Old Town Albuquerque

Old Town Albuquerque is a photographer's dream. So many interesting buildings and views. Originally established in 1706, the town celebrated its 300th anniversary 12 years ago. For the United States, that is really old. The entrance we went through is newly decorated but I don't know if the wall is a recent addition or part of the original settlement.

On one side of the town square we saw the church of San Felipe de Neri, the oldest New Mexico church still used for worship, one sign said.

This is the high altar in the church.

Buildings now housing shops and studios are arranged around small open areas.

This is an interesting front door.

And another one.

I'll bet this restaurant features strolling mariachi singers.

It might be difficult to read the electric meter at this house.

We didn't buy anything in the shops but we did enjoy walking around the area.  The last time we were in Old Town, we felt it was run down.  It seems to be in much better shape now.

Christmas Eve Worship

We spent some time on the internet, searching for an Episcopal Church where we could attend worship on Christmas Eve.  That isn't easy when we know nothing about any of them.  We did know we didn't want to be out late.  Not only do we go to sleep early, the traffic in San Antonio is awful so we knew we didn't want a service that ended about midnight. And I wasn't interested in a children's pageant during the service.

We really made a good choice in deciding to worship at St. Mark's in downtown.  It is a beautiful old building and the worship liturgy was wonderfully done.  The altar was decked with red roses, the widows each had 25 burning candles, the junior choir provided outstanding hymns, and the rector preached a good sermon.

The congregation is very friendly.  We were greeted in the parking lot, on the sidewalk outside the church and by people in the pew.  The man I was sitting next to, Gordon, filled us in on the history of the congregation and pointed out local traditions and practices.

We were blessed with inspiring and meaningful worship.  We aren't always sure what we will find in a new community but St. Mark's was a great choice.

An Interesting Downtown

Downtown Flagstaff is a mixture of the old and the new. The city was first settled in 1876 and grew rapidly during the 1880s with the arrival of the railroad. Some of the buildings give a glimpse of years gone by.

This building was obviously built many years ago.

The outside staircases (or fire escapes) indicate an era now gone.

If you look closely at the left side of this building, you can see tall vents running up the side. We wondered if these once vented wood stoves.

This attractive building, which houses St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church, has obviously been standing for many, many years. They don't build anything like this today, unfortunately.

We saw a couple of modern murals on the side of buildings. While new, one depicts an age long gone.

One store had fancy caramel apples. We didn't buy one. They are hard to eat as you walk down the street.

Flagstaff is a very bike-friendly city, maybe in part because it is home to Northern Arizona University. There are paved bike paths around the city, the buses have bike racks on the front and rear, and we saw this fancy, crochet-covered bike rack downtown.

Snowbird Christmas

'Tis the day after Christmas, so what did we do to celebrate the holiday? We decorated our tree right after Thanksgiving.



And we walked around Valle del Oro, looking at the lights people put up.



One of our neighbors had a small party for the RVers on our road who have been coming to the same place for several years.

We enjoyed spending time with Larry and Barbara and Vern and Jane



with Pat and Lois and Hollis



and, of course, with Isabel and Joe, who brought us all together.


Christmas Eve, we attended the 6 pm service at Epiphany in Tempe. Before the service began, I took a photo of the chapel.



John was the celebrant at that service. Usually, I don't take pictures during the worship service, but the children of the congregation had portrayed the Gospel reading and lots of people were using the cameras. So I took one a few minutes later of the whole worship party.



This is the nativity set at the front of the church, as well as the manger where baby Jesus slept during the children's play.



Christmas morning, John and I opened our gifts. Here he is with a musical CD sent by our cousins in Sweden.



We talked to both our sons' families, then we joined with several hundred other residents here for Christmas dinner. Here is our empty table after we put out our dishes.



And the crowd beginning to gather.



And the friends we sat with. Sam and JoAnn



and Vern and Jane



It has been a good Christmas, though we miss seeing our children and grandchildren. Hope you all had a good Christmas, as well.

Staying Flexible

It is important to stay flexible and go with the flow when plans change. Especially since we are retired and it is very seldom our plans really make a difference--to us or to others. It isn't like when we were working for a living or raising children.

This morning we left the RV at 9:30 to drive to church. Yesterday, one of the truck tires was low, so we went to the air pump and filled it. Everything was fine during our shopping trip. We checked the pressure again this morning and it was fine--for a while.

Soon the Pressure Pro began beeping. The tire that had been at 77 psi was down to 67 psi. Then to 66 psi. Change of plans. We used the GPS (we call her Cairn) to find a tire store. We spent the hour we would have been at church, and even more, waiting to get a new valve stem on the tire.

We were really sorry to miss the worship service. But we tried to make the most of our time, reading the very good selection of magazines at the tire store. I even copied two recipes from a Woman's Day.

This is the second time since we arrive in Mesa that the truck has kept us from church. In October we went to find a dead battery. That day we spent time with the AAA service tech, getting new batteries. He was a very nice and efficient young man.