New Mexico: Land of Enchantment

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There are so many lovely images in my camera of our trip to New Mexico that I'm having a hard time choosing my favorites for this blog. We recently spent a wonderful week on a Road Scholar tour of Santa Fe and Taos, cramming as much as we could into our brief visit. The tour focused on culture, art, history, and literature of the area and we got a good dose of all those and more. We planned this trip with our friends, Linda and Wally, whom we met last summer on our UK trip. Being with them made this trip even more enjoyable and we'll do more traveling with them in the future.

 Chilies hanging from restaurant roof for drying

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument 

Native Art seen in NM State Capitol

American Kestrels

These homely but charming baby birds are American Kestrels. The nest site is in an out-building at my son's company, SunCo Grounds Management, in Omaha, Nebraska. The American Kestrel is a small falcon which preys on small birds, mammals, and insects. The pair raising these hatchlings has nested here in past years and one of the employees regularly checks on them and takes photos which are posted on the SunCo facebook page. They are waiting for one more egg to hatch.

Beautiful Day for a Duck Race

Duck Race committee members begin race day with breakfast at Nicky's

Wayne and I at breakfast

The 2012 Estes Park Duck Race was a huge success and a wonderful day of fun and hard work. We started at 7:30 with breakfast then got busy selling ducks until the start of the race at 1 p.m. The total number of ducks sold this year was 5713 with over 600 prizes awarded. The weather couldn't have been more delightful and the river was fast enough to carry the first duck to the finish line in just under an hour. The Rotary Club of Estes Park will be giving back well over $100,000 to the participating local charities. 

The crowd is gathering. The red cage at lower right contains the ducks which will be released into the Fall River.

Kris Hazelton, this year's Big Duck with a real live duck!

Ready... Set...

GO!!!

Making a new friend - just ducky

Checking the prize boards for winners

Wayne gathering ducks at the finish line

Helpful little bystanders

View up the Fall River (little yellow ducks in the water)

Wrapping up the race

Blooming Crabapple Trees

The flowering trees come into bloom much later here in Estes Park than down in the valley. They are at their magnificent peak right now. I took these photos in the parking lot of the major shopping area in town.