Weekend Getaway to Taos, New Mexico

My Weekend in Taos, New Mexico. 

 

Nestled deep within the Sangre de Cristo mountain range is Taos, New Mexico. Home of the Tiwa Indians and the old Taos Pueblo, it one of the longest continually inhabited communities in the United States. A highly cultural, artistic, and spiritual city, it has a number of mystical qualities, one of which is known as the "Taos Hum."

I did not stay in a teepee. I sure would if I was offered the opportunity.

These awesome teepees are located on the edge of town
just as you enter into Taos, New Mexico coming in from Santa fe, New Mexico.   
Our group stayed two nights and three days in Taos.  

Our first site - The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge 

 

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge
I loved the trip to the Gorge Bridge. The view was fantastic and the weather was perfect.
This Bridge, Gorge and Rio Grande River is something everyone should go to see
if you are from New Mexico or in the area of Taos.

Sorry, the below pictures of the river were taken from my cell phone 
because my camera batteries needed to get recharged.

Im not one for having my picture taken but I did pose for this location because the surrounding scenery was beautiful with those mountains in the background. Looking down below from the top of the bridge left me thinking the whole time that the Gorge was a long way down from up there.

RIO GRANDE GORGE BRIDGE CRISIS HOTLINE

THE ICE CREAM BUS AT THE GORGE BRIDGE. 

$5.00 FOR A CONE!
I thought the ice cream bus was the best vendor at the bridge.
They served almond milk ice cream which was pretty good after a day of site seeing.
There is a rest stop at the Rio Grande River Gorge with picnic tables.

Plenty of vendors at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge selling Indian jewelry and trinkets.


Day Two - Horseback Riding and River Rafting

 Cieneguilla Stables of Pillar, New Mexico
located about 15 miles outside of Taos.

A great day for riding horses! 

Our group tour was 3 hours long.

Santana was the name of the horse I rode. She tried to snack on clover and grass the entire trip. She was a very old horse and did not care too much to follow the trail or other horses. She had us laughing the whole way. We started our ride at 8:45 a.m. and ended at noon. The trail was rocky and some parts of the trail had been washed out by the rains and river. By the way, for those of you that know I only wear dresses and skirts, I did wear pants for the horse back riding and shorts for the water rafting. Also, I enjoyed wearing my fancy sun hat and sunscreen to avoid turning into a lobster.

Cottam's Rafting  

After riding the horses, we headed over to Cottam's Boat House on the river to have the picnic style lunch on the shore. Our guide was very friendly and outgoing. We loved the whole rafting adventure. We laughed so much and got really wet. The water was not too cold. We stopped twice for swimming on the river.

 Our rafting ride was amazing and fun.

Video of the Cieneguilla Stables area, showing the hummingbird feeders, some of the horses, me riding my horse and doing an awful job at video recording. Also, a tiny bit of the rafting ride before I had to put the camera into a ziplock bag to protect it from the rapids up ahead on the river. I know its a horrible video. I can take photos but not video. A UFO would be perfect in this wobbly video.

 TAOS PUEBLO
The Pueblo in Taos has many dog pacs just walking around and they are every where. None of the dogs bothered us. There are Native American shops at the Pueblo and group tours.
We just walked around the pueblo and did not stay long.
The Taos Pueblo was a nice site to see
and a guided tour probably is the best way to experience it.

PUEBLO CHURCH ENTRANCE

PUEBLO CHURCH

 Taos, New Mexico is a small mountain town.
During the winter its a popular skiing destination.
The main area of the Taos Plaza has many little local shops and restaurants.

More local fun activities.

Our weekend had us there at the time of the summer fiesta for Taos with tent booths and entertainment. Sunday the town had a large parade. People lined the streets with their chairs early morning to see the parade. I found a good video on YouTube that gives a good portrayal of the towns fiesta parade.We were not able to stay for the Taos Parade but Im sure it was a lot of fun.

The local's favorite. My friend Joe G. told me to try this Michael's Kitchen.

This place was so good. We ate there when we arrived in Taos 

and on the morning we departed from Taos.

Michael's Kitchen is vegetarian friendly. Delicious.
They serve traditional breakfast and New Mexican style breakfast.

 In the center of Michael's Kitchen is the bakery goods case. 

I took four giant cinnamon rolls home for friends.



Days Inn Taos, New Mexico
 Continental breakfast,
a/c does not work too well
and the television channels are few to be seen.
I still liked the hotel and did not worry about the a/c and television.
I would stay there again.

 

Going Back In Time

How Dry I Am!

Tingley Beach Albuquerque

"Its A New Day. Expect Great Things".

WEATHER UPDATE:

Need I say it? 

Its HOT!

The month of July is characterized by gradually falling daily high temperatures, with daily highs around 91°F throughout the month, exceeding 98°F or dropping below 83°F only one day in ten. 

The air conditioning is working really well. Yah! 

***If you are hiking or enjoying the outdoors, DON'T FORGET TO STAY HYDRATED!***

Outdoors Yard Updates

Its a battle with the ants and grasshoppers again this year. I have to say that the corn meal works. However, the ants just show up with a new mound in a different location. So, its a never ending battle. Im very sad because the giant ivy plant I got from Plant World was recently eaten by ants. Also, the grasshoppers are enjoying the front yard lawn. Didnt see that coming. Thats nature for you. One month things are going fine and the next month ants and grasshoppers show up to take over the yard. 

