Festival of the Cranes, Wed, Nov 14, 2007

My husband, Dave, and I flew into Albuquerque on Tuesday. We arrived around 5 p.m. and after picking up our rental car enjoyed the beautiful sunset while finding a good place to eat dinner. When we used to live in ABQ, we had some favorite restaurants we visited. One of our favorites is located across the street from the University of New Mexico. The restaurant is called Frontier Restaurant and they are well known for their famous green chile stew. I ordered a Frontier Burrito which included green chili, beef, beans and lots of cheese. Yum!

After dinner we headed for Socorro, about 75 miles south of ABQ and checked into our motel. We wanted to be in town for the first event we signed up for that would begin at 9 a.m., Wednesday, at the Wildlife Refuge, which is another 20 minutes south of Socorro. Our first presentation was by Tom Waddell, the ranch manager for Armendaris Ranch. This ranch is owned by Ted Turner, and is located south of the Bosque del Apache NWR and runs all the way down to Truth or Consequences, a total of 600 square miles. The ranch is known for raising bison, but also raises other animals on the ranch through study programs. Those animals are oryx, pronghorn antelope, bats, and Aplomado falcons.

When the presentation was over (around 11 a.m.), Dave and I figured we would look for a place to eat lunch. Rather than head to Socorro, we decided on getting lunch at the "original" Owl Cafe in San Antonio, New Mexico, the birthplace of Conrad Hilton (Hilton Hotels). This town is about 9 or 10 miles north of the Wildlife Refuge. The Owl Cafe is renowned for its world famous green chile cheeseburgers, which is what we enjoyed. Below are a couple of photos I took of the Owl Cafe. And take note of the beautiful blue sky! Weather was gorgeous - blue sky, no wind, and about 70 degrees in the middle of the day.

After lunch, we drove north to Socorro to attend our next lecture/presentation. All lectures or presentations are held either at the Refuge or at New Mexico Tech's Macey Center, in Socorro. This lecture was called "Mapping the Rio." We saw a filmed documentary on the Rio Grande River and its possibility of being endangered. The lecture part was more of a round table geared toward preservation of the river and what individuals or groups are doing to preserve this precious resource.

Later, Tuesday evening we had dinner at the Garcia Opera House and were treated to a comedy called "The Foreigner" (by Larry Shue) presented by the Socorro Community Theater.