July 23- Socorro

We have been enjoying a relaxing last few days in Socorro after getting back from Taos. Yesterday, we had a very lazy day overall. We played board games after a late breakfast, did a little work and ate some lunch. After lunch, we headed out to a park in town to play Frisbee, have a water gun fight and play on the swings and climbers. We then headed for home and made some black bean chipotle salsa and fajitas. All the kids loved them and ate seconds: progress on getting them to spice up their favorites!

This morning we headed into Albuquerque after breakfast. We went into old town and had a picnic lunch near the Natural History Museum. We then visited that museum. We had been in it 4 years ago when we had visited Albuquerque for Kris's wedding and really liked it. This time was even better. We spent 3+ hours there and could have easily stayed another hour or two. This museum had the right combination of information, displays, sounds and things to touch on things like dinosaurs, space, geology, animals and history. If you find yourself in Albuquerque with kids, make the time to visit this museum. It was very interesting and a lot of fun. They also had a great IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon and the Colorado river. After seeing that movie, I am recruiting to go on the 18-day white water rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. Send me an email if you are in! I think the kids were a little scared after seeing that as none of them were willing to sign up when I asked. I will have to work on them over the next few years.
After that we had a must see museum request from the boys- the rattlesnake museum. This is s small display of about 30 different types of rattlesnakes in the back of a store in old town. From the 8x10 picture on the cash register of the owner catching an 8 foot rattler a few years ago, you know it is his love. They also have displays of black widows, Gila monsters and other cool reptiles. Then there are the video's running in continuous loop of different characters talking about snakes. One such character was the 90 year old snake man. He has been bit over 150 times by a wide variety of poisonous snakes and continues to work with them daily. Years ago he started to de-sensitize himself to snake venom and gives himself a booster every week! The boys and I (the ladies found something else to do) spent almost 45 minutes in there and could have been in there another 30 minutes easily. They loved it.
For dinner tonight, we have steak with goat cheese and an Ancho Chile sauce with home-made Cascabel Onion rings on the side. Mmm.
Off to the Inn of the Mountain Gods resort tomorrow as a pit stop on our way to Carlsbad Caverns.

Mike