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The family trip to New Mexico was lots of fun.
We flew into El Paso Friday night. The timeshare wasn’t as nice as others we’ve stayed at, but it did have two separate beds so I didn’t have to share with Melissa. They also didn’t have boardgames to check out or pingpong, but we did swim in the pool and played cards. Saturday we went hiking and explored the town.
Sunday we drove to some smaller towns to see the grave of Smokey Bear, and the little town of Lincoln where Billy the Kid was once arrested.
Monday dad and I went skiing and Melissa and mom went shopping. I skied with my dad from the age of 7 up to about 16. Then I got too busy and insecure to go with him (although he remembers it as “when you started dating that boy.”) Melissa started skiing soon after I stopped, so I’ve never skied with her. Skiing was something I associate with just my dad and me. (My mom doesn’t like heights (chairlift) or going fast (downhill) so she’s never gone although we all cross country skied when I was a kid.) It was really nice to go for the first time in over a decade. There is almost no snow this year. The ski resort is hard hit and there were only 5 trails open. This was fine for me, we skipped the ultra-bunny slope, did a couple easy runs to get me back into it, and by the end of the afternoon I was fine on the more-challenging intermediate slope. The best part was spending time with my dad. In college he said his biggest failure as a parent was that I didn’t learn to love downhill skiing. (Pssst, local people, anyone want to go skiing? Want to learn? It’s lots of fun I promise. I’m trying to get Denis to go at least once this winter.)
Tuesday we went to Roswell. The UFO museum was underwhelming. It reminded me of a big high-school science fair project. The My Roswell Museum and Art Center was extremely impressive in their mix of fine art, science, and history. I also really liked the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art for its sheer volume of interesting pieces. After three museums we visited the bottomless lakes which were formed when underground rivers dissolved the ceilings of their tunnels and created sinkhole lakes. They’re not fed by any above-ground source.
Wednesday we visited the Eagle Ranch pistachio farm. The tour was pretty cool and the flavored pistachios were excellent. I even bought a couple bottles of wine.
Wednesday night my cousin Heather and her husband Lee joined us. They’re taking a month off to drive cross-country so they stopped by. We had an incredible steak dinner at the Texas Club and Thursday headed to White Sands National Monument. We did a 4.6 mile hike through the dunes. At times it was hard, but we all managed.
Friday, on our way back to El Paso we went to Carlsbad Caverns. It was freaking awesome. You should all put it on your list of places to see one day. We walked in through the natural entrance and down into the cave’s great room. We were required to take the elevators back up. I would like to go back when the bats are in town (they go south for the winter), and I would like to take a ranger-guided tour of one of the other caverns. It was my favorite part of the trip.
You can see all the pictures here and here.
We flew into El Paso Friday night. The timeshare wasn’t as nice as others we’ve stayed at, but it did have two separate beds so I didn’t have to share with Melissa. They also didn’t have boardgames to check out or pingpong, but we did swim in the pool and played cards. Saturday we went hiking and explored the town.
Sunday we drove to some smaller towns to see the grave of Smokey Bear, and the little town of Lincoln where Billy the Kid was once arrested.
Monday dad and I went skiing and Melissa and mom went shopping. I skied with my dad from the age of 7 up to about 16. Then I got too busy and insecure to go with him (although he remembers it as “when you started dating that boy.”) Melissa started skiing soon after I stopped, so I’ve never skied with her. Skiing was something I associate with just my dad and me. (My mom doesn’t like heights (chairlift) or going fast (downhill) so she’s never gone although we all cross country skied when I was a kid.) It was really nice to go for the first time in over a decade. There is almost no snow this year. The ski resort is hard hit and there were only 5 trails open. This was fine for me, we skipped the ultra-bunny slope, did a couple easy runs to get me back into it, and by the end of the afternoon I was fine on the more-challenging intermediate slope. The best part was spending time with my dad. In college he said his biggest failure as a parent was that I didn’t learn to love downhill skiing. (Pssst, local people, anyone want to go skiing? Want to learn? It’s lots of fun I promise. I’m trying to get Denis to go at least once this winter.)
Tuesday we went to Roswell. The UFO museum was underwhelming. It reminded me of a big high-school science fair project. The My Roswell Museum and Art Center was extremely impressive in their mix of fine art, science, and history. I also really liked the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art for its sheer volume of interesting pieces. After three museums we visited the bottomless lakes which were formed when underground rivers dissolved the ceilings of their tunnels and created sinkhole lakes. They’re not fed by any above-ground source.
Wednesday we visited the Eagle Ranch pistachio farm. The tour was pretty cool and the flavored pistachios were excellent. I even bought a couple bottles of wine.
Wednesday night my cousin Heather and her husband Lee joined us. They’re taking a month off to drive cross-country so they stopped by. We had an incredible steak dinner at the Texas Club and Thursday headed to White Sands National Monument. We did a 4.6 mile hike through the dunes. At times it was hard, but we all managed.
Friday, on our way back to El Paso we went to Carlsbad Caverns. It was freaking awesome. You should all put it on your list of places to see one day. We walked in through the natural entrance and down into the cave’s great room. We were required to take the elevators back up. I would like to go back when the bats are in town (they go south for the winter), and I would like to take a ranger-guided tour of one of the other caverns. It was my favorite part of the trip.
You can see all the pictures here and here.
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From:
no subject
If you get a chance next time, I recommend checking out Mesa Verde because it's both anthropologically important and a cool place to visit.
From:
no subject
The general consensus is that Arizona is superior to New Mexico. The Tucson area is on the list, but I think it might be preempted by a week in Santa Fe.
From:
no subject
I don't know that I'd necessarily describe Tucson as a tourist mecca, but there are a few really awesome attractions like the Desert Museum (actually a zoo) and San Xavier mission. Northern Arizona is more where it's at for tourist stuff like the Grand Canyon, Four Corners, and the Petrified Forest.
Oh, I forgot. You can also go to Casa Grande which is like 45 minutes north of Tucson. It's a big old adobe pueblo that was a major Native American cultural center way back when.
You know what, if you go to Tucson, let me know. I'll send a bunch of useless suggestions.