Taos, New Mexico – Day 3

Today we set out exploring the Enchanted Circle.

Online they say it takes about 2 hours. We took about 4 with stops and grabbing lunch. Since we hit Taos ski valley yesterday we headed up towards Questa. This is where we saw our first sighting of wildlife.

 

We drove through Questa towards Red River where we saw a wild turkey climbing up a cliff. He moved to fast for us to get a picture. Then made a stop at a popular ghost town Elizabethtown which was home to several thousand miners during New Mexico’s “gold rush” in 1866. Ummm well I don’t recommend stopping there isn’t much to see except this…

We drove up there and there’s nothing there besides a few private properties. There’s an old fire truck, a super rusted out car and an old church with new windows and doors.

So back on the road and we stopped at Eagle Nest Lake for a potty break and to walk down by the water. It was so windy i felt like it was a beach with the snow topped mountains in the back ground.

We even saw some prairie dogs running around. They run pretty quick so I couldn’t get too close to them.

Our next stop was the Vietnam Memorial located just out of Angel Fire. This is a fantastic memorial and really brings tears to your eyes. There’s also a chapel on site. This all started as a memorial from a father (Doc) to his son (David Westphall) who was killed in an ambush in Vietnam. Angel Fire holds special meaning to this family as it was the last place David visited prior to deploying to Vietnam even donating books to the local library.

 

In 1994 Doc visited Vietnam with his son to the site where the ambush happened, spreading dirt from the memorial site and gathering dirt to bring back home to the memorial.

Inside the memorial you can find all sorts of history, stories, medals, items used in combat and pay your respect to the sons lost to war.

Our next stop was Angel Fire for lunch. Like Taos Ski Valley everything here was shut down as well except for a bakery, a family style restaurant and a Chinese restaurant. We picked Yu Garden to eat.

Normally they have a buffet ($7.95 adults, $6.95 kids), but with less and less people around they just have their menu items. We ordered Hunan Chicken and General Tso’s Chicken both $7.50 which came with soup, fried wonton, spring roll, rice, and tea. Overall it was filling and tasted just like back home.

 

Full from lunch we circled back through Taos, stopping at a little shop that made the hanging pepper decorations. If you have time stop in this shop she also sells them online. We got a quick lesson of how she makes them all herself and grows the peppers as well. She also sells chile powders and bags of chile pods.

We headed back home to rest up then ventured back out for a light dinner. About a block away from the Chile shop is the Adobe Bar in the Taos Inn. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also known for legendary margaritas so we had to try one.

The Historic Taos Inn is made up of several adobe houses, which date from the 1800's, and which surrounded a small plaza—now the Inn's spectacular lobby. Read more of it’s history HERE.

On Monday’s they do a beer tasting for those of you who enjoy tasting new beers. Since it was Sunday we stuck to the margaritas. We started off with a famous Cowboy Buddha  $9.50 (Herradura Silver, Cointreau, hand-squeezed lime juice) and a more traditional Perfect Margarita  $9.00 (Cuervo Gold, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, fresh lime juice, sweet & sour).

We weren't hungry enough for a full meal so we ordered an Adobe Bar Burrito off of the bar menu.  (Pinto Beans, Cheddar and jack cheeses, wrapped in a flour tortilla and served with salsa $5 add chicken $9 or add steak $9.50) We went with the steak which wasn’t bad, but totally not worth the $9.50.

We ordered one last margarita before heading back home. Fire on the Mountain  $9.50 (Milagro Silver, triple sec, sweet & sour, topped with a float of Chichicapa Mezcal) Wow this has a smoky taste to it. I didn’t like it, but D did so that’s all his. We would have loved to try more, but at $9 a margarita it gets pricey.

On our way back to the house we stopped to take a few pictures of the horses as the sun was setting. So pretty!

   

We ended another day in the hot tub gazing at the stars and watching the full moon rise.

Taos, New Mexico – Day 2

Today we ventured around the town of Taos and stopped at the local grocery stores to stock up on supplies.

For all of you Whole Foods and Central Market shoppers you’ll be pleased to see a store that is very similar to it. Not as big of a selection, but filled with organic items.

There’s also  a Smith’s which Kroger owns, a Walmart and Albertson’s. There’s more stores to shop at then I had thought. Another nice feature is that the grocery stores also sell liquor, if only ours did back home that would be one less stop I would have to make when shopping.

We stopped for lunch at the local brewery Eske’s. BTW they open at 11am, that’s not listed on the site. We ordered a flight of beer to taste all the flavors they had on tap. ($1.50 per tasting)

I had read many reviews online talking about how good The Fatty and Cheese Burger where so we ordered one of each. We sat out side in the “garden” since the weather was so nice. They even have a sand area for the kids.

The Fatty $8.75 (A whole wheat tortilla filled with beans, homemade mashed potatoes, onions, feta cheese, and cheddar cheese all smothered in Wanda’s Green Chile Turkey Stew.) Oh wow, this is a filling dish and even though you’re full you’ll keep going back for more!

