You Likey?

The other day I decided to have myself a craft day. This is what I made...

Socorro

There is a town about an hour and a half south of Albuquerque called Socorro. A few of us decided to take a mini vaca down there last weekend. Why do you ask? Well, 25 minutes south of Socorro is a small town (with no hotels) called San Antonio where there is a place called the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge. In short: Bird Refuge (and other animals too, I suppose). We heard that during the winter months these huge cranes and geese migrate there and if you go early enough in the morning you can watch them fly away for the day. Big deal right? Well, everyone was telling us that it was SO cool because they fly away at the SAME time! We decided that we had to see it...so off we went.


Of course we also did our research on restaurants down there. First stop for dinner was the Infamous Owl Bar and Cafe in San Antonio. We'd got lots of recommendations for this joint. I had to take a picture of our meals because, I don't think one of us got something without green chilies on it. If you ever come visit New Mexico you'll get used to it. Gary's meal looked a little scary, those beans with a scoop of green chilies on top, yeah, I didn't eat any of that.

This is my Green Chili Burger I ordered. It was really yummy. I think I'm starting to really enjoy this green chili thing they've got going down here. They just might be on to something! (Yes, that green stuff that looks like relish, is not relish, it's green chili)

Another neat thing about this Owl Bar & Cafe is you can write on a dollar bill and pin it to the wall. They don't take them down until the end of the year and when they do, they donate them all to charity. Last year they had $18,000. Although, there were quite a few dollar bills on the walls, I'm sure they looked a little bare compared to December 31st of last year!

After dinner we walked next door to this OLD OLD Gas station (and town store) for ice cream.

Here's Gary and his buddies

Then we went back our hotel...everyone put their kids down and then came over to the party room! (The room with no kids) And we played lots of card games and ate lots of junk food!

It's possible that we might have played games a little too late because we had to be up at 5:00am the next morning, so as to not miss the 'show'

This is my first picture just as the sun was starting to come up...you can kind of see the birds all out on the lake. They sleep out on the lake to keep safe from 'monsters' or other animals that might want to eat them.

At the refuge, they have this deck you can walk out on to wait and watch...Did I mention it was 6:00am and FREEZING cold? I really should have remembered my jacket!

All of a sudden, all these geese flew away off the lake all at the same time! There were over 22,000 of them! It was SO cool...like a ceiling of birds above us and the sound of all their wings flapping was really neat as well!

New Mexico has really pretty sunrises and sunsets...everyone should experience them at some point during their life. This morning was no different.

The cranes decided to sleep in! :) - If you notice, there are little patches of groups of cranes. I thought it was interesting that they all didn't hang out together like the geese did. We later learned that each group is a family and they stick together and sleep together as families.

The picture below was funny. The two cranes to the left decided to take off walking. Well, they are all on a thin sheet of ice and at first as they were walking, their feet kept falling through the ice with each step and then they started flapping their HUGE wings to help them keep balance but then they started sliding across the ice with their feet out in front of them. It was cute!

Eventually one or two at a time would fly away, we stuck around and watched for a while but someone should really let the cranes know that the geese put on a much better show than they did. :)

Where did the birds fly you ask? Oh, about 500 yards away to a big huge field where food is provided for them (Remember: REFUGE) They hang out and eat in these fields all day and then at sunset, they fly back to the water.

Here are the guys at the visitor center getting a little R&R.

We decided to check out of our hotel and hit a park for a little bit to let the kids play for a bit...this particular park happened to have a major horse shoe pit set up WITH BLEACHERS! We thought it was funny...but deep inside I kind of wish I could go watch the tournaments that I'm sure is held there each summer!

Then we went to eat at another recommended restaurant given to us...I really liked this one. Of course, notice the green chilies on my food...it was really yummy!

The best $7.50 I ever did spend

So, Gary and I have been eating the occasional Grapefruit for breakfast lately. Maybe about 3 a week or so. We've been loving it lots but I wasn't so sure I wanted to take the plunge and buy the HUGE bag of grapefruit at Costco (even though it was way cheaper) because I wasn't sure we'd actually eat THAT much grapefruit before it went bad. 

UNTIL, I bought this gadget from Pampered Chef. It's a grapefruit knife. Our current grapefruit loving was what produced the purchase and I was very hesitant. I LOVE kitchen gadgets but I really really hate buying ones that are total scams and don't even do the cool things they are supposed to do. Well, Pampered Chef did NOT disappoint! I went to Costco yesterday after work to get strawberries for Gary's lunch and  they had none, but as I walked past the enormous  bags of grapefruit, I gave in and bought it and hurried home because I was SO excited to try out my new knife for the first time. LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It works fabulously and makes eating grapefruit such an enjoyable experience. Let's just say my bag of 15 grapefruit is now down to 7 in ONE day! So, if you like grapefruit too, consider this knife! (Is too much grapefruit bad?) 

BYU vs UNM

So, the BYU Men's basketball team came to town a few weeks ago. Gary realized on a Wednesday that they were coming and the game was on Saturday. So, we thought we'd check craigslist to see if anyone was wanting to rid themselves of their tickets for a price we'd be willing to spend. We found two tickets on the THIRD row for $8.00 each! Sweet!...only problem was that they were in Provo, UT and to get them here to Albuquerque in time might pose as a bit of a problem. The guy assured us he'd get them out in the mail and send them priority and that we should have them in time for the game. Well, Friday came and went with no tickets and it was at this time we sort of discovered another problem. You see, the game wasn't at 7:00pm like you would naturally assume, it was at 2:00pm and our mail doesn't usually come until after 3:00! Are you following me here people?

So, on Saturday around 1:00pm, Gary and I decide to go for a run (with our mail key in my pocket) while we wait anxiously for our tickets to come :::LATE::: in the mail. As we walk out the door, Gary spots a mail truck across the complex and takes off after it only to find out that this was NOT our mail lady, she actually LIVES here and just stopped by to pick something up. But, she did tell us where our mail mans route most likely was...so that's where we ran. I'm sure we looked like fools running up and down these residential streets and peeking in mail boxes to see if in fact the mail man had been to these streets. After making our loop and no sign of the mail man, I headed home to shower so that I'd be ready if it ever came in time. Gary, being much more desperate than I was, decided to make the loop again. Just as he was finishing and approaching home, he spots the mail man cruise on by...and tried to keep up. Racing a vehicle just isn't an even match. Finally he arrived at home with the package at about 1:45pm! Lucky for us we'd actually get to see some of the game...or would we?

Soon after arriving at "The Pit" we discovered problems number 2 & 3. For any of you who don't know this (and I can safely say that probably 99% of you DON'T know this) the rows in the Pit are numbered backwards. Meaning, row one is at the TOP and not the bottom...remember that part about how the guy selling us his tickets was so happy to announce to us that his tickets were on the THIRD row? (I'm sure he didn't know either, but NEITHER DID WE!) Yea, we were at the tippity top of this thing. Whatever, slight disappointment but no big deal, everyone tells us that there is not a bad seat in The Pit, it won't be bad. I beg to differ:::see picture below:::this was my honest to goodness view from my seat. NO KIDDING or Photoshopping. PROMISE!

So, not only did I miss the first half of the game due to the lack of MAIL, I missed most of the second half because I couldn't see half the court! I later heard that it was probably better I missed most of the game whatever the reason because the Cougars SUCKED (Sorry Cougar fans, I'm one too, but it really was a pathetic game)

Just a little side note: Did you know that UNM thinks that BYU is their RIVAL? Gary and I think it's actually kind of hilarious! No kidding!Luckily Gary and I were good sports and had a great time anyhow. Yes, we were two of maybe about TEN decked out BYU Fans in the whole place, we got some pretty ugly looks! :)

After the game, Gary took me to this Aircraft Viewing Area by the air port. Albuquerque airport isn't nearly as busy as the SLC airport so there weren't a whole ton of airplanes landing but it was well really fun. The view is really pretty from up there too...good old Albuquerque. I think when it's a little bit warmer, we'll bring a blanket or two for the back of the truck and a picnic and sit and watch the planes come in! Yes, we still love Albuquerque.