Fall Fun with the Osterhouts

Bosque del Apache  Saturday, Nov. 12
 As soon as we arrived, we heard the snow geese.  What an amazing sound!  We stood in the parking lot of the visitor center for a few minutes watching them fly overhead.  Then we went in the visitor center to get a quick orientation before heading out on the Northern Loop road.  The snow geese were the first attraction and we stopped for quite a while.

 The next attraction was sandhill cranes.  And lunch!

 We could see the cranes very well with our binoculars, but we weren't quite close enough to get good photos.

 In another location, we saw great numbers of ducks of various types, including Pintails, Northern Shovelers, and American Coots (technically, not a duck). 

It was a gorgeous day, just right for walking around and basking in the sunshine.  We saw several roadrunners, a javelina (I missed that one, but the others saw him) and the turtles below, who were also soaking up the sun.

Route 66 Diner   Sunday, Nov. 13
Dad wanted to experience this blast from the past, and we were not disappointed!

J & R Auto Museum   Tuesday, Nov. 15
Dad found this place and checked it out briefly after visiting the Petroglyphs while Stephen and I were at work on Thursday.  It is sort of tucked in between some businesses and an RV park and not so easy to find!  But it was well worth the effort, as it turned out.  We even got to go in the shop because students from the local community college were there for a tour.

Casa San Ysidro    Tuesday, Nov. 15
Stephen and I were able to arrange to take a day off on Tuesday, the last full day of my parents' visit.  After the auto museum in Rio Rancho, we drove to the charming town of Corrales where we found a lovely cafe and had lunch.  Then we visited Casa San Ysidro, an historic hacienda that is part of the Albuquerque Museum. 
We got there just as a large group of elementary school students was finishing a tour.  Luckily, we got our own private tour after they left. 

In addition to all this, we went for walks in the open space, went to church, visited Santa Fe for the Veterans Day Parade, shopped, had many delicious restaurant meals, celebrated birthdays, and watched birds in the backyard.  We thought of David often, particularly about how he would have enjoyed various silly signs, collected patches, and appreciated the parade (although the black fire engine would not have met with his approval -- fire engines should be red!).  He always enjoyed visiting St. John's church and listening to the praise band, and we even played a song he knew.  It was weird not to pro-actively check out the wheelchair accessibility of every place we planned to go, although we did notice and comment on accessibility or lack thereof, of course. 
As usual, we packed our days with activities and the week flew by.  We had more places to see than we could possibly fit into a week, so I guess the O's will have to come back and visit again!