Alice Ryan, my grandmother, is a pretty amazing woman. Born in 1926, she came into this world the same year as Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. While her birthplace was a dugout on a ranch in northeast New Mexico, I consider her just as regal as England’s royal matriarch.
She loves local adventures, art, and wine. While we prefer she use a walker to prevent the inevitable tumbles that near centurions are prone to, she carries herself with confidence and grace.
There are many days I would rather be out on luncheon and shopping adventures with Alice. Alas, we keep our outings to the weekends while during the week I work hard for my money (and health insurance) tied to a computer.
We are quite lucky to have found companionship and heartfelt oversight of Alice with the incredible and caring Christine. Several days a week, she helps Alice appease her hankerings for bustling restaurants and shops that provide a wider, livelier view beyond her retirement community.
Christine provides me weekly updates about their adventures together, complete with photos and commentary about Alice’s moods, feelings, and nutritional habits… taking me along virtually.
Below are a few of the latest tales that warmed my heart and I wanted to share broadly. My prayer is that others like Alice are as blessed and living their best lives too, after a long life of hard work and dedication to their families.
We hit the ground running today out for shopping and had a nice ride and discussed exercises, hydration and nutrition!
On our way downstairs we came upon a delightful time listening to a man play the piano and sing show tunes and favorites from the 50s! He played a song on the ukulele too!
We followed up with a suggestion of stopping somewhere for a glass of wine, the mariachis were at El Patron again so that was quite enjoyable and so many young families as well.
It was a gorgeous day so we decided it was a great day to drive to Tesuque so we had a wonderful drive up to Tesuque, the sky was absolutely beautiful with dreamy white clouds tinted with orange and everything was hazy it was oddly beautiful.
We went to happy hour and dinner at Pelican’s and visited with friends who are always there on Fridays as well. We shared a steak & coconut shrimp dinner with clam chowder and crab cakes for starters. Miss Alice ate well! We lingered just enjoying the company of friends and the atmosphere for a good while after dinner. We did leg & ankle exercises even.
We enjoyed a nice drive down to Old Town, reminiscing along the way about old buildings and when each one may have been built. We ended up at Sawmill Market ( a new find for us ) and perfect seating to people watch and talk before touring the entire building inside and out.
my hankerings 