Cheese Burger $6.75 (A lean ground beef patty topped with cheddar cheese is served on a whole wheat bun with mayonnaise, a lettuce and tomato and pickle garnish, and corn chips with salsa.) We ordered the addition of New Mexico Green Chiles for a total of $7.25, because where where after all in New Mexico for the chilies and food! The waitress told us that they just switched over to grass fed beef without upping the cost and you could tell a difference in the flavor. I admire how the restaurants here value organic and more natural ingredients.

 

As for the beer I settled with the Sexy Mexy a Mexican Amber Lager and D went with the Doobie Rock Heller Bock.

 

Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? I really like how it blooms!

D set up his computer and got everything lined up and working so he could work during the week. Then we headed out to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

Located 10 miles outside of town this is a must see place! Walking across a bridge that’s 650 feet above the Rio Grande just makes you say wow. It’s the 5th highest bridge in the United States and another fun fact is you have seen this bridge in films, including Natural Born Killers, Twins, She's Having a Baby, Wild Hogs and Terminator Salvation.

 

After spending time at the bridge we headed up to Taos Ski Valley. There’s not much to see up there because the ski season closed 2 weeks ago, but we didn’t care we wanted to see snow!

 

For dinner we headed back into town to eat at Orlando’s which is voted best Mexican Food in Taos County since 2005. We had high hopes for this going in.

 

We started out with cocktails ordering a Sangria on the rocks $5.50 and Mike-arita $5.50. Both where ok nothing to wow about.

For the entrees we went with the La Reina $9.75 (One rolled blue corn cheese and onion enchilada with choice of chile, two pork medallions topped with chile caribe. Served with beans, posole and a flour tortilla.) I chose the green chile on the enchilada since the pork medallions came with the red sauce. The pork was really good, but if you don’t handle spice very well then don’t order this. I loved the heat, but boy does it light you up! The enchilada was like any other I had, loaded with lots of cheese. 

We also ordered the Combination Plate $9.95 (One rolled cheese and onion enchilada, one soft shell chicken or beef taco and your choice of tamale or chile relleno. Served with beans and posole.) We picked the beef taco and chile relleno. The dish was just ok. The relleno was stuffed with cheese and wasn’t that much bigger then a stuffed fried jalapeno I make at home. I would order something different next time.

We finished up our evening in the hot tub watching the sun set. Ahhh what a great day.  

Taos, New Mexico – Day 1

14 hours in the car is a long time, but for us it’s cheaper then flying and we get to see a lot more along the way. West Texas has tons of these wind farms around and I’m glad to see they are taking advantage of the wide open windy areas. To get an idea of the size of these things here’s one next to a train.

10 hours driving across Texas wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. D and I swapped off driving which made it go a lot quicker too. Once we entered New Mexico it was a different story. The last 4 hours of our journey seemed like FOREVER! It was nice to start seeing something other than flat land around us.

We arrived at the house a little after 9:30pm. The owner wasn’t expected to be there, but he got caught up so it was nice to meet the guy we had been talking to while planning the trip. It was also a pleasant surprise to have a bottle of wine and cookies waiting for us. :)

Nagoya

Our friends have raved about this place for a while now and how personal the wait staff is, the prices are great and everything they’ve tried has been amazing. Well, we had to try it now! Nagoya really is all that and more! I absolutely loved this place. We hadn’t eaten anything all day so would could try several dishes which we did and more. I didn’t want to stop eating nor did I want to leave.

Since we where eating the dinner portions we where served miso soup and a house salad. Most miso soups I have are usually watered down or greasy. This one wasn’t it had a really nice flavor to it. The salad is just like any other salad you get so nothing special to report with that.

We chose a Yankiniku Don (Grilled beef and onion in Japanese style, served with sweet garlic soy sauce) $13-dinner Love love love this dish. The sweet garlic soy sauce is perfect on this. I think without it the beef would have been bland. The vegetables where cooked nicely and not soggy or too crispy. I would defiantly order this again.

Since we love sushi we split a Roll Combo (Rock’n Roll roll, Snow Crab Roll and Spicy Tuna Roll) $13.50 All very fresh tasting and really filling.

We figured we would order one more roll so we settled on the Volcano Roll $10.95 which was just added to the menu, but not yet listed yet. This big mamma jamma is best eaten in 2 bites instead of the traditional 1 (and maybe use a fork). It’s really good!

I almost had to be rolled out of the restaurant, but when we get to have sushi and leave paying under $50 it’s a good place to go. They have a LONG list of items on their menu with lots of things to pick from so I would definitely say to stop by and check them out. OH and if you follow them on Twitter or Facebook you’ll get monthly coupons. Check out their website and view the newsletters for the monthly discounts. I can’t wait to go back here!!