New Mexico, Las Cruces - Thursday, April 30, 2015 - Historical Old Mesilla

The website for this resort advertised that it was within walking distance to Old Mesilla.  I checked with the front desk this morning and found out that “walking distance” was a mile and a quarter.  We decided we could handle that and headed out to explore.

San Albino Catholic Church has stood on the plaza since 1852.

The stained glass windows are beautiful.

We walked through about half of the shops around the plaza, checking out things we might come back for later.  I wanted to have lunch at La Posta, a Mexican restaurant that has been in business since September 16, 1939 when it was opened by 25 year old Katy Griggs.

 

 

Katy bought the old adobe building that was once a Butterfield Stage Coach stop from her uncle for $1.00.  Katy and her uncle were part of a renowned merchant family from Mesilla.  Katy died in 1993 but the restaurant is still run by the same family and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The walls are filled with accolades from all kinds of magazines and newspapers.

When the café first opened it had 4 tables on a dirt floor and no running water.  It’s a lot bigger today, the floor is no longer dirt and they have running water. 

Front entrance is impressive.

 

 

The bar produces a very good margarita.

 

 

The lobby has a huge exotic bird cage.

 

 

 

And some red piranhas.  They really do sparkle.

 

 

Lunch was very good.  Unfortunately, we started eating before I realized I didn’t take any pictures.

Next door to La Posta was The Chocolate Lady.  We bought dessert for later.

 

 

It was hard to choose.

 

 

We walked back around the plaza and made some purchases before we left.  Here are some scenes from this beautiful area.

 

 

 

 

Walking back to the resort we passed one of the many local pecan orchards.

 

 

We realized as we were looking at some literature on the area that I made a mistake in yesterday’s post.  The mountains to the east of Las Cruces are the Organ Mountains, not the Oregon Mountains.  I wish I could blame it on auto correct, but that isn’t the case.  I must have been tired when I wrote the post yesterday.  When I went back into my posts to make my correction to yesterday I couldn’t find it.  That’s because I labeled it Las Cruces, AZ instead of Las Cruces, NM.  Not only have I lost track of what day it is (it can’t be the last day of April), I’ve also lost track of where I am.

 

 

Our last stop of the day was St. Clair Winery.  The last paragraph sounds like I need wine J.  New Mexico is the oldest wine producing state in the country – production started in 1629.  Today there are 47 vineyards and wineries throughout New Mexico.  The St. Clair Winery is the largest.

 

 

Our purchases for today, clockwise from the top:  wine, rhubarb jam, a tiny purple pot to go with a purple stone I purchased near the Grand Canyon, chocolate covered salted caramels and cashew turtles, a piece of pecan pie and half a pound of pecan pieces.