Sci Fi Movie of Interest.

Empire of the Ants.

 

Okay, the neighbors with the yapping little dogs have gone mad. Possibly from the heat. They spent a week digging a big hole in the back yard and then put up a very nice pool. Currently, the water does not look very good and it smells really bad too. I sure hope they figure out how to take care of their new pool. I sure hope they have not seen me taking pictures of their yappers and pool. They probably think Im a Mrs Kravitz. LOL.

My other neighbor Chuck has came up with the idea of feeding the neighborhood cats and birds together in his front yard. Its just morbid, the cats catch and eat the pigeons. That is so wrong. Anyways, the pigeons were resting above my driveway and pooping all over the driveway and my truck. I love pigeons but not the poo. So, with a bit of research, I discovered that pigeons do not like snakes. I put a rubber snake in the driveway. The pigeons now poo over Chucks house and not mine. LOL.

That's Amusing:

I posted the above picture of Tingley Beach because I was telling a friend about the first time I experienced the misleading "Tingley Beach". It was around 1990, my eldest daughter Sarah was in the grade school. New to Albuquerque, one morning, we put on our swim suits and loaded up the car with our beach gear, drove across town and turned into the Tingly Beach entrance, only to be very disappointed, as there was no beach and just rocks and dirt. That's right for some odd reason at that time there was no beach. It had been closed for decades. Years later, the city did invest and have since made giant duck ponds. Still no swimming at Tingley, only for the ducks and fish. I found an old picture of the beach and posted it for amusement. Its from this reading on the Duke City Fix Blog. A Sunday Poem. 

 

PET UPDATE:

 The Grands are training Missy to not be afraid of them by giving her special tuna treats on her cat scratching station. The rule is that Nana does not give the treats to her and only the Grands. This has led to some confusion for poor Missy. She loves those treats and comes in crying for them but the Grands are not around to give them to her. Today, she was standing on her two back legs crying, "Give me a treat!" and it was very hard for me to turn her away. Sooooooo, Nana snuck her a treat. LOL.

Sharing Bookmarks 

This would be very exciting to see on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. LOL!
Interesting Collection of Chinese Inventions


 Weird Videos 
I confess. I watched them.

Interesting. Very Interesting.

Whacky Balloon Art.



Chile for Breakfast
I have been cooking a lot and I have been avoiding using the oven because its been so hot outside and I want the house to stay cool. Lately, my favorite meal has been breakfast as I have been making pancakes, waffles, tofu scrambles, hash browns, red chile sauce and faux cheese. Living in New Mexico has caused me to come under the influence of indulging in eating a lot of chile for breakfast. LOL. I make vegan breakfast burritos, tofu scramble rancheros, or vegan chile rellenos. I had to go vegan on the Southwestern food because southwestern traditional foods are VERY fattening. New Mexicans tend to fry everything and put lard in everything. So some recipe adaption has to be done or you will carry the extra 10 pounds.


Low Fat Rellenos Batter:  Mix 1/4 cup plain soy or rice milk with 1 cup flour. Add some salt and garlic powder to taste. The batter should be thick enough to stick, but you still need to be able to move your whisk around. Adjust the mix as needed.

I use faux cheese or avocado to fill the rellenos and pin them together with tooth picks. I dip and broil the rellenos on parchment paper in a toaster oven. You can choose to fry the rellenos the tradtional southwestern way. Heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet. Set the fried chiles aside on a paper towel to dry-off the excess oil. Smoother with red chile sauce and drizzle with some of the faux cheese sauce that has been thinned with water or soy milk. Rellenos are best served with rice and beans. Red Chile Sauce and Faux Cheese found at Nana's Top Recipes.

 

Use less liquid to make the cheese sauce thicker for stuffing the chile rellenos. By the way this faux cheese sauce does taste like cheese because the nutritional yeast gives it the cheese flavor. You could also buy vegan mozzarella cheese and use that for the chile rellenos but I find this faux cheese recipe is better.

BONJOUR SOCCA

I love easy breakfast burritos. Who doesn't?  Lately, I have also been making socca which is a southern french recipe for a type of flat bread.



Socca Batter: 1 1/2 C. water, 1 C. chickpea flour and 1 tsp.salt. Let set in fridge for 1 hour. You ladle the batter into a hot non stick skillet making a thin style crepe. If you are short on time for rolling out tortillas then Socca is great for any meal and very nice for quick breakfast burritos. I fill my soccas with tofu scramble, hash browns, green chile and faux cheese. Yummy. I do not use oil in my socca batter but many recipes do include it. I just do not care for the extra added fat. The more you make the soccas the better they will turn out. Practice makes perfect. 

  My favorite How To Video on Making Socca. 

You know, I really like The Baking Chin's 

spoofs on Julia Child as he bakes for us. Ian cracks me up.

Socca is really good for pizza crust!

Easy Tofu Scramble

• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup diced green pepper
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch spinach, rinsed
• 1 pound firm or extra firm tofu, well pressed and crumbled
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• dash of turmeric
• salt and pepper to taste

Steam the tomatoes, green pepper and onions in a no stick skillet with a couple tablespoons of water until soft. Reduce heat to medium low and add spinach, crumbled tofu, add in the soy sauce, turmeric and any other seasoning of choice.  Cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. I often add cayenne pepper to spice it up.

Hope you have a beautiful chile day!


Going Back In Time.