Thursday, July 31, 2014

Santa Monica Beach Photo Essay

Santa Monica Pier through the haze

Santa Monica Pier

Stations

Bikes at the beach


Station II

Rainbow

Beach

Stegasaurus

Triceratops

Surf Liquor



Beach housing

Santa Monica Pier


Rastabus



shadow steps




Garage Art



Promenade


Friday, July 25, 2014

El Morro National Monument

On the way back from Taos to LA I was able to stop at El Morro National Monument. This is an oasis on the trail through the desert. A natural watering hole at the base of the sand stone bluffs. It was reliably full all year long.



The pond at El Morro

The running water has left mineral deposits on the sandstone

El Morro


The bluffs are sand stone, which means the weather has brought about erosion in some beautiful patterns:

Pine tree at the top of the bluff, I love the corrugation effect

This looks like small stones piled on large ones

The cliff face through the juniper trees

This looks like,,,,well you can figure it out

Do you see the face?
Because this was such a reliable water source, this was a major stop for travelers for centuries

Ruins of a native village at the top of the cliff

petroglyphs at the bottom of the cliff

More petroglyphs

Big horn sheep are native to this area
The wall of the cliff also gave way to man oldest preoccupation - letting people know he was there. That's right, graffiti.








Some of the above carvings date from before the Pilgrims landed.

The walk to the cliff face is an easy 0.5 mile round trip with some hills. There is also a 3 mile walk to the top of the cliffs.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Taos - granola mexican native mountain life

Taos is an amalgam of southwest history and present. It is a tourist town that draws people with money and new-age hippies to the mountains. It has a history of Native peoples from the nearby Taos Pueblo and of Mexican families that settled the area in the 1540. It was also the final home of Kit Carson.

 If I lived in Taos, one of the places where I would spend a lot of time is Wired Cafe. This internet cafe is also home to a spiritual bookstore, counseling center and one of the few places that offers printing capabilities for visitors. Most importantly is has a beautiful garden in which you can sit and enjoy really good coffee.

At Wired The Amazing Ms. D and I met a local knitting circle. Being knitters ourselves we asked about yarn stores and were sent to the two in town stores. One was Moxie, a fair trade yarn and souvenir shop. There we met Terra, and loads of wonderful yarn.

Moxie

Your author and Terra

Me at Moxie with a shirt that seemed made for me.
The other was Mooncat Fibers, where we met Kathy.

The Amazing Ms. D and Kathy

Mooncat Fiber
These are both really good choices for the knitter or crocheter who visits Taos.

For lunch I would highly recommend Taos Pizza Outback. They make an excellent pizza with a sesame seed crust. The pizza dough and ingredients are fresh and delicious.

It was Taos Festival Days while we were there, and this meant that the town plaza was filled with vendors and performers:
The crowd at Taos Festival

The Plaza stage surrounded by the crests of the founding families

This tent was not what I expected to find in Taos

Mexican-American dance troop


Just the cutest thing
All in all Taos has a great collection of classic and modern