I travel extensively with my job…attending Birding Festivals and events all over the US, and at least once a year in England…but I rarely get to take family along. This last trip, my wife Carol and youngest daughter Kelia(the only one still at home) met me in Albuquerque on my way to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, near Socorro New Mexico. And this day, Thanksgiving Day, our trip together is high on my list of things to be thankful for. I took a couple of vacation days early in the week, and we drove to Gallup to visit friends and do some hiking in the Red Rocks, and then I worked the festival while Carol and Kelia found Mexican cooking classes to attend and hikes to do…and shopped the craft fairs that spring up in Socorro on Festival of the Cranes weekend. And, of course, we had some very satisfying Mexican meals (Frank and Lupe’s El Sombrero in Socorro is not to be missed!) Each day we experienced a bit of the wonder of the Land of Enchantment together, and that was indeed an experience to be thankful for.

This is Carol and Kelia by a huge old Cottonwood at the Photo Blind on the Farm loop drive at Bosque. The pond on the far side of the blind was drained down, so we didn’t see the 1000s of Snow Geese that sometimes settle there, but it was an excellent photo op anyway.

And here they are on sunny day in Church Rock Canyon, Red Rocks State Park, near Rehoboth (where all my girls were born). This was Kelia’s first experience of the Red Rock country around Gallup, since we moved east when she was a month old.

And finally, on a hike up Water Canon in the Magdalena Mountains behind Socorro, Kelia couldn’t resist climbing up the downed and well bleached Cottonwood to perch in the window formed by the twisted trunk of is living descendent.

And today, 3 of my 5 girls are at home for the family Thanksgiving Feast. I wish they could have all be on that trip…that would have given me that much more to be thankful for…but I don’t know where I would put the thankfulness. I am full up. Besides, gotta leave room for turkey and cranberry sauce still to come!

All shots with the Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. (And the Canon is another thing I am very thankful for…such a fun camera!)