Some of Our Favorites

We're trying to budget a bit and Santa Fe is not the most inexpensive
place in the world. However, you can eat reasonably and luckily, three
of our favorite restaurants in town are just that. Good food at inexpensive
prices. Baja Taco is not much more than a fast food place. But I'm guessing
that most fast food places wish they were this good. We've been here before
for their awesome breakfast burritos, but we stopped by in the evening this
time and Lynn had beef taquitos, which were very good and I had a carne
adovado burrito. This is roasted pork in a very hot red chile sauce. Pretty
darn delicious. it's located on Cerrillos Road so it's not exactly in a quiet
and picturesque location, but it's easy to get in and out of, and you definitely
want to do this at least once during your visit to Santa Fe.


The next day, we visited Tia Sophias. It's located near the plaza and can
get its fair share of tourists, but locals flock here as well and have for
years made it one of their favorite spots. It's more famous for its
breakfasts, but we enjoy lunch there and each meal is accompanied by
their tasty Sopapillas, which with honey, make a good appetizer or
dessert. We had combo-type meals since we wanted to sample a
little of everything. We weren't disappointed. I just love the feeling of
this place. It's not overly kitschy and not only are the waitstaff friendly,
they treat you like a local.


Before heading out of town this morning, we stopped at one of my
favorite breakfast places in the world...Tecolote Cafe. Tecolote means
"Owl" in Spanish. It also isn't a super fancy place, but it has just plain
good New Mexican food. New Mexican cuisine is different than Tex-Mex
or even Californian Mexican food. It's really chile-based. In fact, the
official state question of New Mexico is "Red or Green?", meaning, do you
want red chile or green chile with your meal. Much of the time, I prefer
Green Chile, but today, I chose Red as I was having my favorite Carne
Adovado Burrito. Much different than Baja Taco's, this version is
smothered in Red Chile. It was painful. Painful Good! Very hot, but
really tasty. One of my favorite meals and I ordered almost every time
we visit Tecolote. Lynn had a really good looking Spanish Omlette and
with each meal you are given a choice of a tortilla or a bakery basket,
with yummy biscuits and muffins. Lynn chose this, but I opted for the
tortilla since I wanted to soak up more of the delicious red chile.
There's a good local vibe here too as there is a local table set up
where older guys sit and drink their coffee. Tecolote was also
featured in the Food Network show "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"
and there is a poster of host Guy Fieri on the wall. We started coming
here long before Guy visited, and we've tried several of the featured
restaurants around the country, and we haven't been disappointed
yet.

We lived in Santa Fe for three months in 2005 and got to feel like locals
for awhile. After our three month "test period", we decided not to live
here permanently. However, the great selection of restaurants and food
choices here almost tipped the scale in favor of moving here permanently.
If you plan on visiting Santa Fe, let me know and I can give you lots of
suggestions, both food and non-food related about the area. It's one
of our favorite places in the world.

Bodie

We had a nice visit this evening from our Ice friend Bodie, who
was driving on his way to meet friends up north. It was fun to
chat over old times at the Kannah Creek Brewing Company.
He has a new job this summer, as Camp Manager at Marble
Point. Unfortunately as a result, we won't see him much, but
I'm sure he'll like it a lot and do a great job!

Altitude = Cool

The goal for most folks in Grand Junction this time of year is
to stay cool, since we're experiencing several 100 degree plus
days in a row. For some, that means staying in air conditioned
or evaporative cooled (swamp cooler) buildings. For others, it
means gaining some altitude. That typically means heading up
to the mountains, Glade Park or Grand Mesa. On our the way
back from our "interesting" trip yesterday to Battlement Mesa,
we took a diversion at the small town of Debeque and followed
45 1/2 Road to near the small town of Mesa. This is where we
followed Colorado Route 330 up to the tiny town of Collbran.
We had visited Collbran once, back in 2006, when we were
exploring places to live. It's a much nicer little town in the
summer (we visited in February last time) and although it has
a year-round population, it caters to tourists headed to points
beyond. We drove right on through town, knowing we had to
come back this way and headed on to Vega State Park. This
is a very nice little Colorado State Park that has boating, fishing
and camping. We were given some very helpful information by
Jody at the Visitor's Center about camping and we plan on coming
back in a few weeks. For now though, we drove around the
lake, taking in the scenery and evaluating the campsites. It's
not a very big lake (925 acres) but it's very clean and scenic.
Plus, it's altitude is about 8000 feet, which is about 3000 feet
higher than Grand Junction, making it a bit cooler.


