A siren goes to Taos
Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there. I hope you had as much fun as we had today.
Candice (the mother in this househould) wanted to go on a road-trip to Taos today and we left at about 9am this morning after walking the dogs quickly and straightening up the house (we had an open house this afternoon - I did mention that our house was for sale?).
We took the High Road to Taos because we had enough time and it is a really nice and scenic drive.
Everybody enjoyed the views and the extremely nice weather. At about 10:15am one of the passengers in the car reached the point where she normally would have a nap. For whatever reason this somebody (I don’t want to mention names) decided to turn into a siren instead. We listened to that somebody scream her lungs out, hoping that it would tire her enough to make her fall asleep.
After about 30 minutes my ears had fallen off and we saw some cracks in the car’s windows from the constant exposure to high-pitched, high-volume noises. I think I heard the car making a sigh of relief when we stopped and Candice moved from the front-seat to the back to calm that previously mentioned somebody down.
It worked! The siren stopped and returned to it’s normal babbling state. It was about 11am when we reached Taos and we decided to go to Taos Pueblo before grabbing a bite in town.
Candice was there before and she remembered that the visitor registration accepted cash only. We had exactly 25 US$ cash in our pockets and according to the price list we would have to pay 25 US$ (2 adults at 10 US$ and 1 camera at 5 US$). Turned out that the registration office started to accept credit cards after they had to turn away soo many people who wanted to pay by credit card.
I’m not going to write about the pueblo, because there are tons of web-sites which have done this already, instead I’m going to sprinkle a few photos throughout this entry to give you a glimpse.
After the visit at the pueblo (which should be added to your list of must-see places if you happen to plan a visit to New Mexico) we wanted to go to town, get some lunch and stroll around a bit. But, as expected, the exercise, fresh air and sun turn the former siren into a blob of jello. 5 minutes after hitting the car the siren snores instead of … uhhh … sirening?!?
Great, here we are hungry in the heart of Julia-Roberts-city with a parking place right in the middle of this god-knows-plaza and this baby wants to sleep. For a moment we think about opening the windows a crack, turning up the car stereo and leaving the kid in the car while we go and have lunch. We realize that the public parking lot is not our garage and scratch that idea.
Instead Candice goes for a looksie and returns with two iced coffees a while later (baby still sleeping). After some careful considerations we decide to steer the Jeep back home towards Santa Fe. This time we don’t want to take the High Road. Driving via Las Vegas would take too long, so we just take the fast track via Embudo and Espaniola.
Exactly 45 mins after the eye-lids closed, they fly open again. Every conversation in the car ceases in hope that it would make the owner of the eye-lids fall asleep again. Hope turns to desperation when the passenger on the back seat finds the switch for the siren again.
We have to keep windows closed as we drive past people in rafts on the Rio Grande: Pia’s screams would make them rafts pop like a needle hitting a balloon.
So we are back to where we were a few hours ago. The kid is screaming, the music is blasting and mommy/daddy are quiet. It takes us another 30 minutes before we arrive at Gabriel’s, a restaurant close to Santa Fe. Everybody is happy when we finally leave the car.
It’s early afternoon, but there’s still a 30 minute wait for a table on the patio. This place is packed with Mother’s Day people and there are tons of kids around. A fountain in the middle of the patio area magically attracts all of the babies and toddlers.
After some great New Mexican food (you’ve got to try their made-by-the-table guacamole!) we head back home to Santa Fe and arrive there at about 4pm.
The kid is exhausted from all the fresh air and the action during the day. No wonder that those eye-lids are shut for the day at 6pm already …
A regular reader of kahunaburger.com may also notice the different naming scheme for the photos in this post. Since last Friday I’m proud owner of a shiny new Canon EOS 1D Mark II. It’s the big brother of my original Canon EOS 1D and I’m very happy with the upgrade. My dad got my older Canon EOS D30 and I needed to have a second body, just in case …