August Trip to New Mexico - 2010 - day 9

Sunday - Had breakfast at the Flying Star in Bernalillo and then headed up toward the Jemez Mountains for the day. This was a good day to get out of town for a while. We drove past the Zia Indian pueblo and turned north at San Ysidro. The scenery and views are beautiful. We stopped at the Jemez pueblo - Walatowa - and spent some time at the visitor's center. Jeanne bought several magnets -- this seems to be our main purchase item on this trip. They have some nice Indian-made things but also have stuff that looks Indian but is from Pakistan or India. The pueblos look very poor but the Jemez seem to have a lot of services and a good looking school. We couldn't get close enough to the Zia pueblo but from the distance it looked like it could use some help.

We continued up the highway through Jemez Springs and stopped at the Jemez Mission...a state monument. The mission dates from about 1621 and is a huge ruin of a church and associated monastic and support buildings. The mission predates the Pueblo Uprising and was eventually abandoned. The Indians moved down the valley away from the mission and established the current Walatowa pueblo village. We were at 6,300 ft. and she didn't want to push her luck so Jeanne stayed at the museum. Jill and I walked around the ruins taking pictures but Jill got a little spooked about the rattlesnake warning signs and went back to sit with Jeanne.

We headed back down the valley (Jemez Creek is a trout stream!!) and it was beginning to threaten rain. We stopped in a cafe called the Laughing Lizard in Jemez Springs and had some pretty good pizza. The place was family-run and pretty slow and we again we had to realize we were on New Mexico time. We went a few blocks and stopped at a shop called Weekends and looked at all kinds of 'alternative' stuff (prayer flags, smudge sticks, bumper stickers, etc.) and picked out a few things but the owner was involved in a long-winded discussion with another customer that went on about 20 minutes....so we had plenty of time to shop.

We had wanted to stop at the Ponderosa Valley Winery but it closes at 5 PM and we were running out of time. On a whim we decided to make the short detour to the winery and they were open and still doing tasting. This turned out to be the best wine we had on the trip. We figured we were stragglers and would get a quick visit but people kept coming in -- about four groups after us. Again, New Mexico time. The winery owners seemed happy to have the visits and everyone got the best treatment. Jill walked around taking pictures of the five dogs and the hundred or so hummingbirds. The storm caught us and things were a little wet as we headed back to Albuquerque but we could see three or four storms in the distance that looked impressive. We finally got a pretty good rain as we came into Bernalillo.

We ended the evening playing Uno and having a "happy hour" in our room.