On the way home (about an hour's drive), we saw lots of lush
valleys (rare for this part of the country) and some really tranquil,
verdant ranch land. When we stopped at "The Drive In" in Colbran for
Ice Cream, we were the only ones there. By the time we left, there
were a total of 14 people in the small restaurant. Obviously others
were trying to keep cool today as well.

Melanie's Visiting

Our friend and co-worker, Melanie is visiting us for a couple
of nights on her way from Glacier National Park, eventually to
her parent's house in Kansas. One of the best things about
where we live is that we're on a major east-west interstate
highway (Interstate 70) and lots of Ice-folk are headed either
east or west across the country and stop by to see us. We had
a great dinner tonight at the Ale House and shared a lot of
stories and laughs. Tomorrow, she's off to Denver to see more
Ice friends. We'll see her again in a couple of months on the Ice.

The Joys of Getting Older

Yesterday we went to Lois' Place for breakfast with Susie.
When we started looking at the menus, I noticed that Susie
was using the ol' extending one's arms trick in order to
read the menu. It seems I too, suffer from this malady.
It's not that my eyes are getting weaker, it's just that my
arms aren't long enough! I loaned her my very weak
Wal-Mart special reading glasses, and that seemed to do
the trick of making her arms long enough! Later, our
conversation turned to her long drive from Washington
State to our home here in Grand Junction. We both agreed
that it was best to drive during daylight hours because it
was harder to see at night. Aaargh. Just shoot me now!!!

Einsten Bros. Bagels Opens

Lynn and I stopped in today at Einstein Bros. Bagels, which this
morning, opened it's first location on the Western Slope here in
Grand Junction. Now the only things we're missing is a minor
league baseball team a Whole Foods and of course, an In-N-Out
Burger!

They ran a special this morning. The first 100 customers
would receive one free breakfast sandwich per week for one year.
But...since they opened at 5:30am, there was no chance we were
going to be there, and since we're out of town half the year, it
wouldn't be fair to others that are here year round.

First and foremost, this won't preclude us from going to Main St.
Bagels, which is a local favorite. We enjoyed Einstein Bros. before
we moved here and we still enjoy their bagels. Today, we
each had a great bagel, a really good americano and bought
some bagels to take home. On the way out, we were greeted by
the owner, John Cassity. He seemed like a really pleasant guy. He
and his wife recently moved to western Colorado and loved to eat
at Einstein Bros. Because there weren't any locations here, he bought
the franchise rights from Colorado's mountains, west to southern
Utah. Grand Junction is his first location, with five more to open in
the next four years. I've read that he used 27 local contractors to
open the store, which is good for the local economy.

Welcome Einstein Bros. Bagels. We're looking forward to being
customers!

Day 2 in Vegas

We liked the Planet Hollywood hotel and casino a lot. It was
a lot like New York New York, but of course with a California
twist. The casino was pretty nice too, but they frown upon
taking photos there.


The best thing we liked about the Mirage was the pool. It
was pretty huge and in a natural-type setting.


We visited Circus Circus, and though it was ok, it did seem a bit
dated. However, we did catch a trapeze show there.


One thing that was pretty neat at Circus Circus was an indoor
amusement park called Adventuredome. We didn't ride any
rides, but because the dome itself is pink and there was lots
of rock like formations under the dome, it made us feel like
we were in the movie, Total Recall, which was set on Mars.


