El Paso 2015

Dave and I went to El Paso mid April for the national bowling tournament.  I have never been to Mexico and normally would have been thrilled to bring my passport along to walk across the border.  However, El Paso borders Juarez and due to the recent drug cartel activity, violence and travel warnings, we steered clear of all that.  We restricted our driving to I-10 which was insane and awful to navigate but even further south was the border highway where you had to pay tolls.

 I did my homework before we left and wanted to go to The Saddleblanket.  It's a 2 acre souvenir store off I-10.  There are one way service roads on either side of I-10 that lead to the businesses there and God help you if you miss your turn because you have to get back on I-10 to turn around and when you try to ease back into the traffic on these service roads, you hold your breath and punch it because there are no traffic lights.  We are used to the spread out midwest where we have clover leafs and wide turn around areas.  Every time we were out driving, it was always busy.  Always.

 We walked through the entire two acres and I got this woven basket/bowl for $16.  They had beautiful and colorful Mexican pottery but I knew I'd never get it home in one piece and I bought Polish pottery last year and didn't need any more.  This shop does ship anywhere though.  They had all manner of southwest decor and items.  Dave passed on a rattlesnake skin wallet. 

 Another place off I-10 was the Ranch Market chain of grocery stores.  It was a Mexican import grocery and I'd called ahead asking if they had Mexican vanilla.  The woman I spoke to assured me that they did in aisle 6 but when we got there, they had only Molina brand which I can get here in town at Cub. 

 It was interesting walking around in there and looking at everything.  They had a whole bar of agua frescas which are flavored waters ladled out to order.

They had a whole area of fresh authentic border/Mexican food as well as seating to eat it.

One of my favorite things was visiting Wyler Aerial Tramway for a view of the Franklin Mountain Range.  $8 buys you a round trip ticket up and down the mountain via gondola car where you can look into Juarez and New Mexico.  You can see a quarry in the background of this photo where components for asphalt are excavated.

There is a one way ticket option for $4 for those who want to hike up and ride down or ride up and hike down.  I was amazed there weren't people laying on the mountainside with broken ankles because the "trail" looked absolutely treacherous!  One of the biggest disappointments was the Rio Grande.  I thought it would be a thunderous river like the Mississippi but it is in fact a stream!  You can literally step over it!  There were telescopes up on the mountain and we were sure we'd see it from up there but friends of ours took a tour around the city and area and reported this disappointing news to us.

Clint Eastwood starred in a movie called Blood Work featuring a scene filmed at the tramway site.  You can see the autographed red movie poster in the background of this photo.  The tramway boasts the highest altitude gift shop in all the southwest.  I bought a compulsory patch here.

 They also had the highest altitude toilet!

We stayed at the La Quinta on Mesa street which was ideal to drive up the street to see what businesses El Paso had to offer and also the University of Texas El Paso campus.  We visted Belle Sucre Bakery and scored some macaroons!  They were delicious (better than Cossetta's) and very local and unique.  The cinnamon dusted white one on the left was a horchata macaroon which is based on a rice pudding drink that is common in Mexico.  The magenta one was a jamaica flower or hibiscus flavored one, the yellow a mango-lime (which was my favorite) and the green was pistachio.  Dee-LISH. 

 Speaking of the La Quinta, we stayed there because it was cheap, clean and quiet and they also had free breakfast every morning.  Not only did they have free breakfast, but they had a Belgian waffle iron in the shape of the state of Texas!  If that doesn't make you want to stay there, I don't know what will!  I had one every morning for breakfast!

This is one of the lamp post banners in the downtown area made to look like Mexican cut paper decorations.  The bowling stadium was set up in the Civic Center and if you walk across the street and down El Paso Street, you will enter the "shopping district" of El Paso.  To me, the term "shopping district" evokes brand names and specialty stores.  That was not the case in El Paso.

 The shopping district instead consisted of a few blocks of packed stores of mainly made-in-China household items, seconds and expired foodstuffs.  Lots of Mexicans cross the border to frequent these shops.  We saw lots of lingerie, household goods, licensed sporting goods, jeans, etc.  Most shops were so closely packed that you had to walk sideways.

 Here is the interior of a typical shop.

 I did get a clear vinyl tablecloth ($3) for my IKEA table and a mock vinyl crocheted lace tablecloth ($5) to put over top of it.  I have to say it looks quite stunning even if it is fake vinyl crochet.  A friend of ours traveling with us used to run a store and said she used to sell those same tablecloths for $30 so I think I got a deal.

