travel with pam and wade: February 2013

Well, it's taken me a while to get to finishing up the blog post for this trip, but wanted to post a few pictures. While we enjoyed the adventure of traveling in cold weather, we were rather pleased to arrive in Alamogordo where the daytime temperatures were in the 50's! We finally had water, showers and laundry facilities!

The next day we visited White Sands National Monument; a beautiful, surreal place with miles and miles of white sand dunes. Unlike most sand dunes, these consist of gypsum, which accounts for the unusual white coloration. The sand is soft and fine, it feels almost like talcum powder. The Visitor Center is a restored WPA project, a beautiful structure that was built in the 1930's. We spent the afternoon and had a quick picnic, as it was a little chilly to sit out in the wind.

We toured the New Mexico Space History Museum on our last day in Alamogordo. The highlight there for me was seeing a moon rock! Wade of course, enjoyed all the rockets and related information. That afternoon we went did some wine and pistachio tasting at a couple of farms outside of town. That was pretty unique. The garlic and green chili pistachios are awesome! See below for a picture of the World's Largest Pistachio!

The next morning we headed for San Diego, staying one night each in Lordsburg, NM and Gila Bend, AZ. We really enjoyed our trip but it was nice to be home.

For those of you who are interested, here is the bird list for the trip: Audubon's Warbler, Great Horned Owl, Coot, Kestrel, Killdeer, Wild Turkey, Junco (Oregon and Gray-headed) Shrike, Golden Eagle, Crow, Cooper's Hawk, Black Phoebe, Turkey Vulture, Green-winged Teal, Bald Eagle, Raven, Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Red-winged Blackbird, Sandhill Crane, Mallard, Snow Goose, Ross Goose, Canada Goose, Shoveler, Gadwall, Pintail, Bufflehead, Snipe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-tail Hawk, Harrier, Great-tailed Grackle, Red-naped Sapsucker, Downey Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron, Starling, Steller's Jay, Northern Flicker, Goldfinch, House Finch, Lesser Scaup, Gambel's Quail, Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, Phainopepla.