with extra leg room and polite people so her flight was great. 

Anyways, we finally (bumpily) landed in Boston at midnight.  

Jeff came to pick up Amy at Logan and Clare and I caught a cab   Shout out to mom and dad for taking care of George for me.  Dad got him all waxed, polished and vacuumed.  He's like a new car!  I drive home from Malden and made it in around 2AM. 

What a phenomenal vacation.   I'm sorry to see it end but am happy to be home sleeping in my own bed!  

So this ends our blog (I know, you're all sad to see it end too).  So now it's back to work and normal life again. 

And I don't want to see a Saunders or Vaughan until 2014!
Now what?

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Our last full day in Santa Fe

We decided to finally let Clare have a sleep in. I sat on the balcony overlooking Santa Fe and had my coffee. 

We decided to head to Zia Cafe for brunch so Clare could finally go to a diners, drive ins and dives restaurant (PS- don't go by Guy Fierrie's recommendations...not a good restaurant at all).  
We then walked over to the square to check out a tour.  The one we wanted was full so we hopped on the Old Santa Fe tour 'bus'.  

The tour itself was good.  First we went past the St. FrancisBasilica and Loretto church (see prior days postings).  We went up old canyon road and saw all if the art there.  

Will they ever unwrap these?
This is a buffalo not a bull
This is for you Krissy



Bronze dog
My favorite of the wind art
Rock, paper, scissors




After that it was into museum hill and surrounding areas. 
What kind of wagon is this Candi?

After the tour we headed to Evangelo's lounge for live music and cocktails.  
Is it just me or does the bass player look like Maxine from the Hallmark store cards

Amy said she can take the bartender in a fight

After the show we headed to dinner.  Clare, still obsessed with the mole sauce, decided we should head back to Mucho Grande. On the way Amy took a final loom at the 5carat ring she wants (hint, hint Jeff)

After dinner we walked back up through Fort Marcy Park. On the way, Amy jokingly looked over someone's fence; not a joke when they were sitting on their porch and said hi.  She also posed with the red adobe she loves so much (to the amusement of people walking by)

Clare stopped to smell the
Flowers


And we watched our final sunset


When we got back we finally took some photos of the townhouse we're staying in  and got packed up. 









Weird picture in Clare's room

Freaky cat in my room

Tomorrow we head home. 

Now what?

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Taos

Clare packed her assless chaps (because she needs them to hunt down Julia Roberts who lives in Taos),
(Note there was a funnier picture here but Clare made me take it out and replace it with the above meme). 
 
Super G got buckled up,

and we were off to Taos!
We took the High Road to Taos (the scenic route). It was quite lovely with mountains and desert views. 

 


We even stopped at one of the scenic overlooks (and decided if we ever needed to bury a body, this would be the place to do it)


Once we got to Taos we went to the Taos Pueblo.  We took the walking tour with our tour guide Julian

St. Jerome's Church


The blessed mother wears pink in the summer, white in winter and gold in spring and fall.  The vines are painted on as she represents Mother Earth. 

The casket on the right freaked Clare out. 

We continued our walk. The wood structures over doors is used to dry foods such as corn and ladders are here because years ago there were no doors and people entered / exited through the roof (a way to protect themselves against enemy invaders)

We then walked through the town and saw the south and north buildings
That's tour guide Julian (or as Clare and I  call him Little Sparrow with Big Feathers - we totally made up his Native American name)


There is no electric, water or sewer running into the village so they cook in outside ovens. Super G took a turn trying it. 
Note, when I went to pick him up, a woman thought I was stealing something from the village - because people who don't have water, electric or sewer would obviously have something blue, furry and adorable. 

Some other village shots:
The original church

Close up of bricks
The stream running thru the village

And Amy thought this sign said Do Not Throw Small Children in the Water (time for new glasses Amy)

As we were leaving Clare and I bought some turquoise jewelry from Red Sunrise (that really was his name). 

After the tour we headed into the town of Taos.  
Amy made friends with the locals and bought some art from Frank. 

We had lunch at the the Gorge Bar and Grill. 
We had margaritas,

found some good quotes,

and I bought a new shirt

It's biker weekend here in Taos. Amy said if her husband Jeff doesn't get a bike soon she's going to have Opie as her new boyfriend on the side. 
Love his braids!

After lunch we walked around town a bit more. 
Amy loves the buildings (or as she says, she loves the red adobe sh@& ). 


After walking through town we drove out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  
We saw some dust storms along the way. 

Views from the bridge. 

It was a bit windy so we crossed over to the other side of the bridge


Super G nearly got blown away (although he was a star with people coming over to take pictures of him)

After waking over the bridge we headed back to Santa Fe. I won't bore you with more photos from the road but, when we got back, this is where Amy parked. 

You will note with 20 open parking spaces she parked in front of the stairs that is not actually a space:-)

I leave you with this. A guy in Taos has this license plate that says '007 License to Thrill'

Now what....