Alamosa (Part 2)

More Alamosa stuff. This photo was taken from the same exact spot as the one I shared a few days ago, but ninety degrees to the left, facing east. The photo below was taken another 90 degrees to the north. As you can see, not exactly uplifting.

Alamosa is situated in the San Luis Valley, which is not only a very beautiful place, it's also one of the poorest regions in Colorado. Boasting fewer than 10,000 residents, it's the largest town in the area. Adams State College is located in Alamosa and that gives it a breath of fresh air -- having a college or university in any city inevitably lends a boost of  fun and funkiness. But yeah, it's not exactly the upper east side of Manhattan in terms of median household income. That said, of course not all of Alamosa looks like these grim images! There are some very cute neighborhoods, too.

Sunday Style!

Back to Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend for today's post. Lots of bodacious Betties and cool cats to be found at the car show. Next Sunday I'll wind up my VLV series with just a few more snaps of vintage style captured over the course of the event.

I ran into a few friends at Viva this time around. This is Stephanie and it was a nice surprise to bump into her at the car show. 😊

My mom had a purse very much like this when I was a small child. This would have been around 1970, I think. Hers had a horse head design in the tooled leather and I remember being obsessed with it. Finally she gave it to me a few years ago. I've never used it but I think it's high time that I take it out for a spin.

Alamosa (Part 1)

Pat and I drove to Alamosa yesterday, about 165 miles away, and although it was a beautiful day for a road trip our mission was a little depressing, to be perfectly honest. To briefly explain, for several years one of Pat's three brothers lived in or around Alamosa. (Matt had always been a bit transient by nature, so for a time he lived nearby in tiny Blanca as well.) In February of 2025 he died quite unexpectedly, and ever since then, Pat has been paying rent on the storage unit in Alamosa that Matt rented. The time has come to finally see what was in there and figure out what to do with his things. I won't go into that here, though. Suffice it to say that although it was not exactly a joyful excursion, I decided to make the best of it and document the things that I saw in Alamosa and the surrounding area. I suppose the photos reflect my mood. Here's the building where Matt rented his storage unit.

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I was at the water wise demonstration garden up on the mesa a few days ago, and although most of the plants were only starting to emerge from their winter slumber, the cactus were already in full bloom and putting on a nice show.

A Sight for Sore Eyes

It's nice to see a blanket of snow on the peak, even though it'll disappear soon. It's been an unnervingly warm and dry winter and we're definitely staring down the barrel at water restrictions in the coming months. The last several days brought us chilly, soggy and snowy weather, which will definitely help, but it's not enough. Send more please, Mother Nature.

Sunday Style!

I do have more Viva Las Vegas style snaps to show you, but I'll wait until next Sunday because I feel like this moment on the beach at Dana Point makes a nice coda to all the vacation pics I've been showing you the past few days. What a great little sundress for a seaside afternoon.

Things I Saw in SoCal (Part 4)

The final few images from my brief vacation in California last month. As promised, more surfers. In the last shot, the young woman has a happy grin on her face because she was obviously a beginner surfer (the board is a dead giveaway) and let out an audible "woo hoo!" as she managed to ride the wave all the way in without wiping out. Good for her! I imagine this is a pretty tough sport to master.