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Husband and I just got back from a road trip to Santa Fe, NM, which was our first vacation together in four years. We drove up through Roswell, mostly because I wanted to go to the International UFO Museum, which we did. The museum is in a shabby little building filled with lots of posterboard-and-xerox displays about UFOs, particularly the Area 51 stuff. A German TV crew was following someone around as she interviewed people and perused the displays. Apparently this was the kick-off day for a UFO festival. At one point, and much to my surprise, we ended up face-to-face with Keir Dullea in the back of the museum, signing autographs. I had a crush on "Dave" when I first saw 2001, and I have to say he's aged well. He was very congenial, put his arm around me for a nice photo (which I will not post, because I look terrible in it), autographed a lobby poster for 2001, and then talked to my husband for a full 15 minutes about Scandinavian languages. He's a very charming, intelligent person, and it absolutely made my day to meet him.

Next day we drove to Santa Fe, and spent a lovely week visiting the plaza, enjoying the fine food and drink, and swimming in the resort's pool. We both got sun-burned, which has never happened in the seven years we've lived in Texas. Texas is just too darn hot to spend much time outdoors, so we never get burned. But Santa Fe has the loveliest climate -- dry and mid-80s at the hottest -- so we spent a lot of time outdoors, and with the thinner air we got burns even with a generous coat of SPF 30 spray. My favorite part of the trip was the drive to Taos on the last day. We went all the way up to the Taos ski resort (9,200 feet), which I loved, but the altitude difference produced some unpleasant effects and we didn't stay long. (By way of comparison, McDonald Observatory is at an altitude of 6,800 feet, and even there I tended to feel winded and a bit dopey.)

Last night we did the long drive back home (13 hours), which my husband heroically did all on his own with only a couple of stops to gas up. A husband and wife can really get to know each other enclosed together for that long -- in this case, it was all good. And thank goodness we have a few days to recover from our vacation before going back to work.