I also love our little set up above the stove...
today is the 4th of July and Michael and I are going out to San Bernadino to visit with Marty and Sarah.
I'm bringing some vegan pot luck for the festivities of baking in over 100 degree cali sun and of course, fireworks.
I made some Mocha chip muffins and they are delicious....i added extra chocolate chips cause i couldn't help myself.
Jess Linqwheatfree....you must try this Quinoa pasta! We had it the other night with meat(free) balls and veggies mixed in with a basil tomato sauce!
This is my parent's rich friend from college's guest house in Los Feliz. I was lucky enough to escape from under the 'Pasadena Revenge Stomper's' craziness and live in this amazing house for the week.
(my computer was getting fixed and everything was erased...that's why it appears that i stopped my journey in Gallop, NM!)
on another note....
what do you do when you are being bullied my the woman upstairs...well, i just got here...so i'm not really being bullied, but she's really put the family here at a disadvantage because when they close doors, cupboards and drawers "too loud" she leaves a note saying....."you were very loud this morning!" or when the woman upstairs feels so upset that...after my parents left yesterday at nine am on a monday she left a not saying..."NO MORE NOTES"
which basically means the following...
I realize that the stomps sound very quiet on the video...i blame it on mac for not having better microphone quality....she is quite loud, take my word!
so really, I don't officially live here...so i can't really go upstairs and talk to her.
She must be very lonely and never been in love....and not have a life
as much as this is annoying, I am completely fascinated by the 'human experiment' of it all....how is it that a 60 year old woman does this time and time.
Apparently the family that lived here before was so fed up with her that the husband smashed in her car windows!
All of the Authenticity we desired from Santa Fe....we got in Gallup.
We stayed at the beautiful El Rancho Hotel in the Jack Benny room and walked around town talking to locals and checking out some pawn shops. Gallup is centralized to many reservations so they get all of their items direct.
The downtown area was so cute, keeping it 50's, and 60's charm.
The El Rancho served as a home away from home for all the Western stars of the 30's and 40's. We had a couple drinks in the bar and then has some rice and beans salad with fried zucchini for dinner....we were in bed by 9:15....traveling is so tiring.
After our detour to Las Vegas we headed south to Santa Fe. We were both really excited to be going there as we thought it would be a cool, artsy place to live someday......we were very disappointed. The architecture I loved, but it lacked authenticity. It seems like disney came in and decorated and there were so many tourists that I had no desire to explore much of downtown.
I treated Michael for his birthday to a very nice spa that night. Ten Thousand Waves was set up in the mountains a bit above the city and we had a hot tub, sauna and massages before retiring to the Santa Fe Sage Inn.
The next morning we had coffee at a pretty cool cafe called Aztec Cafe,
and hit up a few of the vintage western wear shops where Michael tried on some very '3:10 to Yuma' cowboy hats.....the one that looked amazing was 100 dollars...so it still in the shop.
We drove down to Albuquerque and stopped at a couple more vintage shops and record stores before getting on the road to Gallup.
Las Vegas is where all the old trails would meet up so there is a lot of history in this town. It comes out of no where...which seems to be pretty common here in the SW. They have over 900 buildings on the register for Historic places and they have 2 historic sections of town. One on the north side of the creek where the plaza is.
More of the older downtown....
After talking with the owner of the Blue Swallow we decided to take a back road to Santa Fe via Las Vegas, NM.
The 104 was bare with only a few other cars on the road.
We passed this Lonely cow on the way.
About half way to Las Vegas we came upon Cochas Damn and Lake....after miles of the scenery above, the lake smiled in sapphire.
We were greeted at the entrance with a beautiful family of Deer.
Tucumcari was a great stop on 66. So many of the only motels and diners were still there...or at least their signs were. We had dinner at the Pow Wow Restaurant and breakfast the next day at 66 kicks diner.
The big highlight of Tucumcari was the Blue Swallow Motel. The Motel had a great feel to it; with a garage for every room, a cigarette machine with route 66 brand cigarettes still in it, and 2 amazing classic cars in almost perfect shape that I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of. This town felt like the real 66 spirit was still trying it's hardest to shine.
Tucumcari was a great stop on 66. So many of the only motels and diners were still there...or at least their signs were. We had dinner at the Pow Wow Restaurant and breakfast the next day at 66 kicks diner.
The big highlight of Tucumcari was the Blue Swallow Motel. The Motel had a great feel to it; with a garage for every room, a cigarette machine with route 66 brand cigarettes still in it, and 2 amazing classic cars in almost perfect shape that I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of. This town felt like the real 66 spirit was still trying it's hardest to shine.
