Barnes Daily Circus: The Mountain Town of Cloudcroft, NM

We were invited by some friends to go with them up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico this past weekend. I didn't take much convincing. Especially after they told us that this is a mountain town and elevation is 8000+ feet**. Which means the temperature is 20 degrees cooler there than down here in Hades, Alamogordo. I was totally in.

** Side note: Alamogordo is 4000+ feet above sea level. Which I did not know. And then I made brownies out of a box for dessert the other night. And I did not even THINK of following the additional instructions for baking at high altitudes. Lets just say that I was lucky they were edible. Because I was supposed to use 1 less egg and add flour. Oops. I do not win any awards from Betty Crocker this week :(

We went with a group of 6 adults and 2 babies (Avery is almost 14 months and Zack is 15 weeks) for part one of the trip and then another friend joined us up there after lunch (part II of this post). The 8 of us (babies are people too, you know!) left at 9am for the drive up there. It took about 40 minutes and our ears were popping the whole time. We kept feeding the babies or putting pacifiers in their mouths so their ears would pop. It was good. Here is our view from the top!! There was an overlook that we stopped at that was right before we got to the actual town of Cloudcroft.

Isn't it GORGEOUS??

Do you see the white sand? That is the national park about 15 minutes from Alamogordo where you can sled down the dunes and stuff. We will also be going there. Alas, that is not what this post is about. Still gorgeous in pictures though.

All of these trees are part of the Lincoln National Forest. Can you believe all these trees? I just pictured sand, sand, and more sand when Troy said we were going to be in New Mexico for 5 months. I was so surprised!

This is the most artsy picture I have ever taken. Go me. I actually TOOK the photograph in black and white. I'm impressed I could figure out how to change the settings on my camera. And then change them back.

It was an absolutely perfect day. A day the Lord had made. Look at that sky! Did I mention that it was 20 degrees cooler than in Alamogordo?

As for sight seeing, we took the route of "lets drive through town and stop when we see something we want to do" as opposed to "here is our schedule of events." The first place we decided to stop was the Cloudcroft Museum.

There were about 14 buildings that could be toured. I think only 2 of them were actually built there and the others were relocated to that area. Parts of the buildings are original and some of them were restored.

This is in the main building regarding the history of the town. The town was a train stop for logging and resupply. This town was the first in the country to have the "S" shaped track for switch-backing up the mountain.

This is the one room school house. So small. It really shows the basics of school. Too bad the education is not that simple anymore. Ahhhh the good ole' days.

Troy was dying laughing at the list of rules for teachers. It's pretty funny. I want to tag all of my friends (like on Facebook) so that they can read these rules. Hilarious. Especially the rule about hanging out in ice cream shops being scandalous. The first set of rules is from 1872 and the second set is from 1915.

This is the chapel. Some of the windows were original and had this wavy pattern in them. The restored panes were clear. You can actually still get married in there. Adorable. I loved it. So quaint.

This is an original 2 room cottage. There was a large room that was the living room and had the bed in it. There was an additional room off the back that had a twin bed. 14 people used to live there. At once. Talk about love. And camping in your own house. Ps. I hate camping.

This is Kristen looking at a firetruck from pre WWI. I can't remember the year, but the truck carried 150 gallons of water. And it was hand pumped out in the instance of a fire.

This is most of our group. Minus baby Zack and his momma, Karen. Zack needed a snack. We are standing in the post office/train station. One of things I loved about this building was the explanation for mail. There were 2 crates for mail. One for incoming and one for outgoing. The outgoing mail was just all in one bin and you sorted and sifted through it to look for your mail.

This is the actual train car that was on site. It was pretty cool.

This is the inside. The modern amenities and comforts of travel were definitely apparent to me after seeing this. Eeeek.

Kristen is so happy :) Such a good photo bomb. Congrats.

How cute is Avery in her carrier? She just snuggles up to you and peeks out. As long as you keep moving and giving her something else to look at, she's happy. The second you pause for more than about 7 seconds she's screaming and pinching the skin on the back of your arm. Consider that a warning if you ever carry her.

This is Troy pretending to be the train ticket salesman. See the video at the bottom for audio :) He's funny.

In honor of awesome dads wearing babies, here is Nate, carrying a passed out Zack after his snack. SO cute...

Weeew. That's a ton of pictures. Be back tomorrow with pictures from lunch and our "hike." More like a traveling comedy show. Some strollers are just not designed for rugged terrain. And babies are carried like Cleopatra. You'll see.

In the meantime, here's Troy playing train conductor: