El Paso, Texas

Thursday, July 16, 2015
 Last December I headed to El Paso to visit my friend, Regan and her daughter, Micah.  They were in Texas for 8 months while her husband trained at the El Paso army base for his new position.  Micah's birthday is December 5th, which fell on a Friday.  I figured this might be the only time we lived close enough for me to be able to fly out for her birthday.  So I did.  Most of the, too short, weekend was spent getting ready for the par-tay, but I had googled searched my heart out before visiting and there were a few things I put on the to do list.  First, the views were gorgeous from various points as we were driving around.  There were many overlooks where you could see the mountains looming in the backdrop.
 We also took a quick trip through one of the nearby passes on our way back to the airport.
 On Saturday, before the birthday fesitivies (complete with princess bounce house) we went downtown to the farmers marker.  There weren't many fruits and veggies, but there WERE tons of local goods-homemade soaps, pottery, vegan breads and desserts, artisan jewelry etc.  It was a really neat walk through the local culture, and the prices were affordable.
 We also drove through some of the colorful streets downtown with a lot of fun buildings.
 Saturday night we headed out to a Christmas parade.  All the floats (and costumes) were covered with lights.  The lesson we learned-we need to head there earlier....an hour before meant expensive (hard to find) parking and little to no views from the back of the pack of all the people who were smarter than us!
 Sunday, before I left, I insisted on seeing some of the missions.  We were able to find two out of three before buying tortillas and sugary desserts at a local market called Vista.
We were there before the missions were open to the public.  We were able to walk around the outside though.
I've lived in Texas my whole life, but hey, even I find three horses tied up outside of an convenience store pretty interesting.  
 
I really was surprised by all there was to do (so much of it we didn't have time for) in El Paso.  The market and the missions exceeded my expectations.  Just another fun stop in Texas.  

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