We just returned from our summer trip to Angel Fire, New Mexico, to visit our cruise buddies, Becky and Russ Seymour. As always, we had a fun time which is evident from the pictures in our photo album. The temperature in Angel Fire was 45 degrees when we arrived, and it was raining. There was actually snow on the ground in the mountain pass before we reached town! We enjoyed chilly evenings and cool days; it was a bit tough to come back to 108. One of our traditions is to "hunt" for wildlife every evening. Two of our evening hunts were successful with deer sightings, the best one being of a doe and three fawn. But it was the two day-time sightings of elk right outside of the house that were so memorable for us. Jim captured some good close-ups with the camera of our visitors. Thursday night we were just getting ready to eat dinner when we looked out the window and noticed an elk in the yard. Before we knew it we had seven elk in our sights, two bucks, three does, and two babies. The highlight for us was when one of the babies started to nurse. It is such an incredible experience to witness nature at its very best. The other DHaynes/BSeymour tradition is to make a couple of 1000 piece puzzles during the course of the week. This year's photomosaic puzzle of a cow was more of a challenge than we expected; Becky and I were both very relieved when we completed the puzzle after dinner on Thursday and appreciated Jim's assistance in helping us finish it and Russ's support and encouragement over the course of the week. We managed two mountain "walks" (no "hiking" allowed per my physical therapist). I wore braces on both knees and borrowed two fantastic hiking sticks from my in-laws. The boys gave me a hand every now and then and Jim had to lift me on occasion, but I felt a great sense of accomplishment as I completed the two "walks" (albeit the shortened versions from a couple of years ago). We look forward to our next meeting with the Seymours aboard the Oosterdam in December as we cruise the Mexican Riviera.
