The visit, days 3 & 4

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!!! THERE IS A PICTURE OVERLOAD AHEAD!!!

Lot's of petroglyph pix, and you might not want to see them all. I understand that, so feel free to skim through at your desired pace. And don't forget you can click on the photos to see them large. Many of them are so detailed and amazing that seeing them full sized would be worth it. I found so many of them interesting that I had trouble narrowing it to THESE!!

Very important .... don't miss the rest of the story after the long line of pix.

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Thursday was a big day. We even got up early for this day!

We had breakfast and packed a lunch. Allan was planning to go with us, but called saying he was going to stay home. He has battled an eye infection off and on for quite a while, and it flared up. He wanted to just stay home and rest. So we left without him, driving about 45-50 miles from my house to Three Rivers Pertoglyph National Recreational Park. This was the final piece of my selected theme of petroglyphs for their visit here.

We arrived at the site around 10:00 and began the hike/walk up the hill. It is about a mile round trip, and most of it is more of a walk than a hike, but some parts take more energy than others. It was beautiful day, lightly overcast which kept it cooler for a while. When the sun came out, it became hotter than stink! But for the first half or so of our adventure, it was nice.

There are over 20,000 petroglyphs in this area. 20,000!!! These people had a lot to say, or too much time on their hands!































This is when we reached on of the high spots on the climb. Scott wore his Aussie hat, Connie borrowed one of mine, and Kylee declined wearing one. She later regretted it when the sun came out.










As you see we often got off the trails to look at petroglyphs on rocks away from easy range of the eye. We had to keep our eyes open for rattlesnakes, too. They are prevalent in this area. And no, we didn't see any.




























































































The scenery was gorgeous. We could take in a set of petroglyphs and see the desert and mountains in the background, too. It was wonderful.









Even the rocks were gorgeous, most of them black on the outside (I presume from heat of the lava flows), and very colorful inside.









































Scott was clamoring around on the rocks, finding some of those outlying designs.










And Kylee was beginning to be hot and uncomfortable by this time, so she took a seat on the rocks for a few minutes.
























































































































































































































































Here is a short little video of the vista, 34 seconds long. I took this not long before I turned around. What .... a.... view!!!! And Scott's comments crack me up. He didn't know I was shooting a video!




I became really hot shortly before we reached the end of the trail, so Kylee and I turned around and returned to the car. Scott and Connie continued on to one more marked spot and enjoyed a vista from the highest point of the climb. Sorry to have missed it, but I wasn't going to take that big of a risk.

At the car, Kylee and I stuffed ice chunks into our water bottles and added more water. I also rubbed ice around on my neck, chest and back. There was a nice breeze and we had shade in the picnic shelter, so we sat and visited, snacked on some chips (I was craving salt, so I'm sure I sweated it out) and drank our water. Oh, yeah, and we people watched. That's one of my favorite things to do!

When Scott and Connie returned less than 1/2 hour later, we had our lunch and relaxed for a while before starting home. We watched the rain over the mountains (my mountains, as well as the ones on the other side, AND to the north and south!), the lightning hitting the mountain tops, and I wondered how Jazi was doing at home. We drove home, and took cool showers to clean up and cool off. It was nice to get home, but the day was excellent.

Allan came over for dinner when we got home. Connie blessed us with molé!! She made salsa every night while here, too, an avocado salsa for most of us, and a very hot chili salsa for Scott. I don't know where that kid gets his taste for that, cause he can eat it hotter than you can imagine!

I always love it when my boys get together. They can just start talking as if they saw each other yesterday!

After dinner we sat at the table and visited while sipping on a Brazilian drink of red wine and Fanta orange. It's sorta like sangria, very light and refreshing. I would not have thought of mixing those, but it was gooood!







Then I caught pictures of ......

Kylee ....









Connie ....










and Allan ....








.... as they listened to Scott tell a story.

I couldn't get a good picture of him because he didn't quit talking!!! Of course, if you know my son, this is no surprise. He's a chatterbox!







We stayed up way, way too late, of course, and had much fun catching up.

Friday we slept in a little. I didn't wake till nearly eight, and since everyone else was asleep, I just watched the morning news in bed, cuddling with the pups. We were all up by around 9:00 and climbed into the truck to go to Capitan. We visited Linda at her shop, then went to the gallery where I used to work so Connie could see the muerto de dios (day of the dead) exhibit. The gallery director keeps it year round, because she loves it. Allan met us there, and we drove into Rui for lunch. I wanted to take them to the best dessert place ever, Créme de la Cream, and we kept running out of time to go there, so we "started with dessert"!! Of course, after one of their desserts, lunch is over, anyway! They are SO rich and SO good!!


Connie had the dark chocolate layer cake. Yummmm.









Allan and Scott both had the crème brulée. Double yummm.








And no, I didn't have the crème brulée. I'll wait a moment while you re-read that and get your breath back. You OK now? Alright.


I had the Sierra Blanca Mousse cake. Why it has "cake" in the title, I don't know. It is a thick chocolate mold with chocolate mousse in the middle. Double, triple, quadruple yummmmmmmmm!







Lawdy mercy, it was to die for!!








What surprised us all, is that Kylee opted to pass on the dessert. Yes, this soon-to-be-14-year-old had nothing but a bite of her mom's cake and a glass of water!







Connie and Allen clowned around for the camera.






And Scott? When he saw the camera, he became quiet so I could have a closed-mouth picture! Isn't that a good son? Yep!




After lunch, a very long and chatty lunch, we returned to the house. Their car was packed and ready to go. They brushed teeth and rested just a short while as we talked. You know how it is .... you're still talking as the car drives away! They left around 3:00 or 3:30. They will be spending a few days now with Scott's dad and stepmom in Albuquerque, do some sight seeing up north near Scott's birthplace and my hometown, Farmington, and then fly home.

What a good visit we had. You know it is never long enough, but it was so nice to have them here. Now, it is rather nice to be home alone. I miss them. A lot. But I'm enjoying getting the house back to normal, and having a day of laundry and relaxation. I'm watching insipid movies on TV between blogging and loads of laundry.

I went out last night, and might again tonight, depending on weather. It has been raining off and on all day and is supposed to keep doing that for a couple days. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the Ruidoso Art Show. I'll come back and give you some fill in on those things later, probably tomorrow. I think you've had enough for today. I know I have!! LOL!

Take care, all!