After having a really great Buffet at the Spice Market in Planet
Hollywood for dinner, we crossed the street to the Belagio, where
we watched the fountains. This is probably our favorite thing in
Las Vegas and I could watch it for hours!

To Moab and Back

Some of our best trips are the ones that we don't start out taking.
We were on our way to a place called "Trail Through Time" to take
a hike when we decided to drive further on down the road to Moab.
Moab Utah is kind of an outdoor enthusiast's mecca, primarily
catering to mountain bikers, hikers and jeep four wheelers. It's also
home to Arches National Park and Canyonlands Natonal Park. We've
been here many times before, but it's always interesting to check
out the scenery. We decided to take a back route and this led through
the small ghost town of Cisco.


At one time, about 400 people lived in Cisco and it was a center
for sheep ranching, the railroad (the Union Pacific still goes through
town) and minerals. Not much is left now besides lots of junk cars
and a few dilapidated buildings.


We turned toward Moab on Utah State Route 128. This is also known
as The Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway. After crossing the Colorado
River at Dewey Bridge, we checked out the first of many BLM
campgrounds we would drive by. We plan to camp at a few of
these later this summer.


There definitely isn't a lot of shade here, but the valley along
the river is really pretty and there are also lots of hiking trails
nearby.


While driving through Castle Valley, there are numerous spots where
the valley opens up, exposing huge red sandstone monoliths.


I'm a big fan of all the different types of sandstone and how it
settled over the eons. This particular sandstone formation was
laid down in lots of layers. All of this was once an immense amount
of sand on the bottom of an ancient sea.


Summer is still a bit away, but the weather was perfect and because
it was a Sunday. lots of rafters were out on the river. This particular
guy reminded us of the Punters on the Avon in New Zealand. I don't
think anyone would confuse these sandstone canyons with Christchurch,
New Zealand however.


When we got to Moab, it was past lunchtime and all of our exploring
made us hungry. I had seen on the internet a small drive in named
Milt's Stop & Eat. It's a tiny little place that's been open since 1954.
It looks like they cater a lot to mountain bikers and jeepers, and they
didn't have any car hops, but they had great hamburgers and it was
delicious enough for us to want to come back some time. On our
way out of town, we picked up some information from the Visitor's
Center for hiking trails and campgrounds for later this summer. We
plan on spending some time in this area this summer taking advantage
of everything this area has to offer.

Cups Coffee House

This morning, we visited the Cups Coffee House, here in
Grand Junction on 12th Street. It's located in the historic
Miller Homestead, which was built in 1889. Operated by the
Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Colorado, all proceeds
from Cups directly support the Hospice Child & Teen Center.
They've done a great job of restoring the inside of the house,
and it was a comfortable place to enjoy our Americanos.

Headed Home

Before we left for home, we stopped for lunch at a great
Mexican restaurant named the Red Iguana. It's been rated
by most as the best Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake City and
has even been featured on a favorite television show of mine
called Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The food was awesome!
It was the first Mexican food I've had since coming back to
the States (Taco Bell and Taco John's doesn't count) so I was
especially enamored by the food. They even make seven kinds
of Mole from scratch. We tried the Mole Coloradito which is
made from Pine nuts, almonds, peanuts, dried chile chiuacle
and guajillo chiles, blended with fresh chile poblano and
Mexican chocolate. It didn't disappoint. We will definitely
go back to the Red Iguana again.

Salt Lake City

I've been home two weeks and Lynn and I decided on a
change of scenery! Yes, we both still have the travel bug,
but we're taking trips close to home this summer. We headed
to Salt Lake City, which is about 4.5 hours away from home.
Along the way, we stopped at the new In-N-Out Burger in
Draper. In-N-Out is a regular stop of ours in California, but
now we have one only 4 hours from home! Good thing we
don't have one in Grand Junction because it certainly would
not be good for my waistline!


