Hillary Visits

We were very happy to welcome Hillary to West Texas for a few days recently. She came all the way from San Francisco to see us and my bump! She got to come to the baby shower and the next morning, we loaded up the car and took a mini road trip to Marfa & Fort Stockton.





We stopped at 3 gem & mineral shops along the way. My favorite was Moonlight Gemstones in Marfa. The owner is very nice and we both made a few little purchases.

I wanted to buy this big chunk of rock so bad, but I decided to save my money.

We took Hillary to explore the concrete works at the Chinati Foundation. Aside from a strong wind, the weather was perfect.

Sam made friends with a deaf dog at the local saloon

Our friend Darin lives in Marfa now, so we met up with him at the Lost Horse Saloon before getting dinner at the Paisano Hotel, one of the few places that was open on Sunday evenings. He let us crash at his place and recommended going to the top of the courthouse dome in the morning for some pretty views.

Inside the Marfa courthouse

The back of this crazy hearse said, "If I can't go to heaven then let me go to Texas."

After a little exploration of Marfa, we went to the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center, where they had a new exhibition up about the history of mining in the area. A sweet old man came over to tell us he and his friends set up the exhibition, and did we like it? When I expressed interest in a specimen of Texas turquoise, he proudly told us about the specimen he found and polished for his wife, then he ran to his car to get it and show it to us.













We saw a lot of beautiful landscapes that somehow reminded me of our New Zealand road trips, even though there is such a contrast in the land. It was hard to say Adios, both to the open road and to Hillary when she went home, but I'm looking forward to seeing both again.