Ghost town & Garden of the Gods

The Garden of the Gods is magnificent. Rocky outcrops that blow your mind, Coloured sandstone with incredible conglomerate chunks of quartz and other little rocks all through it. Colours and patterns.....
And as you have all worked out something we are likely to go nuts over.

A Rock formation Called the "Simease Twins".

The view from the park's visitor information centre. (Yes, that's Pikes Peak in the back ground) We had lunch at the cafe they have at this centre. Awesome view! This photo only captures about 1/5 of the panorama, with more rock out crops and more, middle distance sized, large mountains.

This formation is part of the big red outcrop in the right of the picture above. The call it the "Kissing Camels" For obvious reasons.

Inside the museum.

Went to the Ghost Town Wild West Museum.

Off to Colorado

It was beautiful to see streams with snow. Quite picturesque.

We all were very excited when we spotted this squirrel. They are sooo cute.

This is a picture of the mountain cabin we are staying in. It is small but very warm and cosy. And most importantly has a fantastic view of Pikes Peak.

And this is Pikes Peak Mountain from our veranda. Stunning.

Leaving New Mexico and driving into the state of Colorado.

Museum and church

Inside church: this photo doesn't really show how magnificent this church is. It was truely beautiful

San Felipe de Neri church : Old town

New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science

Kids and I had a great time exploring the Museum. There was so much to see. Jack & Tom loved talking to the lady about rocks and minerals, and Timothy was enthralled by the small live shark in a big fish tank.

Exploring Old Town and the local park

Having a late lunch in our thermals

The kids loved playing in this park.

Old town

SanFelipe de Neri Church: Old town

Old Town

One of the requests the kids had of America was going to a park. We found this park right next to Old town which is in walking distance of our house. We had a lovely time there and the kids made friends with some local kids. It was good to spend some time doing a 'normal' eveyday activity and having a break from all the sightseeing.

Old Town follows the traditional Spanish pattern of a central plaza and church surrounded by homes and businesses. There are restaurants and shops and museums. Shopping here is delightful and we found many native indian handicrafts and art work.

We dropped Steve off at the Centre for Action and Contemplation at lunch time. He was going to head off to his leaders forum called Solarize. He should have a great time. Jo had to drive on the 'wrong side of the road' for the first time and this went well. No accidents and no-one beeped at her. Jo and the kids are planning to spend the rest of Friday and Saturday just relaxing and catching up on sleep. On Sunday they plan to go to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science before picking Steve up at 2 pm.

More of Sandia Peak

Albuquerque at Sunset

Sandia Peak Tramway

More snow fun

We had a wonderful time at Sandia Peak. After taking the Tramway up to the top (takes 15 minutes) we were able to explore. As it was late in the afternoon we were in the shade which made it a lot colder. However we were having too much fun to let the cold bother us. The snow was a little icey and hard and so making a snow man was not possible today but we spent a lot of time sliding down the hills.

Going back down the tramway at sunset was spectacular. Timothy missed it though as he had fallen asleep in mum's arms while we were waiting for the tram. The snow realy did wear him out.

Fun in the Snow

View from top of Sandia peak

Ready for the snow

Red Mesa

The CAC have purchased this land to hold future MROP's

View from top of Red Mesa and the land CAC owns

The men from around the world who run MROPS

Another view from top

Red Mesa : home of MROP

Kids first spotting of snow

Interstate 40 going west

Centre of Action and Contemplation : home of Richard Rohr and the Men's Rights of Passage.

Albuquerque

We didin't realise just how big a large pizza was. Much bigger than Australia.















Happy 13th Anniversary














Sandia Peak: elevation 10,000 feet















Cookie dough anyone????

Breakfast cereal in huge packaging (much like dog food bags)

Our holiday house in Alburquerque

Happy 9th Birthday Tom

We were invited to sit inside the cock pit of the plane we flew in to Albuquerque. This was exciting and would not have happened if we had not missed our earlier flight. Instead of flying directly to Albuquerque we had to fly to Denver first then switch planes and fly to Albuquerque. It was annoying but we all survived and we live to see another day.

LA highway.