We checked into our hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and
it's a cute little mom and pop style motel, called the City
Creek Inn. It's located only blocks from the center of the
city. Salt Lake City is set in a beautiful location, with mountains
all around. Much like Denver, if Denver had been built right
against the Rockies instead of on the Plains. Right against
the mountains is the University of Utah. We drove around
the campus and saw Rice-Eccles Stadium. This is where the
opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics
were held.


Before we came back to the hotel for the night, we drove around
the downtown area. Salt Lake City is the home of the Mormon
(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) religion. Salt Lake
City is to the Mormons like Vatican City is to Catholics. The
centerpiece of their faith. The Temple itself is very pretty and
is especially so at night. We can't go inside though since we
aren't Mormon. Overall though, Salt Lake City is very welcoming
and there are lots of things to do here. We should have a good
time seeing the sights over the next couple of days.

I Won a Bagel!

My years of gleaning thousands of bits of useless information
and storing it into my brain came to be a benefit today. Lynn
and I were out for our walk and we stopped at the new Main
Street Bagel location on the Mesa State College campus. it's
in a great location, right on North Avenue and on the first
floor of one of the new dorms that have been recently built.
Anyway, we were ordering our drinks and the barista asked
if I wanted to play their Trivia Pursuit game for a chance to
win a free bagel. Silly silly Barista! I chose the Geography
category: Q: What Middle Eastern city is the center of the
Muslim religion? A: Mecca. Duh. I've known that since
Junior High. The other barista commented that more
Americans probably know that answer though now than
they did fifteen years ago since our country has had more
of a presence in the Middle East. I shrugged my shoulders,
and then Lynn and I enjoyed our free bagel!

Breakfast at Strawberry Fare

I met Susie this morning at Strawberry Fare for breakfast.
Lynn and I have been going to Strawberry Fare for years for
their desserts, but I never knew until now that they also were
open for breakfast. It was excellent, and like their deserts,
very decadent. Susie received a gift certificate from the
Station Manager before she left the Ice for all the difficulties
he caused her all season, so she was kind enough to share
it with me. She's leaving later in the day for a 10 day stay
in Wanaka, visiting with friends that have rented a house
there. As my time in Christchurch is starting to near an
end, more and more Ice people are leaving. It will be good
to move on as well.

Eating and Drinking

I think one of the things you miss the most about being on the
Ice is the ability to make choices. Especially things you eat and
drink. Especially when you re-enter the world in Christchurch, and
there are so many good restaurants and choices. I went to lunch today
with Melanie and Amy to the Belgian Beer Cafe Torenhof. Susie
introduced me to it in October and it's become one of my favorite
places to eat. They also have really good Belgian Beer as well.


When I left lunch, I walked over to the Asian Market. Lynn and I have
been going here for quite a few years now and although we don't need
any food right now, they have a special Green Tea that Lynn likes, so
I got a few tins to take home.


I also like the Chinese Gunpowder Tea, so I got a box of it to take home
as well.


It's funny because I'm not a big drinker at all, but somehow beer when
you're coming off the Ice tastes so much better. I went to Winnie
Bagoes for my friend Bamma's birthday party and because many
of her friends are also my friends as well, it was great to see so
many people I knew. I had pizza, which to be honest, Winnie Bagoes
has some of the better pizza in New Zealand and a Mac's Great White,
which is also a Belgian-style Beer. At the end of the day, both
my stomach...and liver...were happy!

Whew!

Because I'm probably headed south to the
Ice tomorrow, I ran my butt off silly
around Christchurch trying to get everything
done:
1. Go get per diem money at the CDC
2. Go to breakfast with Tad and Ken
3. Walk around Botanic Gardens taking photos
4. Eat a Souvlaki from Dimitri's
5. Buy cheese at the Cheese Monger
6. Buy Gunpowder Tea at Asian Store
7. Look at Maps at Map World
8. Ride bus to Lyttelton
9. Drink Long Black at The Ground
10. Ride bus from Lyttelton to Christchurch
11. Drop off Library Books
12. Eat takeaway from Thai Smile
13. Do laundry at hotel
14. Sleep
15. Whew!

