I am very lucky to have a husband who likes to do the distance driving (as long as I do the in-town). It means that I can take lots of pictures on the road! As we headed out of San Angelo, I could really start to see a difference in the terrain. It was overcast, but the beauty of open wilderness was still breathtaking.
Why detour all the way to Iraan? (Pronounced Ira-Ann, named after the town's founders: Ira and Ann Yates) The answer:
You have to just let it sink in for a moment, don't you?!
The Alley Oop Museum and Fantasy Land Park is a must-see detour if you are in the area! Iraan was once home to V.T. Hamlin, the creator of the 1930s comic strip, "Alley Oop." The park has been around since 1965 and definitely has a nostalgic feel to it.
Unfortunately, we got there before the museum opened. However, the gates to the park were open and so we just wandered around taking pictures.
Don't we make quite the cave-couple?
Back on the road, we finally got a bit of sunshine and blue sky. Amazing!! I felt like I was in a scenic postcard:!
We stopped briefly in Marathon right around noon. I had read in one of my travel books that there was a fabulous place to eat fried pies in Marathon, but the restaurant wasn't open when we got there. (I've since seen some postings that the place is closed for good. Sadness!) However, it was nice to stretch our legs for a moment and look around. Marathon is home to the Gage Hotel, a beautiful building built back in 1927.
From Marathon, we headed straight to Alpine and our lodgings for the night: the incredibly lovely Maverick Inn! I chose the Maverick Inn because it had a cute old-fashioned Southwestern motel vibe. (I also loved their motto: "A Roadhouse for Wanderers")
As nerds, we also appreciated our room number!
We asked the clerk for a good place for lunch and she recommended La Casita, which another friend had also mentioned. The restaurant was truly in a "little house" in a residential neighborhood, and we ate some great Mexican food. Afterwards, we headed out of town to visit Marfa. Again, we had a beautiful drive!
Downtown Marfa had some very gorgeous old buildings, most notably the Hotel Paisano and the Presidio County Courthouse. First open to the public in 1930, the Hotel Paisano is probably best known for hosting Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and the cast and crew of the film Giant back in the mid-50s. The bottom floor of the hotel had a small gift shop and gallery which we perused.
I love Texas courthouses! This one was built in 1886. If you stood in the center of the building, you could look up three stories.
We decided to take the elevator up to the top, then walk down the stairs. This seemed like a good idea, but the elevator made us a little nervous! Once up on the third floor, my husband refused to get anywhere near the railing (heights are not his thing)!
I was surprised at how few businesses or stores we saw open in Marfa. Perhaps we were never quite in the right location, but the downtown seemed deserted. I did get some photos of historic-looking buildings, some of which seemed just this side of run-down.
We also visited the Marfa Book Company, which had a tiny gallery attached. The focus was primarily on art books, which didn't come as a surprise as Marfa has a big artist community. We decided to head back to Alpine, and on the way out we saw this vehicle and trailer!
Midway between Marfa and Alpine is the viewing area for the famous Marfa Lights! No one knows what causes the "ghost lights," but there are many theories!! I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to come back at sunset because of other plans, so we stopped for a few pictures.
Downtown Alpine was really cute! There were a lot of tiny shops and great murals all over town. Unfortunately, we didn't get to visit nearly as many as I would have liked because all of the stores started to close.
We decided to have dinner at the very lovely Reata Steakhouse. I had an amazing fried poblano chile relleno that sat upon a bed of corn chowder. Mmmm!!
After dinner, we headed north out of town to attend the McDonald Observatory's night-time Star Party. My husband had visited the observatory many, many years ago, but during a day field-trip. I was very excited about seeing the stars! The Observatory sits in the Davis Mountain, which get up to a respectable 8,000+ feet above sea level. As we approached Ft. Davis, the view at sunset was stunning!
My husband was not impressed with the twisty-turny roads we had to climb the closer we got to the Observatory ... especially as he was driving into the setting sun. However, we finally arrived at our destination. There were a LOT of people. Spring Break is always a particularly busy time. In addition, the Star Party from the previous night had been canceled due to clouds/weather, so there were a bunch of additional people who had come back to get another chance to see the stars. There was talk of record attendance. Yikes!
As the sun sank lower and lower into the horizon, we all moved to sit in a huge outdoor seating area to watch and wait for full darkness.
I have never seen the nighttime sky like I saw it that night. It was beautiful and breathtaking. You forget how many of the stars we never see ... or see only faintly ... because of all of the artificial light around us. We also got to look through one of the really big telescopes at the planet Venus. I would go back to West Texas just for another chance to experience truly seeing the stars. (Especially if it's not at Spring Break!)
Eventually, we headed back to Alpine to try and get some sleep before the next day. We had another long drive ahead of us!
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