Puppies, chickens, and a big climb - New Mexico days 4-5

Since I've fallen a bit behind, today will be a double update.

Day 4

Today is a bit of a quiet spa day. We decided to make the most of it by exploring two of the on-site activities this morning - The Puppy Pile and the Chicken Chat! In the puppy pile, the resort brings in liters of puppies (5-7 animals at a time as I understand it) that guest can adopt. The Puppy Pile is sort of a pre-adoption meet and greet, although you don't have to be looking to adopt to stop by. They had two litters today - three German Sheperd - Australian Border collies and two Australian Border Collie mix of some sort. Kris and I got in the pen with the three brothers and spent a good time petting and interacting with the dogs.

We decided to take a short swim and availed ourselves of the hot tub and hammocks. Check out Kris' facebook for his obligatory hammock selfie. After a short time-out/nap, we headed over to the coop to partake in the chicken chat. The resort has a flock of ~15 hens and a lonely rooster. All of the chickens are silkies, which apparently are very laid back and friendly, as chickens go. I have to admit, I wasn't sure what to expect. The chickens were a bit skittish about being picked up, but once you got their wings tucked in and their feet secured under them, they are surprisingly cuddly. While silkies look pretty fluffy, I wouldn't say they were soft exactly, but I did enjoy petting them!

From there we headed to the spa - A Head to Toe 'experience' for me and a massage and 'sound healing' for Kris. The head to toe was a scalp, hand/arm, and lower leg/feet focused massage. It was so relaxing that I woke myself up snoring...Twice! The only down side was that the scalp massage featured a lot of oil and despite washing my hair 5 times since, it's still not quite back to normal yet. Kris said that the massage was fine and that the sound therapy was...Interesting. He has now been exposed to all seven of the healing frequencies, so, he has that going for him, Which is nice. All in all a lovely, relaxing day!

Day 5

Today we headed out tp the Hyde Park/Santa Fe National forest. We got a late start so the trail head we had planned to start at was completely packed. We headed back down the mountain to the visitor's center/ranger station and parked there. This, however, meant that we had a 1.7mile/1000+' elevation gain hike to get to our hike. Also, we started late, so we were doing this in the early-mid-day sun. 

Aside from the elevation changes, this hike felt very much like home. Lots of conifers, a surprising amount of greenery, and a ton of butterflies. My favorite part of this hike was a stream crossing at the mid-way point. All told, we covered almost 2K feet in elevation gain today in a little less than 7 miles. I gotta say, the altitude combined with some sustained climbs is no joke. Mt Airy will feel very different when we get home!

After dinner tonight, we hit up La Lecheria Santa Fe. Kris got a scoop of green chili and one of mint chocolate chip. Both were excellent and he claims they worked well together. I opted for a frozen affogato - salter butterscotch with Iconik Coffee ice cream. Delicious!