The Day in Denver

Lynn reminded me tonight that in all the busy-ness yesterday,
we had both forgotten that my Dad passed away, one year ago,
on September 24th. I miss my Dad terribly and I think of him
almost every day. However, I think he'd be ok with the fact that
we forgot as we are making it through the grieving process.
Although not having him here with us is not easy, I hope it will get
easier with time.


So...today, I started the two day process of orientation at the
Raytheon Polar Services Company in Centennial, Colorado. It
seems like the information changes very little year after year, but
attending is one of the requirements of working on the Ice, so
it's something we all deal with. I liked these flags that were flown
at the Pole that are on display at the entrance to the building.


After my orientation was over, we received a message from our
friend (and my boss) Susie. She had left a binder and her itinerary
at the office and asked if we could bring it to her at the airport.
Not a problem, as we drove it there and saw our friend Liz there
waiting with her. For those of you that might remember, Liz
traveled with us quite a bit in Ecuador and Peru. I will see both
of them in Christchurch and have dinner with them the evening
before they head to the Ice. The day before me.


We enjoyed an excellent dinner at a restaurant called Citron New
World Bistro in Denver. We had been here several years ago when
it was still a Marie Callender's Restaurant. Definitely a nice last
dinner in the US for quite some time.


Of course we still had the evening ahead of us and one of
our favorite cheap things to do is going to Border's Books.
We had a big pot of tea and read some books and magazines.
Yes, not exactly an exciting Friday night, but something we
like to do. A relaxing last night in the States.

Unaweep-Tabeguache Byway

Today's schedule:
1. Breakfast at Lois' Place
2. Post Office to mail book I sold on Amazon.com
3. Fill the gas tank
4. Show Lynn where Salvation Army store is located
5. Start to pack for the Ice

Ok, numbers 1-4 went exactly as planned. No hitches.
However...we started to drive around Grand Junction,
looking at areas of town we hadn't seen before. We
found ourselves in the tiny town of Whitewater, just
south of Grand Junction and pulled out onto the highway.
Only it wasn't the highway going back the very short
distance to Grand Junction. It was the much longer
highway toward the even smaller town of Gateway on
the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway.
Colorado has 24 Scenic and Historic Byways located
around the state and several of them are near Grand
Junction. Of course, since the trip was a spur of the
moment occasion, I didn't have my camera along (duh)
so you'll have to take my word for it that it's an
amazingly beautiful drive. We drove through hours
of stark sandstone canyons, river-carved valleys and
fantastic vistas. Lots of history too, as we saw remnants
of old mines and even the remnants of a whole town
that was dedicated to mining Uranium (some of which
was used in the Manhattan Project in World War II).
Even better, it was the first big test for our new little
car and it performed like a champ! Just over 35 mpg
and we didn't even use a half tank of gas! If you're
coming to Colorado, this is definitely an off the
beaten path roadtrip that is worth your time!

For more information, visit the official website for
Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway

http://www.utbw.org/

Blackjack Pizza

Now that I'm less than two weeks out from leaving for
five months, I'm trying to get in all of my favorite things
just a few more times since it'll be March before they're
an option again. One of my favorite pizzas is a Colorado
based place called Black Jack Pizza. It's not the best I've
ever had anywhere, but it's a quality product and
reasonably priced. Plus the people are really nice when
we go there. Plus, they do one typically American thing
that seems to be a mystery to pizza makers in other
countries we've visited...actually using tomato sauce
on the crust! I'll miss it, (and other things to eat as
well) but five months will go by pretty quickly.

