hiking and what not

As I mentioned in the last post, my brother and his family came up to Santa Fe for Father's Day. Dad's choice for the morning was to go on a hike so we hiked! We had to keep it short since my nephews are 10 and 7, and while they are quite active, they haven't hiked a lot. We went about 2 miles, up to the top of a small peak and then back down. It was fun despite the heat. We were on the sunny side of the mountain for much of the hike. Later we had lunch at San Francisco Street Bar & Grill and then my brother and his family came over to check out our apartment. Will entertained the nephews by showing them his music gear and recording software. They both walked out here with CDs of their playing in hand. I am sure my brother and sister-in-law were psyched to listen to the recordings over and over again on the way home!

Because we are still jobless (actually Will is at an interview RIGHT NOW and I am hoping for one next week), we decided to go hiking again yesterday. We invited Dad and Katrina (the dog), but Dad was busy and Katrina has a yeast infection in her ear (yuck) so they decided she shouldn't be out in the woods. So it was just me and my hubby. I wanted to do something a little more bad ass (but not too bad ass) so I picked a hike to Spirit Lake. It's off the Windsor Trail, a trail that I love but haven't followed out further than Puerto Nambe in the past. According to the internet, it's an 11.4-mile hike. And so beautiful. I love hiking through the woods. I love the grassy meadows. The big rocks. The critters. We saw squirrels and chipmunks, one random pheasant trucking along in front of us early on in the hike, and lots of smaller birds. Will was hoping for bears and mountain lions...me, not so much.


The sky was a brilliant blue and the trees so very green. Loads and loads of pine cones everywhere.


The lake was quite lovely and peaceful. We were the only ones there. It took us about 2 hours and 40 minutes to reach the lake. We had lunch, relaxed and took some double exposure photos with the Spectra (to be shared later). And then we headed back. It was much hotter on the way back and we ran into quite a few other hikers. Some solo (mostly men coming down from hiking Santa Fe Baldy) and some groups. We made it back to the car in 2 hours and 30 minutes; legs a bit sore and heads a bit delirious. An excellent day all-around. I can't wait for the next hike. I am itching to do Baldy myself! I have lots more hiking photos to share. I'll post some tomorrow before we leave over at my Flickr.

Today was kind of a lost cause. I ran with Dad this morning and cleaned the apartment, but after those activities, I just never settled into anything else. Tomorrow we are headed to Albuquerque to hang out with my nieces while my sister and brother-in-law are away so I won't be posting again until next week. Hope you all enjoy the rest of the week and the coming weekend!