Entries about rio grande

Thanksgiving Day, a time for a celebration for sure. And we showed our thanks by drinking New Mexico champagne with our kids.

We decided prior that we were not interested in a Thanksgiving Day brunch or dinner. I could only eat the meat and kids could only eat the veggies; not worth the money in our case.

Jen and I started our day with a massage at the spa. I just wanted a relaxing massage and got just that, with a arnica lotion on my sore neck.
We’d wanted to take grandkids to the Taos Pueblo and to the Rio Grande Bridge, so we piled into 2 cars and went off to the Taos Pueblo first. Clayton had vivid memories of our Christmas Eve celebration there when he was about 11 years old. The sky was blue over the west Pueblo and stormy over the east. Great for some photos. Grandkids ran around like kids do everywhere. Their Native American was coming out.

http://taospueblo.com/

By the time we got to the Rio Grande Bridge, Fynn was sound asleep. As I’ve been there lots of times I stayed in the car with him while Dale went out with the rest onto the bridge. The bridge is really a great place, there is a walk way on both sides and little places to lookout down to the bottom, 565’ down.

http://highestbridges.com/wiki/index.php?title=Rio_Grande_Gorge_Bridge

Dinner was at the bar at Doc Martins, just nachos and drinks.

We love Taos, would love to live part time in Taos. Our house, the house that we wanted, sold and closed last Friday so we couldn’t visit it. But we could still eat meals, lots of meals in Taos. Comfort food to console ourselves.

We left Santa Fe late morning and got to Taos by 11a.m. just in time to eat a very late and very light breakfast at La Taoseno. This restaurant was recommended to us a couple of years ago and we have been going for breakfast since. The green chili stew is gluten free and so great! Kids and Dale ate Sopiapillas filled with butter and honey.

After a quick stop for water we went for a tour of the Kit Carson house. We haven’t been there in years so that was a fun stop. There is a 20 min video first of Kit Carson’s life produced by the History Channel. The person playing Kit Carson is actually a great grandson who really looks like the original Kit Carson. After the movie, shown in the children’s room, we visited the other 4 rooms of the house. Not a large house for such a large family. A photo of one daughter is in a picture frame identical, I think, to one that my own great-grandmother’s photo is in. I took a photo and will compare it when we get home.

By then we’d worked up an appetite and went to eat a late lunch at La Cueva, a very small restaurant that serves mostly gluten free/wheat free New Mexican Food. The interior of the restaurant is so small; there are 3 very small tables for 2 people each and one seating 4. There are several tables in a small patio as well. We did sit inside today as we were a little cool. It was hard not to eat all of the meal of shredded beef taco, beef enchilada and a chili relleno. I just couldn’t help myself.

After lunch it was time to walk off the food and get ready for dinner. We went to Governor Bent’s house. This house was built in the 1600’s and was the place where Governor Bent was killed during an uprising. We stepped into the house and met George Ortega, the man behind the counter. If you get to Taos you must visit this house and speak with Mr. Ortega. He is a teacher at UNM in history and history is his passion. He will give you a background like no other. We were under his spell listening to his many stories. He is related to Mrs. Bent and comes from family well connected to the Taos area.

The Plaza is the place to have some coffee and kids had chocolates from the Rocky Mountain store. Weather was brisk but it was good to take a break.

On to the Rio Grande. If you’ve never crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande out of Taos, well you must. It is breath taking! The first time we did this was back in the 1980’s and didn’t even know what a treat we were in for. We drove over the bridge and the sight took our breath away. We have since been back and each time stopping at the end of the bridge then walking on the walkway to the middle of the bridge.

A quick drive up to Taos Ski Valley for old time’s sake and because we were not really hungry yet for a full dinner then onto Orlando’s, voted best New Mexican food one year. Layered cheese enchiladas for me with the Chili Caribe sauce, made without flour. This sauce is a dark, rich chili sauce using the whole pod, one of my favorites.

Stuffed and happy we headed back to Santa Fe for a well dissevered sleep.

I hate it when I’ve written a bunch and then it gets deleted. So I must start this day’s blog over:

The plan for Taos was mostly eating, the Taos Pueblo, The San Francisco de Asis and more eating. We have been to Taos many times and had our favorite restaurants, but as we all know, things change.

We had to check in at the office so I asked the person running the campground where to find the best sopapillas was. Unfortunately the place we’d always gone had changed hands and was no longer the best. She reported that the best place now is El Taoseno. We went to El Taoseno and found a very authentic restaurant, nothing fancy at all. We asked for the sopapillas but they were not serving them until 11:30a.m. The waitress asked the cook who did make them for our grandkids. I ordered chili stew which was some of the best I’ve had since “The Shed”.

We were able to get into the Taos Pueblo and spent a couple of hours wondering around. Dale and I have wonderful memories of Christmas Eve there years ago but it was nice to wonder at our leisure. This pueblo has been in existence for over 1000 years and people live much the same now. The council has decided to rebuild those homes which have fallen into disrepair so it was interesting to see how the building proceeds. I paid the extra fee to take photos but agreed to not use the photos except for my own use so cannot post any here.

We did do a short visit to the San Francisco de Asis, those of you who have visited us know that I have photographed this church. As a storm was approaching we did not spend much time and I don’t know if the kids took an interest in it.

The staff at the campground had made a recommendation for a place to eat great blue corn enchiladas at Orlando’s. This does not sound like a New Mexico name but the place is great! It is a very small restaurant, 2 rooms with limited tables and outdoor seating. Kids were very impressed too.

From the restaurant we found that we were close to the Rio Grande. If you have never crossed over the Rio Grande just outside of Taos, this is another must do. The gorge is a couple of hundred feet deep with the river running thru it. The bridge has walkways on both sides of the road and a lookout in the center. There was a full moon so we were able to see the river by the light of the moon giving it a different effect than in the day.