#207 Southwest Trip Fall 2023, Part 1

 Southwest Trip Fall 2023, Part 1

A trip! A real trip! And we even got into a plane to fly from Portland to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The plan was to spend three nights in Santa Fe, eight nights in Taos, and a last night in Albuquerque before flying home. It was a fine plan, too. The trip from Portland to ABQ through Salt Lake (on Delta Airlines) was pleasant with easy connections and smooth flights. The one long walk between connections in Salt Lake was eased by riding on a passenger carrier driven by a very friendly local. We picked up our rental intermediate SUV, a Kia Sportage, with no problems and headed up the freeway toward Santa Fe, an hour and a half drive. The main purpose of the trip was to enjoy photographing one of our favorite parts of the country along with visiting our adopted niece and her family in Taos.

Since the trip was a big photo opportunity, this blog in three parts will be photo oriented. This first segment will be telling a little about the towns we visited as well as some of the trip’s major attractions. Consider the photos in this blog postcards from the Southwest.

Typical Santa Fe Door

Santa Fe. We stayed three nights in a studio apartment at the Worldmark Santa Fe—a timeshare. Our unit, 1108, was a nicely-sized studio with small kitchenette and a good bed. We didn’t need to use the included gas fireplace because the weather was very summery. 

The WM Santa Fe is conveniently located only a few blocks away from Santa Fe’s downtown plaza—filled with art shops, restaurants, and museums.

Parking Adventure. It’s an easy drive from our timeshare to the downtown parking structure, except it wasn’t easy this trip. The normal parking lot entrances/exits on San Fransisco Street were now just exits and we had no idea where the new entrances were. We were stuck now in a tourist area one-way grid. We wound through the tight streets until we finally saw a sign which pointed to “Parking.” We did end up with a good parking spot via the new entrance and later found out that disabled parking is now free. Although the parking was hard to find this time, Santa Fe’s a good tourist town.

DDD Recommendations. As fans of Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” show on the Food Network, we seek out his recommended restaurants wherever we travel. On this trip we ate at three of those Triple D restaurants and missed another. In Santa Fe Anne and I had breakfast at the number one recommended eatery in town, The Pantry, one morning and dinner at the top pizza place (number 1 for the last 15 years), Backroad Pizza. 

While in Taos we had lunch at Sol Food Cafe in Arroyo Seco a short ways out of town. 

Barn Near Arroyo Seco

Also in Taos we tried to eat at Antonio’s Taste of New Mexico, but we couldn’t get in. The recommendation as a new DDD spot has made it uber-popular.  Obviously, we ate well on this trip.

Pecos National Historic Park. Twenty-seven miles east of Santa Fe are the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo (Cicuye Pueblo) which was made a National Monument in 1965 and renamed an Historic Park in 1985. Today the park consists of several hiking trails leading to ruins and the main pueblo ruin along with historic church and a nice visitor center. 

Small Museum in the VC

The five story pueblo was built around 1100 and at one time housed about 2000. The area has been occupied since about 11,500 BCE. The Spanish mission church has an interesting history being originally built in 1619 and destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. 

The church was rebuilt in 1717 and abandoned by 1838. We spent our time visiting the ruins of the main pueblo and the massive church.

The Main Street through Taos

Taos. Eight days of our trip we stayed at the Worldmark Taos (timeshare) in a comfortable one bedroom apartment. 

WM Taos is near the center of town (elevation 6900 feet) and is only minutes from the main shopping district at the town Plaza. Also in the Plaza the US flag flies 24 hours a day with special history. 

During the Civil War confederate sympathizers tried to take the US flag down, but were thwarted by Union officer Kit Carson, a Taos resident, who ordered troops to guard the flag 24 hours a day.

We shared a breakfast table at Michael's Kitchen with an RVer, Jeff. Nice company and good food.

Anne at one of the shops on the Taos Plaza. The older gentleman was perplexed by my photography.

 

The town, founded in 1615, is best known for the nearby Taos Pueblo, and for being a very active artist colony. The town of 5700 has numerous art galleries and several interesting museums. 

The Farmhouse Cafe and Bakery is one of the most popular eateries in Taos and has some good mountain scenery for background.

The vista behind The Farmhouse Cafe.

Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The lovely mountain range runs over 242 miles  from Santa Fe past Taos and north into Colorado. Numerous peaks in the range reach above 14,000 feet.

Views from near Arroyo Seco.

