Christmas 08

Christmas was at our house this year. We had Cassie, Peter, Urs, Mom, Phil, David & Phoebe come spend it with us. Too fun to even describe it all here. Hopefully the pics will say enough!

Thanksgiving 08

CHOCOLATE!

Every year Creede has a Chocolate Festival around Thanksgiving weekend. Damon and I decided to participate, and had to make 800 chocolates for patrons of the festival to taste. We decided on pumpkin truffles, which were a little much for the quantity we had to make! Did they turn out? They were pretty, but neither of us could decide whether or not they tasted any good, we were on chocolate overload!

Every year Creede has a Chocolate Festival around Thanksgiving weekend. Damon and I decided to participate, and had to make 800 chocolates for patrons of the festival to taste. We decided on pumpkin truffles, which were a little much for the quantity we had to make! Did they turn out? They were pretty, but neither of us could decide whether or not they tasted any good, we were on chocolate overload!

Corn Maze

Ellen, Stephen & I spent the day wandering through a corn maze, and picking out our pumpkins for our Halloween Jack-o-lanterns.

Metamora

Damon & I visited one of my favorite places - Metamora. It's an old historic canal town in Indiana, near where my Grandma grew up. It was a beautiful day! We ended it by going through the Metamora Corn Maze. Red found his way out first . . .

San Miguel - Day EIGHT (Last Day)

Our last day :( We went to mass at St. Michaels, and then stopped in the Jardin on last time. For breakfast, we went up the street from our house at a place called Chocolate cafe. (Now your speaking Kiera's language.) We made our way to Leon airport, and were soon headed Cincinnati bound. We were very tan, well fed, and tired as witnessed by the last picture below ;)

In the Jardin for the last time

Breakfast at the Chocolate Cafe - Yum!

At the Airport - Plane ride home . . . we fell asleep and transformed into native Mexicans! As you can see, we got plenty of sun, plenty of food, and we're plenty tired!

San Miguel - Day SEVEN

We went across the street from our house to the Art Center this morning, it's basically a school for the many different arts such as ceramics, weaving, painting, piano, guitar, etc. Gorgeous architecture and murals, the pics don't do it justice. Damon and I had fun with our own photo shoot, in a hallway where the lighting was just right. :) Later on that day we went to a "real" Mexican town, Dolores Hildalgo, about thirty miles north of San Miguel. Dolores has one big church and while there we witnessed at least four different wedding partys come and go. Turns out this is pretty typical on a Saturday for them, beautiful dresses, and great mariachi music. We ate a sack lunch in the Jardin across from the church and walked through the market district of Dolores, wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables, soup and beverage vendors of all kinds. And outside in a smaller garden at least five differently dressed mariachi bands hung out and awaited their turn with a wedding party. After a short run in with a road side donkey we were on our way back to San Miguel. In the evening, we caught an amazing show at the Theater, basically a smaller version of Cirque de Soliel (sp?) We were right in the front row, and sat next to a man whose wife puts on the whole production. He said that this is her hobby, they are full time sculptors by trade. During acts, a clown would come out and perform different tricks. At one piont he pulled Damon and three other men up on stage. He had them do exercises with balloons and then blow them up. After that he had the four of them sit on stools in a way where they were leaning back on each other. He then pulled the stools out from under them, it was a great balancing act. Damon should definately go into show business, he was a natural! After the show, we went to Romanos for dinner. We sat out on a rooftop terrace that was filled with many gringos from Canada & America. Without even really noticing, the whole terrace cleared out, and Damon and I had a romantic dinner with the whole terrace to ourselves. Damon leaned over to kiss me and there were fireworks. Literally! A whole show that went onfor about fifteen minutes. Another magical moment in San Miguel!

At the art center

Magdelena, our housekeeper & cook

More streets of San Miguel

Weddings in Delores Hildalgo

The Market in Delores Hildalgo

Inside the Municipal building in Delores Hildalgo / Leaving Delores Hildalgo, Kiera's new friend the Burro

The show at the theater & our rooftop dinner, I tried to take a good picture of the fireworks, but my camera died :(

San Miguel - Day SIX

We started our day by walking around, visiting the Church of the Immaculate Conception, run by the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. After, we sat in the Jardin and watched some american artists paint the scenery around us. Through small chit chat, we discovered one of the artists loves fly fishing. She found out we lived in Colorado, and said she's visiting a Ranch there this July, and asked if we have ever heard of a place called the 4UR Ranch? Small world! We basically roamed the streets the rest of the afternoon. Later that evening, we went to Gene & Susie Mann's house. It was incredibly beautiful, and the company was fascinating as well. They really loved Damon and talked horses most of the night. It was a very exciting evening, and we ended with walking around their estate, and petting their horses. We really have made some good friends here, and know this is not the last time we'll get together! :)

