Jan 5 - The first post from the Shaw's on their 2011 adventure

This blog will follow the adventures of Gail, John, and Meghan Shaw.  We'll share our travels, our adventures, our interests and our opinions.  We hope you'll be interested and follow us - we plan that this will be a "diary" of our new adventures as Gail retires from IBM (not yet, but soon) as we take more vacations and see more sights. 

Our first adventure/ trip began on Dec. 16th when we left Reno, NV with our 5th wheel on the way to Littleton, CO for the holidays.  We spent our first night in Las Vegas, then went on to Phoenix and spent 2 days with Tony & Jeanette Chavez in Phoenix.  We left the RV there and will pick it up later (our ultimate destination for the winter).  We arrived in Denver on Dec. 21st and spent the next two weeks with Gail's family over Christmas and New Years.  We also saw John's daughter Lisa and her 3 boys, Cody, Braden and Garrett.  It was great to connect and catch-up with everyone.  

While in Denver we saw the King Tut exhibit, watched my nephew Christopher's hockey team (the Foothill Flyers) take runner-up in a big tournament, visited with local friends the Hambrooks, and went to a couple of movies.  We were busy!  And of course we ate and drank too much which is typical for the holidays (but is a serious focus area for 2011).


We left Denver yesterday for a rambling trip back to Phoenix.  We stopped in Taos and already love the place.  We're staying at La Posada de Taos and are enjoying the hospitality of Brad and Michael our innkeepers.  What a terrific place, close to the old town center, the ski area and lots of wonderful sights - but it's cold here!

Today we explored old town and bought a few pieces of turquoise.  Later we went to an amazing place called Earthship.  All of the homes are built 100% naturally and are 100% off the grid - completely selfsustaining.  Amazing to see tomatoes growing indoors in January!  If we were only a few years younger we'd might give this a go.  After that we were off the the Millicent Rogers museum to see her collection of art, jewelry, pottery, and woven goods - it's something that shouldn't be missed if you're ever here.  We had terrific margueritas at the Taos Inn and called it a night.  Lots more to do tomorrow - we've already decided to extend this visit - we'll leave here on Saturday morning.

This is a long entry because I wanted to go back and share this adventure from the beginning.  We'll continue to post, but shorter entries with what we're up to.  We hope to hear you, and definitely see you as we're out and about!