Alamogordo and surrounding sites

There is actually a lot to see within a 45 minutes radius of Alamogordo NM and in the winter there is snow in the local mountains too. Since it is June and the hottest time of the year here, we enjoyed going up to the pine forests to cool off. Cloudcroft is a mountain town and sits at nearly 9,000 foot elevation. Best thing about Cloudcroft is the accessibility from Alamogordo around 20 minutes away.
   Ruidoso is twice as far but still an easy drive. There is a lot more to do in Ruidoso than in Cloudcroft and a lot more places to dine and shop as well. While we were walking at Grindstone lake, we saw a long list of rules on their information billboard. The rules were punctuated by, 6 park rangers with binoculars scouring the lakeside for wrongdoers. One of the more silly rules, on their forbidden list, was that all swimmers, 12 and under, must wear a life jacket at all times while swimming or wading along the shoreline. Zoe was so bummed, she wanted to swim but would not do so if she had to wear the life vest. Zoe loudly exclaimed, "The rules in America are ruining my childhood!" Since we already miss Nicaragua and our old way of life anyways, this punctuated a new, more structured, reality for us. Odd times like this, staring at a billboard, can stir up emotions for us even to this day. Tears welled up in our eyes as we remembered earlier times in Nicaragua. Time and distance will eventually ease our sadness but that may still take a while.
    The Museum of Space History is on the outskirts of town and has a good collection of military and space rockets. There is also an IMAX theater here with cool movies to watch. We watched a movie on black holes and me being a middle aged dad slept through a good portion of it. Apparently, it was an awesome movie because my my wife and kids loved it.

Vendors in Ruidoso selling cute knickknacks.

This snake skin is a reminder that we are in nature's backyard. 

Ruidoso was a larger town than we expected.

The girls loved the carvings and statues.

Sitting on the rocks of Grindstone lake.

Lunchtime

Inn of the Mountain Gods resort and casino has a nice lake where locals can fish.

Zoe hangin' out with a realistically looking sheriff.

Outside the air and space museum.

Mangled rocket debris, the aftermath of orbital re-entry.

The fact that military tech and space tech go hand-in-hand does not go unnoticed here.