Thanksgiving in Albuquerque
For Thanksgiving we journeyed to Albuquerque to have a family Thanksgiving at the
home of Amelia's sister and her husband, Becky and Don Beardsley. We left here and
arrived there on November 26, after a somewhat eventful trip (more in the next posting).
Old Town Abuquerque
On Wednesday we went down to Old Town Albuquerque with Amelia's Uncle and Aunt,
Andrew and Elise Hudson from the Miami, FL area. Transportation was provided by
Matty Miguel, Elise's niece who lives in Albuquerque. Old Town has an
Old Church
on the square. A little later we all gathered for a picture and a passerby consented
to "shoot"
the five
of us. Turned out pretty well, with Dick, Amelia, Elise, and Andrew sitting, while
Matty stands behind.
Thanksgiving Day
Thursday we were pretty well primed for the big day.
Andrew and Don
are resting after Don labored at getting the turkey on the smoker. As one might expect the
kitchen
is a busy place, with (l to r) Amelia (barely showing), Don, Matty, Eric Beardsley
(Don and Becky's son, lives in Albuquerque), Becky, Hailey Binford (back to camera -
cousin of Amelia and Becky, from Albuquerque), and Lisa Duke (daughter-in-law of Hailey,
from Austin, TX). After the flurry of activity in the kitchen, a little
down-time with the clam dip is enjoyed by Lisa, Melinda and Marta White (friend
of Eric), and Matty. Finally, the
turkey is being carved. Meanwhile,
Jody and Noel (son and husband, respectively, of Hailey) are debating an important
point. Across the room,
Andrew, Hailey, and Elise are hamming it up for the camera. Then, just to make
sure they don't feel left out, the Jody brings in the
boxer pups, Mr. Duke and Little Miss, shown along with Matty, Jody, and Eric.
Marta and Melinda also got a chance to check out the pups.
Finally the time has arrived, and we each look for our own elegant
placecard (courtesy of Melinda).
After the feast, the crew looks pretty happy.
Some look happier than others, but even those in the
kitchen look happy enough.
The Very Large Array
On Friday morning Becky and Don, Elise and Andrew, and Amelia and Dick set off for the
Very Large Array located
west of Socorro, NM. This shot of some of the radio telescopes is looking toward the
northeast. Here is a picture of
many of the same dishes, but from the other side of the building. To get a better
idea of the size of the dishes (there are 27 or them), here is
Andrew and Amelia gazing at one of the 230 ton dishes.
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
We then motored over to the
Bosque del Apache NWR located a few miles south of Socorro. The refuge is home
and passing-through stopover point to many different birds and animals. It is
famous for its annual
Festival of the Cranes, which occurred the weekend before we arrived in Albuquerque.
However, the cranes (and others) were still in residence. We arrived late in the
afternoon, and were soon rewarded by a
small flight of sandhill cranes flying in to their nights resting place. They
joined a
large group in the shallow water. After the sun set, they continued to
straggle in. The
sunset colors were reflected in the pond, along with the shadows of the cranes.
Finally a large flight of
snow geese glided in and took up residence for the night on the far side of the
pond.
The next morning, we returned before sunrise to watch them take off again for their
feeding grounds. The
snow geese stand out vividly behind the darker sandhill cranes. While waiting
for the birds to wake up, stretch, get hungry, and decide to fly to their feeding
grounds, we were treated to a
colorful sunrise. As the color spread to the western sky, it was reflected
in the overnight pond, with the
snow geese making a contrast and the
sandhill cranes reflected in the water. At last the
snow geese flew in large numbers. In addition to the birds shown in the pictures,
we also saw several bald eagles, two coyotes, bluebirds, flickers, sparrows, and
numerous other birds. Toward the end of our trip around the refuge, we saw the
some of the snow geese at their
feeding grounds.
Winding down
On Sunday we took a trip out to the Jemez area, where Noel and Hailey own property and
have built a
cabin, shown here with Hailey and Andrew. Finally, last but by no means least,
we stopped in the see my nephew,
Brian Franke and his recent bride, Tracy.
On Tuesday, we returned home (well, most of the way). We had a little fog problem
in Medford and had to stay overnight in Portland, but proceeded without difficulty
mid-day on Wednesday.