NeedleWind: Taos, New Mexico, Part One

During a family vacation to Sante Fe, NM, Thelma's brother Johnny wrote a song entitled "Needlewind." A quote from the song that rings true about Taos is: "I can take it all in, but can I breathe it out?" The beauty of Taos, NM is hard to describe but can be stated simply as breathtakingly beautiful. On the first night of our trip, Louise turned to Thelma and said, "This place captures a part of the soul." Thelma, with the ever-present tears in her eyes, replied, "Yes. The peaceful part."

Since we are trying to remain spontaenous about how long we stay in one particular place (hence, less than 24 hours in Dallas...), we magically stumbled upon "The Cottonwood Inn: Bed & Breakfast." Louise was unsure of what exactly a Bed & Breakfast entailed and was a bit weary when the Inn was listed as a romantic getaway for two. Thelma reassured her that although she most definitely would cuddle, they did not have to be "partners" to enjoy the luxuries that this place claimed to offer.

From the homemade soaps, the friendly Innkeepers, the lovely rooster that we awoke to daily, to the gourmet breakfasts that greeted us every morning, this place was BLISS. A little utopia. Many times during our trip, we turned to each other and said, "where are we?" (again, with tears...) Although we only booked two nights, we could not leave this peaceful abode, so we stayed 3 nights.

A view from the back porch where we had breakfast....with Brantley, one of our hosts that we longed to call "Dad" as we drove away from the Inn on the third day...but we thought that might be weird.

One of the AMAZING breakfasts. Brantley noticed that Thelma did not eat her bacon the previous morning, so he surprised her with vegan sausage. Do you see why we did not want to leave?

The chairs. The infamous chairs. The reason why this blog is a few days overdue.

Winston, one of the Cottonwood Inn mascots. Look at those eyes...precious.

After we pealed ourselves away from the glorious chairs, we ventured into Arroyo Seco, a small town located about 2 miles from the Inn. This is an artist community filled with painters, sculptors, and potters. We met a friendly Potter named Scott who volunteered to take us on an adventure. Thelma said, "sure!" and Louise said "we'll get back to you."

St. Francis of Asis, located in Taos, is one of the most artistically replicated churches in the world.

During one of our many conversations about life (Thelma gets her inquisitive nature from papa john, the king of "if" questions) we venture into the "what will you be doing in 10 years?" question. Without a beat, we created our perfect plan.

In 10 years, after Brantley has generously given us the Cottonwood Inn at a reduced rate, Louise and Thelma will reside in Taos...Thelma, with a husband and possibly 1 child, and Louise with a man and 2 horses. We will run a Center for the Creative Arts, where Louise will head the acting workshops and Thelma the writing workshops. Louise will have a compost and Thelma will take baths and make smoothies.

We adore Taos.