LKL’s Blog

No matter where you are in the world, you can vote for the next American president, thanks to The Economist’s very cool Global Electoral College. One candidate seems to have a very sizeable lead, so check it out and add your vote!

We spent our last three days in El Paso, visiting different friends. With one of them, we drove just south of the border into Juárez, Mexico, where we saw a fantastic dinner show at Viva Mexico.*

There was dancing, there was singing, there was amazing trick roping, and there was some very funny audience participation. We had a blast – it was definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip.

We also drove back into New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Caverns, which was astonishing. Most of our pictures didn’t come out, and the ones that did don’t begin to do it justice – you really have to see it for yourself.

*Restaurant Cantina Viva Mexico
Pueblito Mexicano, avenida

Lincoln y Zempoala
Auza María Elena E.
C.P. 32310, Ciudad

Juárez
Chihuahua, Mexico
Tel: (656) 629-0156

Our next stop was Santa Fe, but first we drove through the tiny artists colony of Madrid, which one of my subscribers had kindly told me about. In Santa Fe, we stayed at the wonderful Inn of the Turquoise Bear. We had a nice lunch at Whole Body Cafe, went to Museum Hill to visit the Museum of International Folk Art and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, saw the “miraculous staircase” at the Loretto Chapel, and had a phenomenal dinner at Il Piatto. If you like Italian, this is the place in Santa Fe.

Taos was a very long drive, made longer by the snowy mountains we drove through, but the sky was clear and sunny (albeit cold) the next day. We stayed at American Artists Gallery House for two nights, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Our room was charming, breakfast was delicious, and the resident peacock flirted with us throughout our game of Scrabble on the patio.

We walked around the plaza, discovered a great little gallery/bookstore/cafe called Sustaining Cultures, and visited Taos Pueblo, despite the rather hefty entrance fee (including a surcharge for our camera).

The next morning, it took us a long time to drive up to Arches National Park, due to sleet and road construction, but then it cleared up for a couple of hours. We hiked to one arch, but on our way to another, it started raining and got very cold, so we headed back.

Our next stop was Kelly Place, a bed + breakfast and retreat center near Cortez, Colorado, where we enjoyed chatting with a hiking club from California. The next morning the weather wasn’t very nice, so we drove many miles out of our way to Four Corners to experience being in four different states at once, then drove back to Mesa Verde and got a great look at Cliff Palace.

In looking over our itinerary, we realized that we had just enough unallocated time to zip over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon before heading east, so that’s what we did. We didn’t have time to hike down into it, but we did stop at several viewpoints, including a lookout tower. Then we drove through the Hopi Indian reservation, which was one of the things I had really wanted to see. I read part of The Book of the Hopi in college, and so when I realized during the planning stages that we’d be in that area, I insisted that we drive through it.

At Canyon de Chelly, we drove along the South Rim and hiked down to the White House Ruin, where we chatted with several Indians selling jewelry (and bought a necklace). That night we stayed at the only lodging within the monument, Thunderbird Lodge.

During our three days in Vegas, we didn’t do any gambling – other than, apparently, with our lives each time we left our car in a parking garage. According to the B+B owner, there have been some robberies and you should *never* park in a garage. We found them well-lit and full of people, so we “risked” it anyway.

Our next stop was Zion National Park where it was, unfortunately, cold and drizzly. We took the scenic bus and watched the movie at one of the stops, but we weren’t able to take any pictures or walk around at all. Then we drove to Page, AZ, where, the next day, we took the Rainbow Bridge Cruise on Lake Powell. It’s a scenic 7-hour trip, but I still think it was too expensive (well over $100 each).

With another picnic lunch in hand, we set off to Red Rock Canyon, located a mere 17 miles west of Las Vegas. We hiked about 2 miles, had a picnic, and played Scrabble.
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Around 9am, we packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Valley of Fire, which is less than an hour’s drive from Vegas. Just before entrance to the park, we came upon a car parked haphazardly in the middle of the road. I admit that for a second I thought it might be some sort of a scam, but in fact the couple had spotted several bighorn sheep. We watched these rare creatures for a while before continuing into the park.
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Our trip to the southwest started with a major hiccup: our flight was cancelled (see Adventures in air travel). So instead of flying to Phoenix on Monday, we flew directly to Las Vegas on Tuesday, which meant missing out on the Grand Canyon, but avoiding several hours driving. We got into Vegas around 2pm, picked up the car, and went straight to the bed and breakfast. Then we went down to the Strip to walk around a bit, have dinner, and see V: The Ultimate Variety Show. We weren’t really sure what to expect, but it was really fun – a bit of dancing, a hint of magic, amazing feats of strength and balancing, some neat juggling, and a lot of humor. I definitely recommend it.