old trees and rainbow rocks: the painted desert & the petrified forest

i've been sitting here, looking at these photos for hours trying to figure out just what to say about them. but there's nothing that i can say that the pictures can't say themselves. so i'll be quiet on this one, and let the photos speak for themselves. enjoy!

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

we were so lucky to be in the right spot at the right time to get these photos of a train traveling on the santa fe railroad. and i loved them all, so instead of sharing one or two of them, i decided to make a gif!

  

   

 

(this is a close up of a fallen fossilized tree from 225 million years ago. omg, so cool.)

the continental divide: where does the rain go?

the continental divide is kind of super cool. it runs from the bering strait in alaska to the strait of magellan in chile, over 6700 miles long. because it's so long, it passes through twelve countries (us, canada, mexico, guatemala, honduras, nicaragua, costa rica, panama, colombia, ecuador, peru, & chile) and six us states (alaska, montana, idaho, wyoming, colorado, & new mexico). it's nifty to think that at any given moment someone else is passing over the continental divide in another country or state.

i also think it's pretty neat to think about how rainfall reacts near the continental divide. if it's raining on the west side of the divide, the water runoff is draining into the pacific ocean, while if it's raining on the east side, the rain drains into the atlantic ocean. and of course, this all makes sense, but it's still awesome to revel in nature's beauty and common sense sometimes. 

georgia in the southwest: the georgia o'keefe museum

black mesa landscape, new mexico

out back of marie's II 1930

georgia o'keefe has always been one of my favorite artists. so going to her museum in santa fe was a no brainer. unfortunately, the museum was a bit of a disappointment. at $12 a ticket, csv and i expected to see tons of her work -- her flowers, landscapes, and images of the southwest -- but were disappointed to see that this museum in particular, only focused on her southwest images and so landscapes that she'd painted of new mexico. now, don't get me wrong, everything was amazing and beautiful. i just wish there had been more of it.

normally, i'm not a fan of taking pictures of artwork in museums -- for me, art is something you should enjoy and soak up while you're standing in front of it -- but since we'd paid so much money, and i had my fancy new camera, i couldn't resist. these are just a small sampling of what was being shown in the museum; truth be told, this might make up one quarter of the collection. i hope you enjoy them as much as i did.

 

pedernal 1941/42                                                                           ghost ranch landscape 1936

horse's skull with white rose 1931

 

        church steeple 1930                                    bear lake, new mexico 1930

ram's head, blue morning glory 1938


blue-headed indian doll 1935

kokopelli 1942                             kokopelli with snow 1942

2013 -- week 29 -- a regular, normal week.

sometimes it's difficult to find the words to describe our week. i will sit for hours in front of the computer thinking about how to make that week's description interesting and relevant. but sometimes it's not possible. the week speaks for itself; there isn't anything that i can add to make it more interesting or explain it better.

this week is one of those weeks. it wasn't a busy week, and it wasn't a slow week. it was a medium week. we did things each day, but nothing particularly stood out. but i guess that's what real life is like. it's not always interesting. it's just regular or normal -- you get up, you go to work, you come home, you sleep. and it's ok to have these kinds of weeks, the weeks you can't really describe, because they just were. because you can't always be doing something extraordinary; sometimes you just need to do some laundry and wash the dishes.


do you ever have these kinds of weeks? what are they like for you & your family?

road trip -- tulsa, oklahoma to santa fe, new mexico -- day 4

in the course of driving across the country, we noticed that every part of the country is distinct -- the landscapes for each region are unique and different. the east coast is a plethora of tall trees and rolling hills. and it's green. green green. (at least in the spring and summer.) but as we traveled west of the mississippi we started to watch the landscape change. in missouri, it was still green, we were driving through the ozarks after all, but the hills began to flatten. and then we started driving on day four, the day we drove across oklahoma and texas. and we saw a whole new landscape start to emerge. 

 

oklahoma and the texas panhandle are flat and covered in farm land. specifically farm land for grazing and raising cattle. as a result, we saw a lot of cattle during the course of our twelve hour drive across the two states. one of the farms we passed had more cattle on it than i've ever seen before in my life. and because i know nothing about cattle, i couldn't even begin to guess at how many cows there were. but it was a lot.

 

 this region is also known for it's tornados. in fact, a pretty deadly tornado had destroyed a couple of towns in oklahoma the week before we drove through, so we made sure to read up on what to do in case of a tornado as we drove through. (in case you're wondering, don't pull over under an underpass, it creates a wind tunnel. instead you should pull over, get out of the car, and get into the ditches that are so conveniently dug along the side of the highway.)

 

  

we didn't stop in texas for very long, because we were trying to hightail it to santa fe for the night, but we did take in some of the route 66 wonders along the way. like the leaning water tower and the giant cross in groom, texas, the midpoint of route 66 where i desperately had to pee, and for a quick dinner at the big texan in amarillo. since we were in a bit of a rush, we didn't get a chance to pull over to check out cadillac ranch just west of amarillo, texas. which is unfortunate, because i would have enjoyed checking out those ten cadillacs buried in the ground. they're supposed to be quite the sight. all we saw of this historic art piece, was what we viewed at 70 mph from I-40.

but we made it to new mexico before it was too dark and we couldn't get a good picture of the  welcome sign!

maybe the coolest thing that happened during this long day of driving was after we put the camera away for the night -- we drove through one of the craziest, most awesome lightening storms. we were never in any danger, in fact, we were barely even rained on, but the lightening was spectacular. it was like the god's were at war and throwing lightening bolts at one another. the flashes were constant but muted because most of the lightening never even hit the ground; it was all in the grey and angry clouds.   it's a bummer it was too dark for pictures because those photos would have been amazing.

santa fe, new mexico -- home to some of the oldest buildings in the us

i've always heard great things about santa fe and it's supposed to be one of the most travelled to destinations in the united states. so instead of spending the night in albuquerque, we traveled a little farther north, through some crazy lightening storms, and stayed in santa fe. when we woke up, we were greeted by beautiful blue skies and peach colored adobe as far as the eye could see. 

we didn't have a lot of time to explore downtown santa fe, but we did walk around a bit and we were amazed at how old santa fe is. not only is the palace of the governor, located in santa fe's plaza, the oldest public building in the united states but both the oldest church and the oldest house in the usa are located in santa fe as well!

(oldest being a relative term, of course. in this case it refers to oldest colonial buildings and not the oldest buildings constructed by native peoples.)

 

 

 

walking around santa fe, i can see why so many people come to visit every year: the weather was beautiful, the buildings were gorgeous, and it had an old world feel. plus, the art scene is supposed to be amazing. but what i loved the most was our breakfast at tecolote cafe -- try their huevos yucatecos; they're spectacular.



what do you love about santa fe?