Category Archives: travel

November 19, 2012 · 12:35 am

El Paso’s Mission Trail — Part 1


The Alamo isn’t the only old Spanish Mission in Texas.  It’s not even the only one in the San Antonio area.  It’s only the most famous.

El Paso, too, is home to some very old Spanish Missions — three of them, in fact.  These three missions are on a fun little drive starting called the Mission Trail.  These three missions are the Ysleta Mission (originally built in 1680; current structure built in 1851), Presidio Chapel of San Elizario (present structure dating back to 1877), and Socorro Mission (built in 1840 on a Franciscan site dating back to 1682).  Heading southeast from El Paso along Mission Trail you’ll first hit Ysleta Mission in southeast El Paso, Texas; Socorro Mission in Socorro, Texas; and finally Presidio Chapel of San Elizario in San Elizario, Texas (and home of the First Thanksgiving Feast back on April 30, 1598 — predating the Pilgrim version by some 23 years!).

Unfortunately, the rains did not abate on this past warm Sunday, so Ursula and I got a late start in the roadster.  As such, we bypassed Ysleta Mission in favor of the farthest two.  One of the reasons for this bypass was because we wanted to visit the numerous art galleries springing up in the burgeoning art community in San Elizario, which happens to also be home of the gallery of one of my favorite painters — Alberto Escamilla — a modern master of the early French Impressionist style (even Alberto’s dog is named “Monet“).

And, since this is Thanksgiving weekend (in the U.S.), we’ll be spending this week touring this area in photos.  After all, it’s way past time to expose those Johnny-come-lately Pilgrims for the Thanksgiving frauds that they are.

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November 16, 2012 · 5:45 am

Renaissance ArtsFaire


Las Cruces, New Mexico, holds an annual Renaissance ArtsFaire that is an absolute blast to attend.  So, once again this year, we loaded ourselves into the roadster (big mistake, as you’ll soon see) and headed north from El Paso.

Althought it’s billed as an Arts Fair, Renaissance is much more than that.  Participants dress up in fancy period costume and parade about the grounds.  Innumerable food vendors ply their wares.  “Gypsies” perform sword dances.   And even rescue greyhounds are sent off to new homes.  It’s a pretty fun time for those of all ages.

Now for the story of bringing too little car to too large a source of art:

Being an Arts Fair, we of course went art shopping.  What we found (see gallery below) was something that does not fit into the trunk of a BMW Z3.  Thus, we wound up driving back to El Paso, switching out cars, and then returning to Las Cruces to load up our new acquisition.

So, here’s how a Renaissance ArtsFaire appears:

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November 14, 2012 · 12:00 am

Cruising the West Coast — Last Stop, Ensenada


Today I present the last stop on our most recent West Coast cruise.  We’ve seen San Francisco, the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, Muir Woods, Sausalito, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina Island, the USS Midway in San Diego, and today we’ll close with the last stop before heading back to home — Ensenada, Mexico.  Because of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (aka, The Jones Act), all foreign-operated cruise lines (which except for NCL America, which operates a cruise ship in Hawaii, is all of them) must put into their itinerary at least one port of call outside U.S. waters.  For this trip, that port was Ensenada.

Neither Ursula nor I had ever been to Ensenada prior to this trip aboard Princess Cruises‘ recently refurbished Sapphire Princess.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised, as Ensenada is a very charming example of a typical Mexican tourist area — across between the hustle and bustle of a border town (think: Juarez or Tijuana) and the flashy retail section of a resort town (such as Mazatlán or Cancún).  But with that charm come the ever-present, high-pressure hawkers standing outside their stores desperately coaxing you inside, or the never-take-no-for-an-answer beggers and street tykes hawking Chiclets in an interminable gauntlet lining the sidewalks.

On the upside are the street food vendors.  You’ll see in today’s pictures just such an example, where Ursula and I partook of some fish tacos and orange Fanta.  Also fun are the brightly colored buildings that range from obnoxious Barbie pink to lemon chiffon and even lime sherbet chartreuse.

And here are the photographic results:

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