Two for One Deal

This weekend we headed up to Socorro for some extracurricular enrichment.  Our first stop was the Camino Real Heritage Museum to soak up some history.  We all enjoyed learning about the Camino Real and it's importance to the settlement of our state.  Some were more interested than others, but the audio tour helped.  Apparently, it is the excessive amount of reading required, that makes the girls not enjoy the museums we take them to as much as they might otherwise.  Next up was a visit to the Bosque de Apache National Refuge to see the Sand hill cranes.  The bosque is the winter home to thousands and thousands of Sandhill Cranes.  Every evening the birds, along with numerous geese and other birds, fly in to the shallow water pond that you see in the photos.  The pond is where they stay for the night only to fly our for feeding in the morning.  On the day we were there, there were over 40,000 Sand hill Cranes.  It was so breathtaking to see all of them in one place.  Many of them returned in huge flocks flying in perfect formation and landing with a smooth touchdown on the water.  By the way, Let's just say that National Geographic will not be calling me anytime soon to submit my nature photos.  You will have to take my word for it...the birds, sunset, dramatic wetlands...they were all gorgeous.  Great day for a two for one field trip!