New Mexico - Part 4

From A:

This is the final installment of the New Mexico series of blog posts!  After my group's journey along the Turquoise Trail, we arrived in Santa Fe.  As we learned from our tour guide, Santa Fe allows three different types of architecture:

1. Pueblo Style - this is the traditional New Mexico architecture style that looks like the Acoma Pueblos explained in New Mexico - Part 2. 

2. Territorial Style - this mostly looks like the Pueblo Style, but a brick detailing is added around the top of the building.

3. Northern New Mexico Style - this style has a slanted metal roof and dormer windows (typically).  The reasoning for the change in roof style is because there is more snow in Northern New Mexico, which would just sit on top of the flat roofs of Pueblo and Territorial Style homes.  With the slanted roof, the snow can slide off the roof (and melting snow can flow off).

Now that I've explained about Santa Fe architecture, back to our tour.  We went to Old Town in Santa Fe, which is really charming (and has great shopping).

We also toured Loretto Chapel, which has been featured on the television series Unsolved Mysteries.

If you're interested in reading more about Loretto Chapel and its "Miraculous Spiral Staircase," there is a good Wikipedia article here.  The abridged version is as follows:

"Needing a way to get up to the choir loft the nuns prayed for St. Joseph's intercession for nine straight days. On the day after their novena ended a shabby looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but that he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. The identity of the carpenter is not known for as soon as the staircase was finally finished he was gone. Many witnesses, upon seeing the staircase, feel it was a miraculous occurrence."

As for the interior of the chapel, it is absolutely beautiful.

After an afternoon of exploring Old Town, my group made it back to our tour bus just as it started raining.  J and I must have brought the rain with us from Florida, because it rained twice while we were in New Mexico, an area with 300 days of sunshine each year.

Speaking of Florida, on a completely unrelated side note, the University of Florida football team broke our three game losing streak with a win over Georgia yesterday.  Go Gators!  And Go Chas Henry!

New Mexico - Part 3

From A:

On our way to Santa Fe, my tour group took the scenic route along the "Turquoise Trail."  Our tour guide did an excellent job of pointing out interesting locales along the way.

For instance, we stopped in a very small town right off the highway to visit a few of the shops.  The shops cater to tourists driving through, and not surprisingly offer a wide variety of turquoise jewelry, pottery, art, etc.  But the most interesting part about this little town is that the 2007 movie "Wild Hogs" was filmed in it.  The diner featured in the film was built specifically for the movie, with the keys being turned over to the people of the town.  It's not used as a diner today, though, because the cost of bringing in food considering the small number of potential customers wouldn't turn a profit.  And the fair that takes place in the movie looks fairly large (no pun intended) but it was actually shot in a small parking lot that only fits about 10 cars.  The magic of film, right?!

Another small town we visited looked like a very small, run-down, wild west downtown.  And as it turns out, this is where the 1988 movie "Young Guns" was filmed.  And as if that wasn't enough, we saw a real-life cowboy riding his horse along the train tracks with his two dogs following.  Talk about a taste of the southwest!

We also passed the community of Sandia Park where last year's HGTV Dream Home was built.  Apparently, the woman who won the home had lost hers in Hurricane Katrina.  However, she decided to take the money for the home (over $2 million) since she didn't want to relocate to New Mexico (and probably also because of all the taxes she would owe).

After our couple of tangents to see "famous" towns, we finished the journey to Santa Fe.  I was pleasantly surprised by what a nice town Santa Fe is.  And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so since celebrities such as Oprah and Randy Travis live in Santa Fe during part of the year.

The actual visit to Santa Fe will be featured in New Mexico - Part 4.  I'll give you a hint - it involves a visit to a place featured on the television show Unsolved Mysteries. (insert creepy music here)

New Mexico - Part 2

From A:

One of the New Mexico tours I attended was to Acoma Pueblo, also known as "Sky City."  This Native American pueblo community is built on a 367-foot tall mesa and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States.  Our tour guide still lives at the pueblo, which has no running water or electricity.

