Catch Up, Part 3

It was a whirlwind trip to New Mexico -- with no less than three different friends opening their homes to me ...

Mostly I parked myself at the resource center, trying to get some work done and schedule meetings.

It was most definitely cart/horse chaos -- but it mostly worked out the way I had hoped.

Along the way, I remembered to take a few photos, but not often enough to actually document the trip.

I had a lovely and uneventful overnight train ride to Albuquerque.  Maria, my lovely seatmate, was gregarious and entertaining ... and she also left me alone to get some work done.  Every thing you could want in a travel companion.  In fact, I got her name and number because she said she was looking for someone to travel with her.  I immediately thought of my mother and her desire to go places and my father's refusal to do so.  Maria is perfect in many ways as a travel companion for my mom, not the least of which is that she works at JCPenney ... aka my mom's store.

I didn't snap any pictures, but the remnants of the full harvest moon gave us a beautiful show as we exited California.

The next morning, I woke (if I was actually sleeping is up in the air) to the most gorgeous sunrise.  Orange seemed to explode from the horizon giving the Arizona landscape the most exquisite back lighting.  I thought about taking out my phone to snap a picture, but decided to just enjoy it in my half-waking, half-sleeping state.

Usually, I like to try to wake up to see La Posada for the Winslow, AZ stop.  But I didn't have the window.

The familiar territory between Gallup and Albuquerque carried a magical twist: WATER!  As we passed through the Grants area, it was as if we were suddenly traveling through marshland complete with ducks and egrets or herons.  I was too taken with this twist to the landscape, I didn't bother to try to capture it with anything other than my mind. 

We had a sweet and friendly group of people in our car mostly headed to Albuquerque. There was one man who was headed all the way to Chicago (he helped Maria carry her luggage off the train) who got off with us to see Albuquerque for a bit.  The train was twenty minutes early and usually stops for some sprucing up for another twenty.

One of the cutest sights at the train station, though, was this gorgeous toddler who had been quiet as a mouse in the train.  Now she wanted to give everyone hugs.  She made the rounds, even stopping to embrace a post that looked lonely.  It was a loving re-entry to Albuquerque.
-----------

I met Enrique and his aunt waiting for the train to Santa Fe on Friday evening.  He let me know from the beginning that he was not going to talk to strangers, whether his aunt encouraged him or not.

In his four short years, he has already developed an aversion for the snapping of photos.  Though whenever I offered to show him pictures, he was happy to see them.

Saturday afternoon, my friends invited me to their daughter's school picnic.

It was at a lovely park in the middle of a housing development on the southern end of Santa Fe.  It had park area with grass and room to put out food under a little structure.  But the other side, gravel, sidewalk and art was the real prize. Between the two parks was a little stand of apple trees and sunflowers. 

I was taken by these showy sunflowers.  I almost caught a busy bee visiting this very flower, but I was not quick enough with the shot.  The bee had way too many beautiful flowers to visit.   Thanks to all the monsoons New Mexico is celebrating the summer with green and blooms as if it were still spring.


There was a wide range of sculpted art in the small area.
I loved all the art, but I thought that the flowers stole the show.