Declaring His Faithfulness

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Exploring Our Way to Pagosa Springs: Day Two

Monday, July 26, we left Amarillo and headed west on Interstate 40 until we got to U.S. Highway 66, about 30 miles west of Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Here we chose to travel north towards Interstate 25 on a fairly deserted road. We had been seeing a strange kind of plant growing along the interstate, but once we were on U.S. 60, we stopped to get a closer look at some of this unusual melon type plant. It grew much like a cantaloupe or watermelon and had small melons on it, but the leaves were different and it obviously didn't need much water to flourish. David pulled back a leaf to take a picture of it with his iPhone, and then we got back into the car and started on down the road. Immediately, we noticed a very strong onion type smell. We were trying to figure out what it might be when I happened to think of the fact that David had touched the leaf of this plant. Sure enough, the smell was coming from his hands. David said that it smelled like someone just got in the car with a big "Whataburger" or something.

By taking this "off the beaten path" road, we were able to visit Villanueva State Park. This park is nestled between large sandstone bluffs, along the Pecos River in northeastern New Mexico.

We didn't spend a lot of time here; it was pretty hot, and we still we still had some miles to travel. We did drive around, and we got out and walked around a bit.

It was a ranger at the state park visitor center who told us the name of the strange melon type plant that we had seen along the road. He said it is called a "stinking gourd" or "buffalo melon." We looked it up online later and found this information about the the melon, which is also know by many other names.

As we left Villanueva State Park it was getting very cloudy and stormy looking and before long it was raining hard on us. We watched the car thermometer drop from the upper 90's to the upper 60's. Before arriving in Santa Fe, we had one more stop to make. We wanted to visit the Baptist conference center at Glorieta. I went there with the UBC youth choir when I was about 17 years old. Much of it still looked the same, but there had been some changes.

Chapel at Glorieta

Prayer Garden

We arrived in Sante Fe late afternoon, and that evening we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant that was recommended by someone at our hotel. The name of the restaurant was Los Potrillos, and it was very good. It was authentic Mexican food, so we did not have the typical Mexican entrées that we would usually eat. My dish was grilled chicken in a pineapple sauce, served with rice. After dinner we went downtown, walked around the Plaza, and sat and listened to music being played in the Plaza Bandstand. They have a summer concert series there in the Plaza. I didn't take my camera with me, but I did take a few pictures with my iphone. I posted some of them on Facebook.

Exploring Our Way to Pagosa Springs: Day One

David and I left home Sunday morning, July 24, headed to Pagosa Springs. Even though we could have driven there in one VERY long day or two reasonable days of driving, we decided to break it into three days so we could explore along the way. Sunday we drove as far as Amarillo, arriving there about 4:30 PM. After checking into a hotel, we went to eat dinner at The Big Texan. We knew we wouldn't even try to eat their 72 oz. steak dinner (it's free if you can finish it off), but figured based on Carol's recommendation, that we could get a good steak dinner there. We usually avoid eating much beef, but steak certainly seemed the appropriate thing to eat in the panhandle of Texas.

After dinner, we drove to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which is southeast of Amarillo. It was still hot (upper 90's), and we endured the heat to get some views of the canyon, but it was too hot to consider hiking around.

In addition to viewing the canyon, we went to the state park to see the musical performance of "Texas." This show, which is about the settlers of the Texan panhandle in the 1800's, has been playing in the Pioneer Theatre in Palo Duro Canyon since 1966. The stage has the canyon as a backdrop. We throughly enjoyed the performance, but the heat was pretty uncomfortable, even in the shade, and even at 10:30 PM, when the performance was over.

We weren't allowed to take pictures once the show started, but I did get one shot of some cast members who sang before the play began.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Fourth of July!

This year we are celebrating the 4th of July in Houston with Katie, Jeremy, Ben, James, Allison, and Jesse. We had a big breakfast with Lisa and Steve before they headed back to Fayetteville, and we may just relax and enjoy the time together with the babies the rest of the day. I've already lots of shots of the boys together today, but don't worry, I'll only share a few of them here.

Jesse, five and a half months

Benjamin, four and a half months

The boys had fun "reading" their books together.

Yeah, I know they are a little young for chess, but we thought it would make a cute picture.

They are fascinated with each other, but we have to be careful that they don't grab, claw, and pinch each other.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Surfside Beach

Friday, July 1st David and I drove to Houston to visit Katie, Jeremy, and Benjamin. The trip was even more fun because James, Allison, and Jesse we went us. It took about 12 hours since we had to stop several times for Jesse to eat, but he did well in the car and was happy most of the time. If he was fussy, reading him a book or singing him a song usually made him happy almost immediately. Lisa, and her boyfriend, Steve, also drove down, but in a separate car, because Lisa has to go back home sooner to start the second summer session at the University.

Saturday morning we got up early, packed a lunch, and got ready to head to the beach. We wanted to get there early so that it wouldn't be as hot, especially with the babies. We got to the beach about 10:45 and spent two to three hours there.