My time out here with Ray and Joyce has been absolutely wonderful! They have opened their home up to me with so much love and generosity, I couldn't have asked for a more enjoyable beginning to my adventure. My drive out here was fantastic and fairly uneventful with the exception of me helping out the circle of life - RIP little rodent opossum looking thing and tweetie bird. When I got to Ray & Joyce's place they helped me get my suitcase into the house and we immediately went up to the Sandia Crest, which is the mountain they live 5 miles from, and we hiked at the top to take in the amazing weather and to see the turning of the leaves.
Then Saturday we picked up Nina and her kids Brianna and Alex and we all went out to El Rancho de las Golandrinas for the Harvest Festival. Golandrinas is a village that shows the way of life from 200 years ago. We had so much fun! There were so many activities for us to participate in and everything was hands on! We got to make homemade tortillas made from goats cheese/milk and roast our own peppers and enjoy them with fresh local jelly. It was SO good! We also got to feed some Alpacas, stomp some grapes to make wine and press apples to make apple cider. Brianna and I had so much fun going all over the community to see what little adventures we could get ourselves into.
Sunday was another busy day. That morning I woke up and went for a run on a 4 mile trail next to Ray and Joyce's house and let me tell you, the difference in altitude makes a difference on the lungs haha. Even with the lack of oxygen I had a surprisingly good time, which is even better since I have officially signed up to run a 10k here in New Mexico with my cousin Vincent on the 24th which is 19 days away - yikes! Afterwards Ray, Joyce and I went over to Vincent and Violetta's house to visit for a while before we all went over to Dorothy's place for her daughter's birthday party. It was really fun because Dorothy (who is Ray and Joyce's daughter) owns a crazy amount of birds and not just any birds. We're talking Macaws from the rain forest!! And a bunch of them! It was awesome. That night Joyce and I stayed up talking and catching up about everything and then when we went to bed I had a bit of a scare. So I walked into the bathroom to do my thing and as I'm going for the toilet I by chance actually look into the toilet....and there inside it in the water is a giant spider!! I flipped! I'm trying to pull myself together just in case I woke Ray up (don't want to go flashing him!) and I'm laughing hysterically in the hallway thinking what are the odds that a day into my adventure I already have an encounter with my arch nemesis. I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle in my neck during all of the commotion but Joyce came out of her bedroom and saved the day haha.
Monday has been by far my favorite day thus far of the trip! The night before I stayed up entirely WAY too late talking to a special someone and I was super nervous about the next morning since our wake up call was 4am!! Yes - this girl got up at 4am without a fight lol. Anyways, we were off to go see the balloon fiesta in town!! OMG it was simply magical. Words can't even begin to describe how incredible this experience was to see up close. The balloons were bigger than I expected and there were SO many to see! Plus the weather was really nice and the skies were beautiful, with the exception of the fact that it was really cold but once I got to running around to look at the balloons it wasn't so bad. After the balloons we went over to Vincent's to train with him for the upcoming 10k. Man did he kick my butt! We ran from his house to the base of the mountain and the entire way to the base it is a steady incline so you really felt it on your legs and your lower back. I have never attempted such an intense run and it was great having Vincent there to push me. I'm not going to lie, when we got going I was thinking to myself there is no darn way I am going to make it to this mountain and then 30 mins later there we were!! It was so awesome looking back over the town where we just ran from! We chilled up there for 15 mins running up higher on the mountain so that Vincent could show me the other trails that he runs along the base and then we finally started our trek back to his home - which since it was all downhill we were able to run in less than 20 min! That afternoon I was absolutely whipped from the lack of sleep and the crazy workout so I took a very nice 3 hour siesta lol. That night I went over to one of dad's old friends house to have dinner with their family, watch Monday night football and catch up with them. It was wonderful! Then after the game I went home to a completely locked down house. I felt terrible and didn't want to wake Ray & Joyce so I was just going to sleep in my car until Joey convinced me to just call them and wake them up so that I would be sure to be inside safe. Talk about back to back night time excitement between the spider the night before and then being locked out of the house haha.
Tuesday was another full day for us. We went to Santa Fe and saw the Miraculous Staircase. Let me tell you - it was incredible. The staircase was built with no support beams or nails and its absolutely beautiful. Not to mention the fact that they still to this day can't figure out where the wood came from which is pretty interesting if you ask me. The church that it is located in, the Loretto Chapel, is equally amazing. The church is very small and intimate (which I fell in love with instantaneously) and the detail in all of the architecture and the objects in the church were very classy and beautiful. There are only 2 other churches that I have absolutely fallen in love with as soon as I entered their doors and they are the Episcopalian church in Boston (which is the only piece of architecture to have been on the list of the top architecture buildings since it originated) and the other being the gorgeous St Martin's Episcopal church there in Houston - and for anyone who has simply driven by it, you know what's up. From there we walked to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, which was a block away from the Loretto Chapel, and it was another pretty chapel, although very similar to any other grand Cathedral I felt. After the tour of the churches, Joyce & I walked around downtown Santa Fe looking at the super cute shops while Ray went to go and get the car to take us to our next stop - the Casinos!! We went to Buffalo Thunder (one of Ray's favorites) and ate an incredible prime rib lunch before hitting the slot machines where I won $32.50! Doesn't sound like much but I was playing the penny machines and wasn't betting much at all lol. Then after the casino we went to go eat (again) at Nina's house where her husband let us be the guinea pigs for his brand new smoker. Holy cow was the food good or what! For not being hungry I sure did go through the food on my plate haha. Then me, Alex and Brianna ended up capping off the night jamming out to the SUPER fun dance game on their Xbox with the Kinnect! It went from only 1 song then we'll leave to dancing around for an hour!
Today was a super chill day. Gym, 3 mile run, lunch, Wal-Mart, dinner, 1 mile run then lounging around. Couldn't have asked for a more relaxing day :)
Anyways - I have written enough and I applaud you if you made it this far! This adventure has been incredible and I feel so very blessed to have so many amazing people in my life. Thank you for being who you are in my life. I know I wouldn't be here if it were any other way.
"Friends are like stars, you don't always see them but you know they are there."
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