Silver City, Here We Come!

This weekend, Mark and I flew out to Phoenix to meet my cousins Jen and Chris for a whirlwind tour of Silver City, NM. I must preface this by saying that after 2 1/2 years of waiting, Jenny finally found a match for her kidney. The amazing guy, I will only call L used to work with her. What an amazing guy (yes, it bears repeating)...and she is scheduled to get it July 25th.

So, we left the airport at about 8pm, only 2 hours or so later than we had planned. As we approahed for landing, the heat of Phoenix started to seep into the plane and by the time we landed, we were quite uncomfortable. Mind you it was 10:30 at night and almost 90 degrees. As we waited for the cab to take us to the hotel, I asked Mark if he thought it might be cooler in the shade. Not so much. The reason we opted for a hotel and didn't say with Chris in her 5 bedroom house, was the fact that there are three dogs plus three cats living there. Add that to Marks and my allergies, equals a bad time.

Jen and Chris met us at 7am and we packed into the plane for the 1 1/2 hour flight. The two of them slept most of the way, and since we left so early, turbulence/air sickness was not an issue. I will always remember Jen in the back of a two-person kayak throwing up over the side while on calm Maui surf.

Silver Cty is an old mining town, that Mark and first went to a few years ago.Now we go back a few times a year. For the size of the town, there are alot of art galleries. Here's Mark in front of a few:

The farmers market was closing down, but we managed to buy some jam. Some flavors available were appleberry, boysenberry cactus and pear.
Lunch was at Dianes on Bullard. The four of walked through a bunch of galleries
and then met up with our friend Harry. Harry is a Silver City landmark. His gallery, What's A Pot Shop is always a fun place to visit.

He took us to the old Elks lodge, a huge brick building in the middle of town. A guy named David bought it and not only lives there but will open a restaurant with a pseudo goth theme. Sounds interesting. The building is puportedly haunted. What with all the gargoyles in attendence, it is not surprising.

At around 3, we checked into the Palace Hotel. This place dates from 1882. Didn't ask if it was haunted. Don't want to know. The last time Mark and I stayed there, we had a dark room above the local dive bar, the Buffalo Bar. Not very realxing. This time, we had a little room on the other side. So cute:
Here is the lobby:

The weather started to look a bit menacing, but we drove out to Pinos Altos to have a snack/drink at the Buckhorn Saloon. Dating from 1860, they have awesome buffalo burgers. The four of us split one plus fried mushrooms ( mmm fried mushrooms) and drank various beverages. We snuck into the opera house too.