Time on Our Hands

Combine the fact that it was a cloudy morning with the fact that
my back was almost as red as my Oklahoma t-shirt (too much
pool), it was a perfect day to drive around the Valley and see
some things that needed to be seen. In our case that means
things that are cheap (free?) and what we might stumble upon.
Finding the Desert Botanical Gardens ($15 admission each) and
the Frank Lloyd Wright House ($30 admission each) a bit beyond
our price range, we opted for old standbys. Lynn wanted to visit
a yarn store in Mesa called the Fiber Factory. No, not the place
where Metamucil is made, although that might be an interesting
trip for another time...but one of the "best" yarn stores in the
Southwest. I have to admit that it was pretty nice if you're into
that sort of place, which Lynn is and the people working there
seemed very knowledgeable about Antarctica and Colorado.
However, they thought Colorado was cold all the time...shhhh...
don't tell them it's not!


While I was waiting for Lynn to peruse the yarn store from top to
bottom, I sat on the "man couch" and read a small newspaper
distributed by the Downtown Mesa Association. In it, they talked
about a "favorite" local Mexican restaurant just down the street
named Mangos Mexican Cafe & Bakery. In a word, it was
AWESOME! Lynn had the Chimichanga and I had Enchiladas and
even the chips and salsa beforehand were great. I found out later
that it had received 5 stars on several internet sites. I especially
liked having to walk through the kitchen to use the restroom.
All very authentic and real comfort food. As much as I love Mexican
food, we hadn't had any real Mexican food in a restaurant since
we came back from Ecuador. I love Taco Bell, but that doesn't
really count...neither does our new discovery, El Pollo Loco.


One of the main goals as we headed out the door was to
visit some used bookstores. We've visited both Bookman's
in Phoenix already, so we wanted something less commercial.
We found it walking back to the car from Mangos. The Book
Gallery. A really nice used bookstore, all of the books are
in good condition and don't smell of mildew. Something we've
run across quite a bit in used book stores. Lynn found a few
knitting books and I found a good book on Colorado
geography and then I stumbled across the "Flag section". Yes,
they actually had a small section of flag books. In it, I found
"Flags Through the Ages and Across the World" by Whitney
Smith. He is the man who coined the term "Vexillology".
I used to check this book out of the Naperville and Denver
Libraries and have seen battered versions of it for sale over
the years but never found a really good copy of it. Here it
was. Only problem...$35...Ouch! However, since the book is
already 34 years old and has been out of print forever...plus
the fact that this copy was in pristine condition...I had to bite
the bullet and buy it. Maybe I can sell some plasma or
something down the road to afford it. Later on, I looked it
up on Amazon and the cheapest copy is available for $106.
Definitely not a price I would pay for a book. I definitely
made a good purchase.


I drove by my old condo in Chandler and took a few pictures
since I didn't have any digital copies (yes, that sounds weird to
me as well) and even past the place where I wrecked Lynn's
Camry leaving the Dairy Queen in 1995 (no photos here
however). Afterwards, we were driving up I-10 toward
downtown Phoenix when there appeared an IKEA in Tempe
on the right hand side of the highway. We'd never been to
an IKEA before and we felt like browsing. For those who
don't know, IKEA is a huge (store size) Swedish-owned
household goods store that has locations around the world.
Everything in the store is VERY reasonable and affordable.
We're looking at making some updates to our house in the
next five years so we were really encouraged that we could
shop at IKEA and make some of the changes we want down
the road without bankrupting ourselves. Only trouble is, the
closest location to us is in Salt Lake City. Not very convenient,
but maybe someday.


Lastly, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble (sorry Ben) at
the Chandler Fashion Mall. Mainly because they have free
internet! They've made a deal with AT&T (boo) for free
internet access in all of their store cafes around the country
and if we get a small coffee, I don't feel so bad about
abusing their bandwidth. I'm finding that more and more
places are offering free Wi-Fi although here's the part of
this post where I complain. Our hotel only offers it in the
lobby for free, not in the rooms. If you want access in your
room you have to pay $9.95 per day. How is it that
seemingly every Motel 6 or Super 8 across every interstate
highway in America can offer "free" Wi-Fi access in their
motels, but a "resort" charging much more charges a
ridiculous price to do so. There...that's been bothering me
for the last 4 days and it's off my chest! And yes, I'm
smiling as I type this!