Cock-a-doodle-do to you, dear reader, from El Prado, NM, which if you’re lazy, is pretty much Taos. Greg, Juniper, and I went with my parents a few weeks ago. We played games, did a little shopping, ate at two of our favorite restaurants, and took in quite a lot of mountain and sky views, as you shall soon see.

Did you ever make the chalk drawings mimicking distant mountains like these? You had a paper for the “drawing” and a second sheet of the same size, which was torn in mountain shapes, rubbed over with colored chalk, then torn again, and moved up the paper and repeated until you were satisfied. Hats off to Ms. Lovato or Ms. Yu who taught me this. It felt very sophisticated for a single digit kid.

No surprise, I got all my “ham it up” instincts from my Dad!

We reveled in some spectacular sunsets!

And a rainbow!

This here is the reason we traveled. Balloons! Red River has a small but mighty festival. It did not disappoint, and was not terribly crowded, huzzah!

Only YOU can prevent forest fires.

My parents are on the left!

The perennially lovely and equally famous San Francisco de Asis in Ranchos de Taos. In the top shot, were you to turn to the right, you’d lay your eyes on one of our very favorite New Mexican restaurants, Ranchos Plaza Grill, and where we ate just prior to snapping these photos. It is absolutely not fancy, in a glorious old adobe building, dotted with local art, including a painting of a gentleman reading the newspaper at the table below.

The light is fabulous and the food and people even better. Please do try it, and save room for the biggest, best sopaipilla in the land. Mmm, YES!

Mountains and sky, and more sky. My heart!