Everybody loves Taos! Even the locals get a glimmer in their eyes when you mention it, and exclaim “Oh, I love Taos!”. Monday we woke up to more beautiful weather and headed up the road from Santa Fe to our destination for our 5th anniversary.  It’s a beautiful drive that goes through the affluent neighborhoods in the hills north of Santa Fe, then follows the Rio Grande up through a rugged gorge before ascending up to the plains below the big mountains, where Taos sits. We got a few pics on the way, and discovered ankle-biting ants beside the road on the way.

We passed through Taos (pronunciation rhymes with House) and went back out into the backcountry, looking for the D.H. Lawrence Ranch. Lawrence is one of Tasha’s favorite authors and he has a lot of history there. Upon finding the ranch, where Lawrence lived for 11 months before he died, we headed up to the Memorial, a small brick building built to house Lawrence’s ashes. It is very tasteful and well-maintained. We signed the guestbook, and this experience was very special to Tasha! The ranch sits just below the slopes of the Sangre de Cristo range among the dwarf oaks, junipers, pinon pine, and tall Ponderosa pines. It has a variety of historic buildings and they still have horses in a large pasture overlooking Taos far below.

Afterward, we headed back into town but took a quick detour to the big arch bridge over the Rio Grande gorge. Stunning! The bridge has sidewalks so pedestrians can walk out and enjoy the view. We checked in to our hotel, the historic Taos Inn. The room was awesome, in a historic old adobe building right downtown. They even gave us a bottle of champagne for our anniversary! After checking out some of the sights around Taos, we had an absolutely delicious dinner at the Hotel’s restaurant, Doc Martins. They have legendary margaritas and fantastic food. I’m starting to like grilled shrimp more and more -especially after trying theirs.

This was the heart of our vacation and a wonderful day spent with the person I love very much. Tasha, thank you for making that such a great day!

Of course, there’s more to come. We’re off to the Grand Canyon next! Check in later for more pics and posts.