Santa Fe and the Buffalo Thunder Trail Resort and Casino

Finally - after FOUR weeks I have created another post! WOW! Miracles never cease to exist. Its been a wild and busy four weeks though. I am going to share some of it with you starting with Santa Fe, New Mexico.

First of all - we took the picture of Ed and Friend(that graces the front pages of my blog above) for Grandma Bea - we were in the Old Town Plaza of Santa Fe and there were art studios and fancy shops everywhere but we loved the huge sculptures found here at this little shop. We got to talking with the ladies that had come with us in our van about how much Ed's mom loved pigs. So they decided we needed to get a picture of Ed with this one. Isn't he cute? I'm going to have a picture made up and mail it to Grandma Bea. She will love it!

The Buffalo Thunder Trail Hilton Resort and Casino was a beautiful collection of open airiness and Indian decor. This is the main lobby.
nThis is the resort from the back side - they are combining a desert decor with some grassy areas but it was so new they don't have the grass in yet - it will go to the left of the sidewalk. I loved the combinations of different levels and the different natural colors of stucco. Huge pots sat on the tops of the flat roofs with wooden ladders leaning up and out at various places to give you the Mesa Verde feel.

This is a picture from the ground looking up at our two patio balcony's.

If you follow the far left windows all the way up on the gold stucco, we are just two floors above them on the top level.
Just a view of the pool - it was a warm day in the mid 60's (I think this is the day you guys were getting clobbered with the snow storm) but not warm enough to go swimming outside.
This is the indoor pool - that's me over there in the chair - there was a large hot tub here and also one outside.

The Buffalo Thunder Trail Resort and Casino is brand new. It just opened on 08-08-08 - that's august 8, 08 - and it is gorgeous. The casino itself was in the basement of this huge gorgeous Hilton hotel so we didn't even notice it or hear it which was nice. We wandered through it one night but didn't even bother to stick a couple of quarters in the machine...I mean HOW DO YOU THINK THEY PAID for all this beauty? -

As we were checking in, the gal at the desk told us she had us in two queen sized beds, and I spoke up and said, one king sized bed works better if you have that available. She said let me look. Ed spoke up and said "I'm a diamond, so you could upgrade us too". No comment as she busily typed stuff into the computer. When she had everything organized she turned back to us and said: I've upgraded you to a suite!" As we walked away I told Ed "WOW, a suite at the Hilton - that's pretty good! I'll travel with you more often!"

So I took a few pictures - it was a large one bedroom suite with two bathrooms, two fireplaces and two balconies and very very comfortable.
Main bathroom with tub on this side

The shower was on the other side of this huge bathroom.




I loved the wooden ceilings - they were so beautiful - the wood was like tongue in groove but rounded not flat like a floor or wall. Fascinating. This is the fireplace in our bedroom. The switch on the wall turned it on and off

Notice the wooden headboard - it was so gorgeous. The bed was so comfy. In this picture you are looking towards the bathroom door at the right.

Now I've taken a step or two past the bed and am shooting the camera towards the other side of the room. I should have opened the curtains so you could see the patio out there. It was one of the two balcony's we had to enjoy in our room.


This is the living room - the window on the left is actually the doors to the balcony. The blue chair is in the center of the room with a lovely table and chairs and countertop behind. Of course there is another fireplace in this room too.
We went into old town Santa Fe all three nights - the first time with a van full of ladies and Ed and I as everyone didn't have cars assigned to them and we were 15 miles from downtown Santa Fe. We headed in to tour old Santa Fe - but since everyone in our group works for Job Corps we looked for the 'cheap' spots. We wandered through lots of eclectic little shops but just oohed and ahhed over everything but gagged at the prices. Finally we found a little five and dime (haven't seen one of those for a long time and I found this cute pot for $8.95 - its almost as pretty as the one Wendy bought for $140!!

I worked on necklaces and Etsy.com (it takes FOREVER to download one necklace!) , went for long walks and read. Nice quiet week while Ed was in meetings. He got out by two oclock every day and so we had a nice vacation together. We went back to Santa Fe for dinner on Wednesday by ourselves and ended up back at the Plaza in old Santa Fe at t he Orehouse - and I had the most delicious halibut EVER!!!! YUM!

Thursday Ed took me downstairs to the gift shop and told me I got to spend BOTH of our $40 gift certificates and we looked and looked and looked and found a bunch of cheap stuff (that was awfully expensive) but I kept going back to this one doll - She is almost two feet tall - Indian maiden in a white buckskin dress and moccasins with lots of bead work - I loved her and Ed thought she was gorgeous too! I almost bought a $74 sweatshirt!!

Finally I told him instead of buying lots of cheap stuff lets blow it all on the doll - she was $115 so we had to add some $$, but I love her.


Ed hand carried her on the airplane and her box just barely fit in the overhead bin cause it was so long but she traveled well.

See how gorgeous her hands and face are.

The last night we were there they had a dinner at The Shed on the plaza in Old Santa Fe again. So we rode in with a bunch of others for a fun dinner and night out - I love these kinds of meetings - I know most of the people and their spouses from other conferences through the years so it makes it very enjoyable.

Friday morning we headed back to the airport in Albuquerque early so that we could drop Anita and Jacque off - our flight was later. We headed over to Ed's Aunt Miriam Lowe's house and had a fun visit with her. She is 87 years old and living alone since Uncle Lynn died two years ago.
We visited with her for about an hour and then took her out to dinner at the Olive Garden - after that we drove out to see the Albuquerque Temple and then took her back to her house to drop her off so that we could make our flight. She was so thankful that we stopped in to visit with her - she is a sweety and we thoroughly enjoyed our time spent with her.

That was our week - it was a fun one.