Although the structures look much like they always have, several aspects of everyday life have been modernized, such as hauling up water in the back of pickup trucks, having porta-potties, and owning generators.  As our guide told us, the generators are not used often due to the noise level, but you can usually hear them on Super Bowl Sunday or when The Bachelor is on television.

The views from the top of the mesa were breathtaking.

An interesting fact we learned about the Acoma people is that the women own the homes and the men run the government.  Each home is passed down to the youngest daughter in a family.  Since she will presumably live the longest, she is responsible for taking care of the home and her family, then passing the home on to her youngest daughter.  If a family doesn't have a youngest daughter, the home is given to the youngest son who is then expected to pass it on to his youngest daughter.

After our pueblo tour, we drove to another nearby mesa to have one last view of the area.

Coming up in New Mexico - Part 3:
A journey along the "turquoise trail" and a visit to Santa Fe.

New Mexico - Part 1

From A:

Last week, J and I traveled to New Mexico.  J attended and presented some of his research at a conference while I did some sightseeing as part of the conference's companion tour program.

We had wonderful hotel accommodations at the historic Hotel Andaluz in downtown Albuquerque.  Due to our late arrival to the city, all the standard queen rooms (what we had reserved) were full and we were forced to stay in a king suite for the same price.  What a sacrifice!

The hotel was beautiful, although some of the art work was a little puzzling.  For instance, here is the art work above the couch in our room:

But our room on the eighth floor did have a nice view of part of the downtown area:

Coming up in New Mexico - Part 2:
A visit to Acoma Pueblo, "Sky City."

7 Years

From A:

This weekend marks the 7th anniversary of when we began dating.  And this seems like a great time to post some of our photos from "back in the day."  Enjoy!

Looking Ahead to Halloween

From A:

When J and I were in Target the other day, their vast selection of Halloween costumes for dogs caught our eye.  Who knew there was such a large market for animal costumes?

Several of the costumes were quite clever, such as the hot dog

the monkey

and the banana split.

However, we came to a unanimous agreement on our favorite... the squirrel!

Take note, new dog owners!

Orzo

From A:
It's not often that J and I decide to make a dish from a cooking show (especially something shown on PBS), but Chicken, Lemon, and Dill with Orzo is an exception.  This dish not only looks delicious on television, but as we found out, it's delicious in person... and easy! 

Doesn't this look like a big bowl of warming comfort on a cool autumn night?  We thought so.

The recipe below makes 6 servings, so we've been enjoying leftovers.  You could easily half or double the ingredients depending on how many you're cooking for.

Here's what you need:

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1 pound chicken tenderloins, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 pound orzo

2 cups crumbled feta (we reduced this to 1 cup)

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh dill

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup grated Parmesan (we omitted this)

Here's what you do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a saucepan, bring broth, 3/4 cup water, butter, salt, and pepper to a boil.
2. In a 3-quart baking dish, combine chicken, orzo, feta, dill, lemon zest and juice. Pour broth mixture over orzo and stir once to incorporate.
3. Bake until orzo is tender and cooking liquid is creamy, 40 minutes. Sprinkle Parmesan on top and let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

Around Campus

From A:

Now that the weather has FINALLY started to cool off, I've gotten back outside to do some photography.  I don't claim to know any more about photography than the average person, but I definitely enjoy taking photos.

I went around campus earlier in the week and got some photos around the Lake Alice area.  The Baughman Center always takes beautiful pictures:

My timing was great because two large alligators and one baby alligator were visible in the lake.  One of the large alligators was spotted swimming out in the water.

Another alligator (J and I think this is the same humpback gator that used to live in the Graham Pond several years ago) was just hanging out near a wooden bridge.  Under the bridge was a baby alligator, but it was unfortunately not in a position that would allow for a photo.

The gator seemed to think this child looked like a tasty treat.  Nom!

However, it's more likely that one of the turtles was dinner for the gator.

With a few white birds for dessert.