Beauty, Beauty and More Beauty
Randy had watercolor supplies laid out for the girls, and they set to work creating some art. Meanwhile I watched them and did my best to carry on an intelligent conversation about art when I know so precious little about it! He was gracious about answering my questions and giving suggestions and inspiration to the girls as they worked. His life story is one of learning to listen and wait for the Lord, something I’ve never been so great at.
I was interested in a couple of pieces of his art, and
debated asking if they were sale, but I felt uncertain about the whole thing
and wasn’t really sure if his work was in my price range or not. Turns out I
made the right move, because when I looked online at some galleries, they were
listed anywhere from $4,000 to around $15,000! Definitely not in my price
range.
When we finished, we stopped for lunch at the Taos Diner, where
our food was good and our servers were as fully tattooed as the rest of young
Taos. Honestly, I’m starting to feel a little naked without any ink.
After lunch we drove the short distance to the Millicent
Rogers Museum. Millicent Rogers was a wealthy, fashionable heiress to Standard
Oil, and in her 50 years she pursued both fashion and education. She ended up
moving to Taos after breaking up with Clark Gable in 1947. She amassed an
enormous collection of Native American jewelry, weavings, and pottery, and the
Millicent Rogers Museum was started in 1956 by her family after her death. We
didn’t spend a lot of time there, but it’s a great sampling of beautiful
handcrafts and artwork.
We couldn’t spend much time there because we still wanted to
get a hike in before it got dark. Google maps couldn’t find the Italianos Trail
in the Taos Ski Valley that we were searching for, so I had some approximate
directions from online commentators. After a few false stops we finally found
it. We hiked up the gravel entrance road and started down, or rather up, the
trail. After just a few minutes we found ourselves on a very narrow path with
logs down over it, and it eventually turned into a hill-hugging ledge of rocks
that lead to a very unkempt path.