At the very end of the street is the border area.  To the left is the walking bridge to cross and you can see Mexicans coming across to shop.  To the right of the administration building was a huge parking lot.  We walked a little further and were stopped by security.  They said we could safely walk a little further without crossing the border but not to take any more pictures.  We turned around and went back.  Never did get to see the Rio Grande. 

I asked a park ranger at the tramway about Mexican imports and he recommended El Loco to us.  We found it on Sunday but it was closed as were many businesses we noticed. 

They had authentic Mexican pottery-like you see when you watch Rick Bayless-for a song.  I bought a small pitcher for $2.50 and a platter for $5.  I also got a rosary with the Virgin of Guadalupe for $1.25 and the beads were the color of the Mexican flag.

They had all manner of Mexican candy but I never took Spanish in high school and couldn't read what they were.  I did get several teas and bought some of this peanut candy.

I spent $10 on a cast iron made-in-Mexico tortilla press which incidentally put me over our suitcase weight with Southwest.  I hate Southwest, I won't lie.  I've been spoiled by Delta, Northwest, Icelandic Air, KLM and heck, even SAS when they were up and running.  The worst they ever did to me was put the shameful "heavy" tag on my bag.  Southwest was going to charge me $75 for the suitcase being over 50 lbs unless I could remove items.  I rifled through my suitcase at the check-in desk and stuffed Dave's bowling shoes and the table cloths into my carry-on.  I could have taken the tortilla press out but I was worried security would have a problem with that in my carry-on.  This store only carried Molina vanilla too and just as well because if I'd bought jugs of Mexican vanilla, I wouldn't have been able to get it home.

We visted the Magoffin House which was a treasure trove of local history.  We were the only ones on our hourly guided tour and learned all kinds of history of the area.  It was right smack downtown between the jail and the courthouse and bail bonds businesses and retirement homes.  God bless the historians that saw the value of preserving and saving what they could of this significant property.  $4 for adult admission but we got a 2 for one admission because of Dave's bowling coupon book.  Well worth the visit.

Speaking of bowling, of COURSE there was plenty of bowling on this trip.  We saw these huge bowling pin pinatas everywhere, even at Magoffin House.  I overheard some poor airport employee exclaim, "I am so tired of bowling balls!" 

 I did find it amazing that they'd BROUGHT a bowling stadium to El Paso.  The entire set up, including the same vendors, was the same as in Reno.  How do they haul all that and replicate it?

 Here is a picture of my El Paso knitting.  I am working on a Zick Zack scarf from the Katia yarn I bought in Poland.  It is a lovely mindless scarf but I had to place markers between all my repeats or I lose track of where I am.  Really liking this knitting.

And on the subject of knitting, if Dave gets to bowl in a tournament that requires air travel, then Katie certainly deserves to visit the local yarn shop!

 In this case it was THE local yarn shop because this was the only one I found in El Paso.  I can't imagine they wear a lot of sweaters in Texas! We went to Mayaluna Yarns and it was very close to our hotel and well worth the trip.

Fabulous selection of yarns so I tried to find something I couldn't get at my own LYS.  Pictured is the wonderfully helpful Bethany who assisted me.  We were there on a Friday shortly after opening because Dave had team practice that afternoon and the next days the shop was open, we were busy with his bowling.  She also showed us the gorgeous crochet project she was working on.

 I came away with 6 skeins of Araucania sock weight and 4 skeins of some Louisa Harding.  The latter I have in mind for another Zick Zack scarf and the former is for a cardigan I've been eyeing.

Dave and I have been PAINTING for the last 2 weekends!  I took some before pictures of our upstairs bathroom but forgot to take pictures of everything else.  We also painted our downstairs entryway, hallway, bathroom and living room.  My parents were up visiting the first weekend we were home and my mother showed me how to spackle, remove and replace caulking, paint and hang items using anchors.  Now that I've had Mother's Bob Villa Home Course In Decorating, I'm ready to tackle the rest of the house bit by bit.

My brother and his family are moving to Duluth next month and gave us their sectional sofa for our upstairs living room and I can't tell you the difference it makes!  Now Dave has his little man cave sports area downstairs with the big TV and I have a sofa to recline on upstairs to watch PBS.  Our house is truly starting to look like a house.

We came home to this mystery bush in our front garden blooming.  We missed it the first summer we were in the house and I forgot to take pictures of it last year.  Dad did a bunch of garden work for us in the front yard when they were here.  He trimmed back our rose bush, planted a peony bush he brought from Iowa, and planted a bunch of pansies. 

My sister in law and nieces also visited us that weekend with their beagles and I just love this picture of my niece eating a beef stick with 3 dogs intently watching her.  Spring has certainly sprung here and after today, maybe summer is here too!