Our second day here, Eleni found Harry out in the yard. We asked hem to stay with us, and he never declined. The first order of business was to populate bedrooms, since all our otther BRs in Derwood had built-in beds. We went to the Tesuque flea market and bought this work of art.
If you come to visit, perhaps we'll let you sleep in it.
We inherited a cat with the house, named Blue. He is generally a pain in the butt now that it is cold, because he always wants to be inside sitting on you. In the summer, he is wild, that is, he does not spend time indoors.

Before any visitors, we scouted some of the cool places nearby. Here is Eleni enjoying McCauley warm springs.
Here are the upper falls at Jemez Falls.
Both of these locations have been proven to be within walking distance.
Here is a nice view on the path to the warm springs

Our first visitors were John's parents. We took them to the Tesuque flea market, where they bought goofy hats to pose in for this picture.
We put Mom to work laying in our firewood supply for the winter.
They were also the first people we took to see the Gilman tunnels.
On the way to the tunnels, we took this postcard quality picture. If you want a full-size copy email John.
John had to show off for his mother by climbing one of the local walls .

Our second set of visitors (not counting one friend of Eleni's that stopped by) was Nephew Sam and his friend Sally. It seems we have no pictures from their visit, perhaps because we never slowed down enough to take any pictures. Sam also split about a cord of firewood (twice as mcuh as Mom!). Sally scratched together several delicious dinners to feed hike-weary John (Eleni was in Maryland).

John's sister Carol and her husband Joe came next. They were, like Sam and Sally, big fans of the local warm springs. We took them to McCauley on foot, via Jemez Falls, before they froze all the way.
We had to stop several times because it is a long walk.
Along the way, we met our first wild tarantula.
But they really liked San Antonio warmer springs.
John had one pool to himself.
After visiting the springs, we decided to hike a little and found that the valley was really interesting. We took a lot of pictures, but I'll only post this one.
They were also the first to make it to the top of Cerro Pelado with us. From the top of this mountain, we can look over to "our" mountain, Los Griegos and see Redondo in the background. John looked up the translation of "Los Griegos" and interestingly enough, found that it means "The Greeks."
Carol and Joe also vistited Gilman, where we took another postcard picture.

Zeta, Sean, Chrysee, and little Alecko were next. We got more pictures of their visit because Zeta and the kids walk very slow. And Sean had another camera. We found that Eleni's favorite walk was covered with snow, making bridge crossing exciting for Zeta, who brought sneakers to hike in ! When we went to Jemez Falls (Sean and John on foot, everyone else by car), we found them frozen.
But it was a sunny day, and the trails were warm.
Chrysee actually smiled once when Uncle John held her up.
After the walk, Zeta learned that you are not supposed to turn on the Jacuzzi with bubble bath.
Eleni took them to Bandelier Monument, where Zeta caused a minor traffic jam.
Some of the ruins were found to be inhabited!
Sean and John tried to hike to the top of Los Griegos, but turned around when they (correctly) identified the "mist" in the background of this view as a snow storm.
Daunted, Sean and John drove to the top of Cerro Pelado in Sean's suffering rental.

Ana visited next. Click here to visit her special page!