Our very good friends the Lachmans are in Santa Fe at the same time as we are again. This time its a sad reason. Steve’s dad Marvin is in hospice care and the family is our visiting him and his wife Carol who live out where Max and Becky used to live. Last time we saw everyone it was last summer when they were out for Marvin’s 90th birthday. He’s an incredible guy  and known around the world as a book critic of mystery novels. Marvin and Carols house is like an incredible library . You can see pictures of it here when we visited back in 2020 .
Steve isn’t here, but his wife Kate, their son Matthew his wife Caroline and their 2 year old daughter Anna are here. We spent a good part of the day with them.. First we met Kate, Matthew, Caroline and Anna at the very fun Santa Fe Childrens museum It’s a big bright place with lots of great hands on fun. It was especially fun for me to look at it as a make of interactive exhibits.   It was also fun to try and see it through 2yo Anna’s eyes !

Later in the afternoon we all met up again at Harrys roadhouse. A really fun place we go to often thats down near where Kate and family are staying. Max actually helped pain the tables here when he and Becky first moved out here.   Its a fun and family friendly place .

It was great to get Max and Becky together with Matt and Caroline. Max and Matt have been friends since they were 8 weeks old !

Even though it was a bittersweet reason or happening.. It was a great visit..

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Pretty quiet day. Diane and I didn’t have a car so we took a long walk downtown which was really nice. We checked out our favorite places, the , Seret  and Sons, the  toy store and found  a couple of new places.. like  this very cool light shop 

 

Later that evening we opened a gift that diane had bought for  violet (and for Nova) .. a kit from King Arthur flower for making your own high quality dog biscuits.Diane baked a batch and  I tried an apple one .. they were pretty good.. you just had to think “biscuit” not cookie. 

That night Max, Becky, Diane and I went to Marias.. our favorite Southwestern place for great food.. and the best soppapillas.. It was so nice !

Back at the house Max showed us his mushroom set up.. He is currently growing Blue Oysters.. It’s aa very cool process !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Ffter our workout, Diane and I borrowed one of  Max and Becky’s cars and drove up to the Northern Dale Ball trails for a quicxk hiuke. We love these trails. THhy were a bit snowy and muddy.. but the scenery was great as always !

We spent the rest of the day working around Max and Beckys.. The big job was to put  up a new fence screen.. Violet and the elements had pretty much shredded the old one.    As always, it took longer than planned.. but looked good by the end.  Eventually I think the plan is to build an Adobe fence here.. but for now this provides some privacy . I dont think Violet is a biug fan of proivacy she hung out as qwe did it and actually plopped down on the fence whenever she could to slow us down 🙂 . 

Diane and I had dinner at Tuneup down the street.. The moon on the way back was beautiful !

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Today was really special. We started with a wonderful brunch at Daily General.. The place was really bright and filled with interesting books and cooking gadgets. 

Soon after we started the hour and a half drive north to Ojos Calientes host springs. The drive was great.. The Hot Springs were  indescribably (but I’ll try anyway. as cameras were not allowed in).. The springs were surrounded by a low key resort.. all adobe with a hotel , restaurant and spa. The pools themselves have been here for centuries. Its was an organized spa since the early 1900’s .. and some of the original foundations are still  around. The pools are of various temperatures./ all pretty warm.. but not too hot. Each pool (supposedly) has different mineral content, eg iron. arsenic, lithium, sodium each with different curative powers.  Its not clear how they got the water in each to have different minerals :-).. Each pool was surrounded by places to sit and sun.. Since The air was quite cool.. the place wasn’t busy . We spent more than 3 hours checking out all the pools, the steam room and the Sauna.. We loved the steam room best !  There was also a mud bath where you could cover yourself with mud and dry in the sun.   not warm enough to dry completely.. but fun.. Max got himself completely covered.. i got mostly covered..   Later on (see below) they closed the mud bath for cleaning.. how funny is that ?!

One of the great things was there was a rule to keep voices down to a whisper… so it was very peaceful and quiet

Bliss !

When it was tiem to leave we went in and changed and came out.. then I had my phoen nand had a chance to do a little photographing.. and got to plave a SamStone in the contemplative labyrinth they had…
 

The drive back towards Santa Fe was amazing .. the sunset on the moutnains was beutiful.. and defies photography.. but I tried anyway

 

On the way we stopped a place called Gabriels which we’ve sen for years.  It was fantastic !. Great southwestern with really good Sopapillas. We sent our Gabriel pictures !

When we got home, we gathered agaiun and Maxc and Beckys .. Max had brought back some fun  presents from his trip to Vietnam.. For me wasabi flavored kitkats, red bull concentrate, squid flavored Pringles and a very cool shirt made out of bamboo fabric. He got diane a beautiful tunic 

Max also got himself a gifts He had 3 suits hand made in Vietnam. They were beautifully made and look so great on him !

One last pic.. While at the hot springs, Max lent me my dads old bathrobe whihc he uses all the time.  also used my fatjher on law Gabe’s glass case.  It felt good to use them ! 

What a day !
nite all, nite sam

-me