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge and Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. Ten miles northwest of Taos is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge restored in 2012 and its new parking area. The bridge is 600 feet above the river and its 1200 foot span is the 10th tallest in the US.

 The view of the Taos mountains from the bridge is a tourist favorite. A little further from Taos is another gorge related site (really, a series of sites), the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. While impressive views can be found at the several viewpoints, none really rival the bridge views. 

 

Photographers and other artists will appreciate the lack of crowds which throng to the bridge.

A biker's club was visiting the old church the first time we stopped.

San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in the main plaza of Ranchos de Taos, four miles south of Taos. Also known as St Francis de Asia, the adobe church was built between 1772 and 1816. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1970. 

The adobe exterior walls pf the church need to be re-cemented every year. The church is a favorite subject of artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, and Bob Jones. 

The Church from the Back

The church is known to be “one of the most photographed and painted churches in the world” (Taos Chamber of Commerce).

Our pilot greets passengers on the homebound leg from Salt Lake to Portland.

NEXT: Part 2 in two weeks.

#206 2009 Alaska Cruise, Part 1

 2009 Alaska Cruise

Hey! Some real travel stories, although it happened before I started the travel blog. This post begins a series of posts about our only cruise vacation—a 7-day Alaskan cruise on Princess.

The trip from Seattle to Skagway and return was August 2 to 9, 2009. A trip of 2000 nautical miles. We loved the trip, but just never got around to taking another—we could never find the right time since we didn’t want to give up our summer trips to Canada and the southwest or our shoulder season trips to Scotland.

We boarded the Star Princess (along with 3000 other passengers) at noon for a 4:00pm departure. 

We found our small balcony room on the 11th deck, below the buffet and pool. It was a nice unit and plenty roomy considering how little time we actually spent in the cabin, 

although we did make good use of the balcony. We unpacked and started exploring our floating resort—the plaza, shops, eateries and bars, and entertainment areas. 

String quartet was pleasant entertainment several afternoons.

We got a nice send off by the Blue Angels over the Seattle skyline.

The first organized activity of the cruise was a lifeboat instruction meeting (with no lifeboats). 

I don’t know if I really liked getting on a ship and learning what to do when it does a Titanic, but I guess it was necessary. Right after our lifeboat muster we did find a bar where we could get a Scotch whisky and watch Tiger win another tournament.

Dinner was on the “Anytime” plan, where you chose your own time and place. We ate in the Portofino Dining Room—lobster and crab starter, prime rib for a main. My mistake was passing up the Bananas Foster for later—it never did come back on the menu.

This was the view a couple of hours out of Seattle.

Our first full day aboard ship, Monday, was at sea. There was plenty to do, including  naturalist lectures about Alaskan geology and glaciers, shopping for gold for Anne and Duty Free whisky for me, breakfast in the buffet and sushi for lunch by the pool. There was also plenty of time for walking around the ship, enjoying fresh cookies and lattes, and reading and writing. 

Anne spent time reading on the balcony, bundled against the cool weather.

The dinner, the week’s only formal affair (dress up) came after the Captain’s Champagne Party. It was a great chance for me to wear my kilt.

My Welsh National Tartan

Tuesday started early watching from the foreword observation deck as the ship maneuvered into dock at Ketchikan harbor. 

Ketchikan from the Boat

Great for a photographer. Breakfast was again in the buffet and we were off the boat by 8:00am to explore the Salmon Capital of Alaska. We didn’t plan an excursion for this stop, just wandered. With much to see and do, we kept busy at the downtown shops,

Decorated with Antlers

 creeks filled with fish,

Salmon Creek

 a funicular tram to the top of town, 

There are many old and new totems throughout town.

Creek Street shops and museums, 

Creek Street Shopping District

and restaurants and cafes. 

We. had lunch at the Pioneer Cafe.

A highlight was the tour of Dolly’s House—

the brothel and red-light museum.

An interesting wharf reflection as we left Ketchikan.

We were back on the ship by 3:00pm for a 4:00 sailing. Dinner was again at the Portofino (whatever I had was absolutely delicious). Most impressive of the whole day was the after dinner whale watching and the colorful sunset through the smoke of Canadian forest fires as we sailed through Clarance Strait towards tomorrow’s treat, Tracy Arm Glacier.

But that’s for the next post.

