mostly New Mexico

For some reason, it has occurred to me now to mention that Michael and I do not read each other's blog entries. At the beginning we were, but when you live everything together and then write it all down yourself, you don't really want to read about it again. Therefore, I apologize for repetition, and hope that his perspective is at least different (and therefore perhaps interesting).

I enjoyed the art in Marfa. None of the several Texans working at the various hotels we stopped in had actually visited it, and one described it as coffee tables painted silver and called art. He obviously hadn't been there--they were much too big to be coffee tables. The basic idea is that this artist bought an old military base and he and his artist friends did large-scale installation art in the buildings. The coffee tables were 100 pieces, each 41 x 51 x 72 inches but each slightly different. That was my favorite piece, but there was other cool stuff too. Another interesting one was a reproduction of a Lenin-era schoolhouse in disrepair, which has been left to further deteriorate since it was built in the 1990s. It reminded me of this Jewish girls' school that was opened as an exhibition space for the Berlin Biennial art show we went to in 2006.

On the way from Marfa we stopped at an observatory. I think star-gazing is cool, but telescopes during the day don't do it for me. But I guess we have to balance science and art on this trip.

Then we got to New Mexico. I really liked New Mexico. Since we barely saw anything and were only in the far southern part of the state, I'm not sure it's fair of me to decide that. But I like to think I have an innate connection to the state because my grandmother grew up there. Plus, I love Mexican food, and that's all we ate.

Carlsbad Caverns was really beautiful (I was going to say cool, but I think I'm overusing that word today). We were lucky enough to have gotten there nearly at opening, and were almost completely alone when we got down into the cavern. That was an amazing feeling. I kept thinking about how it must have been when it first opened as a park. And also what it must be like when there are tons of people and all their voices are echoing all over.

So I was impressed by Carlsbad, but White Sands was one of the highlights of the entire trip. I guess that's because we decided to camp. I'm a sucker for feeling like I have privileged access to something, and that's how you feel when you're completely alone in a national park all night. It was just us and one other guy camping, and we only saw him in the parking lot in the evening and on our way out in the morning. I told Mike that White Sands is one of the most photogenic places I've ever been. Every time I took a picture, I felt like I saw another view that was even better. The truth is that probably none of it captures the feeling of being out there all alone.

We drove from White Sands to my grandparents' in Tucson. On the way, we drove through a piece of Coronado State Forest. Honestly, I wasn't even going to mention it, but I happen to know that Michael did (I don't know what he said) and I want to give my version. Michael was navigating while I was driving, and he failed to noticed that the route he wanted to take was all unpaved roads. So there were were, half an hour from the interstate in the genuine middle of nowhere Arizona, and our choice is to go on or go back. So we drove on, for about 2 more hours. I have to admit that it was a very cool drive. But please don't tell Budget Rent-a-Car.

There was something strange for me about driving into Tucson, a city that I have visited so many times but only by plane. The idea that I could trace the road all the way back to my parents' in Massachusetts feels strange.

Tucson has mostly been for visiting and relaxing. My grandparents are 85, and it is really wonderful to see how they support each other and really keep each other going. For some reason I never really thought about it in previous visits. I hope I'm so lucky as to get to grow old with Mike (sorry, I know it's a cheesy note to end on).

With love from Tucson,

Sarah