Taos: Day 3

On Tuesday morning, I woke up shortly after 6am refreshed and curious when the Wired? Cafe was to open.  A quick search revealed that it would open at 8am so with the time to kill I read a few more chapters of The Great Hunt before collecting my materials to work down at the cafe all morning. 

Along the way, I noticed an unusually large number of the small liquor bottles littered all over the side of the road.  It was quite the riddle I could not figure out.

I ordered a large coffee and a bagel with peanut butter, got the wi-fi password and found a comfortable place to sit and grade exams.  Over half way through them, I let Texas Holdem on Facebook distract me, so I was only able to completely finish one of my class's exams.  I have two more to go on some other morning. 

Erin made some southwestern salads for lunch and we watched the 8th episode of Homeland.  For the rest of the early afternoon, I worked on a few Kirksville Multisport board member duties.

Around 3pm, we walked to the Taos Plaza.  We stopped at a few stores to pick up some more hot sauce, salsa, and some pinon incense.  With just a few stops, we had picked up everything we needed so we strolled down to the Alley Cantina. We enjoyed some "Silver Coin" margaritas and some jalapeno poppers there.  It is one of the oldest places in Taos. 

Since the margaritas and appetizer at Alley Cantina were expensive, we decided to hit happy hour up the street at the Taos Ale House.  I had a Marble Stout and Erin ordered two small samples of their wheat and porter.  We played a round of cribbage in which Erin dominated for almost the entire game.  As the game was winding down, and I thought there was no hope, I was dealt 6, 6, 7, 8, and then cut a 6 for a 20 count.  With one more round of play and my first count, I finished ahead and conquered.  I felt really bad and really good at the same time.

It was getting close to dinner time, so we walked to La Cueva and tempted the idea of an appetizer and another beer somewhere else first.  We held course, and La Cueva was named appropriately because it felt as if we were in a tiny little cave.  I ordered the recommended Chicken Mole Enchiladas and Erin had a combination platter with a chicken enchilada with green chili sauce, a veggie taco, and a chili rellano.  Both were good. 

After dinner we enjoyed a long walk home to burn off some of dinner's calories.  Erin began to get me pumped up about skiing the slopes of Taos Ski Valley on Wednesday.  The guy serving us at Taos Ale House suggested that I plan to arrive up there at 8am to get easily parked, get my gear rented, and be ready to go by 9am; when the lifts officially open.  I will heed his advice.