We were ready for fun and frolic today, well, what passes for it in people of our age and interests. I’m now quite zonked out, but it was all good. The Ruidoso, New Mexico area has seen us quite enough for one day.
We started out having breakfast, but not where we intended to have it, because that place was doing Oktoberfest (not my first experience with September as an Oktoberfest time). So we went to a different restaurant whose name I do not remember (how tired am I?) and had quite good food.
The men then went back to the cabin, so Anita, Martha, and I could look at shops. I remembered where to park and everything!
We looked in many places, but mostly stared at Native American jewelry in the trading post. I scored my desired bumblebee jasper and a silver beaded chain, plus a couple other items for reasonable prices. None of it is heirloom stuff, but I’ll enjoy wearing it. Everyone else also found a few treasures of their own, and I got Anita some earrings for her birthday on Tuesday.
We also enjoyed chatting with a young man in another shop with a lot of opals. I got a small Wild Horse stone ring (not turquoise but I like it). We enjoyed looking at soap that smelled really good. Then we had great conversation and purchased some beautiful herbal tea at a natural healing shop. The owner was such a helpful kindred spirit.
Of course I had to drag my friends to the Noisy Water member lounge to relax after all that shopping. I really enjoyed the vintage reds I sampled. I may have one of them waiting for me at home, if I remember right.
We dragged ourselves back to the cabin, and soon embarked on a property tour. Lee led this one, and Mike and Anita came along. We visited both houses we are still thinking about, as well as some others out near Alto and Nogal.
The drives were lots of fun, since it’s so darned scenic and there are so many animals. In addition to wild horses and dozens of elk, we got to see a mule deer doe and twin fawns at the other house we are considering. I mostly took pictures of views from there.
After a lot of driving and looking, we needed a break, so we stopped at the Alto location of Noisy Water to sit outside and relax. I enjoyed the Bushtits flying around the pine trees. (The bird phone found 49 species at the cabin today!)
After enjoying views and searching for empty lots in a fancy and very remote neighborhood, we headed back, got groceries, and ate pizza. I didn’t help much with that, because I didn’t feel great (running around at high altitude will do it), so poor Lee wrangled the oven, with Mike’s help. It was fun comparing frozen pizzas. A very interesting thick-crust Detroit-style offering was deemed the best. No photos. We ate it all.
Tomorrow I hope we can go find some nature. No need for more shopping!
