There truly is no cell service once you get outside of the towns so I frantically checked for places to eat in Alpine once we got into town and settled on a spot called Magoo's. Magoo's is a mexican joint but TripAdvisor people said their breakfast was good. M got pancakes/bacon/eggs and I got huevos rancheros. I read the menu and thought "Refried beans...uh that is not typical" but I ordered it anyway because if I eat something like pancakes, I am starving within an hour. Let me tell you it was so random but I ate it all anyway - it was like this spicy breakfast goulash with eggs, beans, green chilies and tortillas that totally sticks to your ribs. On the bright side, I was not hungry for most of the rest of the day so mission accomplished. We decided after Magoo's to go check out the McDonald Observatory which is maybe 45-50 miles north of Alpine.
I really, really enjoyed the trip just because of the scenery. I have never driven around in the Davis Mountains in the daytime and it is gorgeous (I did go to the Observatory in college for a star party one night). Midland is flat and kind of depressing but we do get some gorgeous sunsets. Seeing elevation changes for us is practically like rolling around on a bed full of money...it's totally awesome. I have always enjoyed West Texas/New Mexico/Arizona. We did lots of vacations as kids in the Southwest and I internally geek out over living out here because I love it so much. Low humidity? Awesome. Seeing weather systems blow up before they make it here? Double awesome. Cool nights where you can actually sit outside and enjoy yourself? Triple awesome.
Now that we have established that West Texas is awesome...back to the trip recap. Fort Davis is nestled in the mountains and we wanted to check out the Fort (it's a national park) but decided to press on and see the Observatory because the chance of an outside star party that night was slim considering the weather. The stars were aligned (he he he) because when we got there they were just about to start a tour of the observatories. For $8/adult we got in our car and off we drove up the mountain to the facility that has the Harlan J Smith telescope. They also have a shuttle if you would prefer to take that to the facilities.
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| Waiting for the tour to begin at the top |
The Tour typically begins at the overlook to the south of the 107" dome. From there, peaks over 80 miles way can be seen. At this location, your guide will typically discuss some of the history of the Observatory and why this location was chosen for an astronomical research facility. After pointing out some of the peaks in the area, the tour typically then proceeds to the ground floor lobby of the 107" dome where some of the history of that telescope is discussed. After a climb up four flights of steps (an elevator is available for those who shouldn't or can't take the steps .. your guide with discuss access to the elevator) the tour continues with descriptions of the parts of the telescope seen at the 5th floor level, demonstrations of the telescope motions, etc.
After visiting the 107" telescope, your guide will provide instructions for continuing with the tour at the summit of Mt. Fowlkes and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. At the HET, you'll learn more about that telescope's unique, low-cost (for a world class telescope, at least) design and about new cutting-edge research projects for which the HET is currently being re-engineered.
The storms were starting to fire up while we were there and as soon as we were done with the tour and went back to the guest center, the rain hit hard. It didn't occur to either of us to watch the movie or stay and explore the visitor center - we did want to get back to Marfa and try Pizza Foundation so we got our Christmas ornament (it's a tradition to buy an ornament when we go on trips) and off we went into the monsoon. Apparently this time of year is monsoon season down there.
We got back to Marfa and went straight to Pizza Foundation. I had read reviews and they open at 1 and serve until they run out of pizza dough. We were worried they would feed all the hipsters before we got a chance to try it. Their menu is simple but the kid at the counter was annoyed at me asking how it works. They have 3 "foundations" and then you can add extra toppings. They offer a cheese, white and margarita pizza. We decided to do half white add onion (him) and half margarita add sausage (me) since the pizzas are 18 inches wide. It was amazing. There is a place in Frisco called Pizzaria Testa and it's true Naples type pizza and Pizza Foundation was exactly as delicious but they are way more generous with toppings. I would go back to Marfa just to eat pizza. Soooo good!
We wanted to walk around Marfa and see what there was to see....there's not much. We went into this store Freida's that a waiter at Maiya's recommended because his wife owns it and it wasn't really our speed. We walked into an art gallery that was doing an exhibit on 9/11 - it was a woman who painted it from a child's perspective. Again it wasn't our speed. There wasn't much else open so we decided to try the rock shop and I ended up getting a rock. The rock shop had some cool stuff but it was kind of expensive. Like everywhere in Marfa, there is practically no air conditioning or it's tiny window units that don't cool well. Back to the casita we went for some relaxing and a few hours later we decided to try Jett's Grill at the Hotel Paisano. The food was pretty good but the best part for me was my drink - the American Honey. They muddled the liquor, lemon and sweetness together and serve it over an oversized iced tea ice cube. I could have drank 10 of those things but stopped at 2. I want to try to make it at home.
After dinner we wanted to try Frama to see if they had ice cream but they closed at 8 so we went back to the casita and waited it out to go check out the Marfa Lights around 9:45ish. Legend has it that these lights have been seen since 1883 by ranchers and no one knows what they are. There is a "light stop" off the highway and it was pretty crowded - I am not sure if we actually saw the lights but we kept seeing something. I had read that the lights dance, shoot across the land and are different colors. We saw lights that kind of blinked on and off so the husband maintains they were highway lights. I have no idea what they were. Take a lawn chair and some drinks and let me know what you see!
Sunday was our last day and we got coffee at Frama and headed out to Prada Marfa. Prada Marfa is an art installation that was set up in 2005 - it is a sealed off Prada store front with real Prada items inside of it. It is about 35 miles west of Marfa towards Valentine. It is...weird. I got one great picture but this place has been vandalized with graffiti and the awnings are ripped so it looks kind of sad. I'm glad we got to see it but it was not life changing. Once we were done with that we took the super scenic route back to Midland and about 3-4 hours later we were home! It was a great trip and we would like to go back and spend more time in Fort Davis and Alpine next time!
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| The menu at Frama is scrabble tiles! |
Congratulations if you made it to the end of this post! I need to work on making these shorter!
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