#205 My Favorite Cars

 Special Note: My website [www.penandprint.com] will soon be going to internet heaven. It’s been a good run, but it’s no longer needed for contact with Scottish, Welsh, and Irish golf courses. Be sure you bookmark this blog  www.penandprint.blogspot.com  so that you can easily connect to Have Pen and Camera, Will Travel when I write new posts. And thanks for your comments.

My Favorite Rides

On Facebook a few days ago there was a question asked—one of those share your experience posts. The question was, “What is the favorite car you’ve owned?” Good question, but why not share a more complete answer on my Blog. So, here it is, a discussion of the favorite autos (and trucks) that I’ve owned.

The first car I ever owned was a tank. A sick green 1950 Buick automatic with a dynaflow transmission (you stepped on the gas, waited three seconds, and then the tank started to move). Not a favorite, but a starting point for a list of favorites. Two vehicles need special mention here. 

Bookings HS Speech Team Van-boot Sale

The first was a 1974 VW bus (aka, a micro bus) which we used as a speech team carrier in Brookings where I started a team in 1980 and the district didn’t have transportation we could use. The blue van allowed me to take six students to a tournament. The 1600cc engine developed 67 horse power and got the fully loaded van up the coastal hills at 35mph. At the same time we had the second car of special mention, 

a 1976 yellow Dodge Colt coupe with 90 hp. Anne could carry three more students to tournaments. Both of these vehicles are remembered fondly as reliable friends who helped build my career as a speech coach.

We sold the blue bus our last year in Brookings (the school district finally had a minivan we could use) and bought our first VW GTI, a 1984 special edition Rabbit with 90 hp, suped-up suspension, special seats, and five speed stick transmission—

1984 GTI in Autocross in Medford

it was our first pocket rocket. The gray with red stripes racer led to a lifetime of small, hot cars raced in auto-crosses and hillclimbs throughout the northwest. Very often we had his and her’s VW Golf GTIs in our parking area in Canby. 

16 Valve GTI at Mary's Peak Hillclimb

We had new Golf GTIs in 1988 and 1994 and our only non-GTI when we bought a 2000 4-door. Our last VW GTI I’ll tell more about later in the post.

Many or most of you know we raised and raced Siberian Husky sled dogs for many years. That meant we had trucks, many of which were not our favorites. I particularly remember a Chevy LUV mini pick up that we jacked up and converted to 4-wheel drive. With the dog’s boxes full it was so underpowered that besides fearing it would tip over at the slightest corner, we were again stuck going 35 mph over every mountain pass. For a while we did have an old 1952 International pick up that I drove around town when I taught special education at the Oregon State Hospital in the 1970s. The film company for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” paid me $25 to park in my usual spot at the hospital so a period car would appear in the Supt’s window. We’ve never been able to find it in the movie (probably ended up on the cutting room floor), but Anne and I got a nice dinner out of it. Our favorite truck, though, was our last one.

In 2019 we bought a very low mileage Ford F150 to tow a small Little Guy Mini travel trailer. The truck was fun to drive and the combination of truck and trailer was great. 

We had to give the pair up because of my advancing Parkinson’s symptoms, but the truck still stands out from all the others we owned.

This brings me to our current favorite autos, Subarus. We bought our first Subaru Outback Special LL Bean edition in 2003 and fell in love with the cars. 

2012 Outback in Mitchell, OR

They are comfortable to drive, small and yet roomy, have plenty of power, and are very reliable. We are now on our fourth Outback (2003, 2012, 2016, and 2018). 

2016 Outback

We’ve bought new ones as equipment and features have changed, not because of wear or mechanical problems. Anne’s favorite is the 2018 Outback 3.6R.

Our fifth Subaru is my favorite. We traded in the 2017 F150 for a 2021 Forester Sport equipped for off road with special tires, suspension, and skid plates. 

It’s an easy and fun car to drive in town or longer trips. And while it’s the favorite I drive now, it is not the most favorite.

My favorite of all the vehicles we’ve owned is a 2007 VW Fahrenheit GTI #914/1200. The special Lamborghini Orange 2.0L 200 hp with six speed automated manual transmission and European tuned sports suspension was a special car. 

Fast, agile, head-turning, this GTI was a dream to drive, although we worked hard keeping the mileage low (having good Outbacks for long trips made that easier). I finally gave up the Fahrenheit GTI when we needed a truck to pull the trailer. It was a terribly hard decision, but the right one—trading one toy for another.

At this time in our lives I can’t see us needing another car, so my list probably won’t change. It’s now time for me to ask…

What is your favorite car?