Green Chile, Baseball, And Pie...Oh My! The Slovenians Visit New Mexico!

This last weekend Matt's 3rd cousin and her husband from Rovte, Slovenia visited us. Although only here for a short stay of 3 days we packed in as many New Mexico sights as we could. 

We took a trip up to  Sandia Peak, learned all about the "Watermelon Mountains" from our gondola guide, and even got stuck at the top for a while because of lightning. But like they say in New Mexico...if you don't like the weather  all you have to do is wait 10 minutes and it will change. Sure enough it did and we didn't have to spend the night (although we were staking out the biggest bench for the worst case scenario). 

I guess in Europe it is a fashion faux pas to wear white socks and athletic shoes of any sort. Apparently Americans have yet to recieve this memo. Case in point we found a prime example with "USA" and all at the peak. We had a good laugh and tried not to let the nice man wearing these socks know that in fact we were laughting at his expense. Now, I think twice everytime I pull a pair of white socks out of my drawer. 

When we finally got down from the mountain we celebrated by eating some delicious authentic New Mexican cuisine at Sadie's!

Saturday we took a trip to sunny Santa Fe, where we admired and bought some fine jewelry from the Native American vendors in front of the Palace of the Governors. 

Then we tried on expensive boots at Lucchese and custom cowboy hats at O'Farrell Hat Co., and even found a really unique fringed leather jacket that Blaž had fun dancing around in (we had a good laugh at that).  And of course we ate more authentic New Mexican food topped with more chile. They wanted to experience the American West so we did our best!

When they arrived we asked them what they really wanted to see on their trip to the USA and they told us they wanted to see a Broadway Play (which they saw while in NY) and a baseball game. So, Saturday evening we all went to an Isotopes game, spit sunflower seeds, ate funnel cakes, and sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game. We lucked out that there was no rain and the home team won. They had a blast! 

Saturday, we hiked through Tent Rocks National Monument and climbed into the cave dwellings at Bandelier National Monument. 

We took the time to learn some useful Slovenian words that might help us in our future travels like:

jama - cave

mož - husband

žena - wife

kuža - puppy

smrdi - stinks

And how to count from 1-7. Although I think I only remember 1 (ena) and 6 (šest). Words we'll most certainly use everyday while in Slovenia! :)

Although hot at almost 100 degrees the company made it worth it!

And to top it all off I made them an All American Triple Berry Pie. What's more American than Pie! And it sure was tasty!

Hope you liked New Mexico Blaž and Polona and got a good taste of America!

We are looking forward to seeing and experiencing everything Slovenian when we visit this fall!

The big move back to Oregon is only weeks away. Keep following along to hear more about our adventures and what is happening with the Habjans!

Best,
Matt and Jessica



Mmmmmmm.....Pie!

P.S. Ellie sure does miss you both!