Church of the Immaculate Conception

Artists painting in the Jardin

More Streets of San Miguel

Cool doors down one of the many side streets

The Mann's House

San Miguel - Day FIVE

Well, we did a lot today, but don't have many pictures, as we left our camera home. :( As a matter of fact, the pics below are a re-enactment, and not the actual time frame in which the below mentioned events happened. We went to Escondido, another Hot Springs resort, it was Fabulous! Afterwards, we came back into town, ran a few errands, and discovered we left the keys to the house- IN the house! Damon ran around trying to get ahold of the property manager, to no avail. I meanwhile sat on the stoop and cracked open a nice cold cerveza (beer), since I had nothing better to do. After a beer, a thought occured to me - there has to be a fire escape of some sort out of our building. I scoped the situ, and peeked inside the courtyard of a store that butts up next to our house. Sure enough, there was a ladder and it looked like it would work. Damon returned, with a list of phone numbers to try, and a very discouraged look on his face. I told him of the discovery, he checked it out, and next thing I know my husband had broke and entered into our own house. :) He had climbed up the ladder, shimmied across the gutter and jumped over into our terrace. Thank goodness that store was open still! Later that evening, went to a place called Romanos, to listen to some live music. We ended up talking to the owner and his friend instead, who were American, and a lot of fun to chew the fat with. The friend, a guy named Gene Mann, owns a ranch outside town, and invited us to come visit. Damon is on cloud nine! We had a great evening, and the weather here is BEAUTIFUL! Much love and peace!

San Miguel - Day FOUR

Hola Familia, Damon aqui. Wednesday was incredible and busy as the pictures below will show. However as usual the best things are not caught on camera. That evening after a wonderful dinner at the house, prepared by our housekeeper, Magdalena, we went out for some live music and drinks at Romano's, an Italian Bar and Restraunt. Magnificent! Then the lively sounds of many different mariachi bands lured us into the Jardin, soon we found ourselves surrounded by twelve Mexican musicians. They played a traditional love song just for us as we danced. It doesn't get any better than that.

San Miguel in the morning

Hiking up the streets of San Miguel / Window shopping later that day

Out on the Town, after a dinner of Quesadillas - Yum!/Washing hands in fountain after petting stray dog - I miss Redders!

San Miguel - Day THREE

This morning we hiked to the top of one of the outskirting hills, and had a beautiful view of the layout of San Miguel. On our way down we admired the architecture and landscape of several streets, ending with a stroll through the park, and a beer at an outdoor barbecue place. We then had lunch at home, and decided to check out the hots prings outside of town. We stopped at one place called La Gruta, and it was amazing. The hot spring water is pumped into a man-made cave, and flows out through a tunnel into two separate pools. We had so much fun, we may spend a whole day there later this week. :) For dinner, we had a yummy dish made by our cook, which we ate out on the terrace, right at sunset. It was beautiful! We ended the evening with a stroll around St. Francis church. Another perfect day! Damon and I feel this will not the last time we will visit San Miguel!

Hiking up to the top of the hill/burros getting a drink from a fountain

The view from the top of the hill, there was a fire off in the distance, it seems they burn a lot of their fields this time of year, wheter intentionally or unintentionally, we're not sure.

Having a beer at the outdoor barbecue (owned by Americans)-check out Damon's cool new shirt!

La Gruta hot springs, 'nuff said!

Supper at Sunset on our terrace

San Miguel - Day TWO

We started our day slowly, eating breakfast on the rooftop terrace and listening to the bells ring from the many churches throughout the city. We had lunch at a nearby street stand, and spent the day wandering down different streets and meandering through the artisan district. There were many treasures, but we didn't take too many pictures. :) After walking in the hot sun and being on our feet most of the day, it felt great to grab some fresh fruit and a cold beer! We had soup for dinner, and ended the day where it started, on the rooftop, taking in the sounds and sights of the city . . . and dancing to them too!

Eating at the Street Stand / View of our house from street stand

Statue of Isador Allende / walking along the streets

Fresh Tortillas! / Entering into the Artisan Market

Hola from San Miguel! Day ONE

We arrived in San Miguel around 3:30, after renting a car from the airport and having a beautiful drive through the back country of Mexico, stopping for a cow once. :) We met our housekeeper, toured around the house, freshened up, and walked around town. This place is UNBELIEVEABLE! There are hidden treasures around every turn in the road, in every corner. The architecture is gorgeous and ancient. we have a wall in our house that is around 300 years old! It's warm and sunny, and people are very friendly. We walked around the Jardin, which is the main area the town was first built around. It has trees, flowers, fountains,and a gazeebo. It sits in front of the church of St. Michael the Archangel, built in 1689. We watched a puppet show in the square, had soup the cook had prepared for us at home, and ended the evening with mass at St. Michael's. When Church was let out, the square was filled with music from a band playing in the gazeebo. Damon and I both commented we felt as if we were in a dream, a very good one! :)

At the Cincinnati airport, 5:30am - Waiting for our first flight

Stop for cow crossing, Driving into San Miguel



Outside St.Michael's Parish, and a tribute to St. Patrick!

In the Jardin, Street vendors & the Puppet Show