California Girl In Taos: Welcome to Taos!

so...here i am. in taos, new mexico. living here full-time. and a bit bewildered as to how fast this happened. you see, our future plan has been to reside in new mexico "one day". i fell in love with taos twenty years ago and visited as often as i could. we bought a home here in 1999 and, for the first few years, came a number of times each year. then life got crazy with work...the house was used as a vacation rental...and, long story short, 5 years passed before i returned.

in january of this year my mom was rushed to the hospital and stayed there for 5 days. her recovery has been slow and we will be dealing with her illness for the rest of her life. for the past 8 months i have spent 1 week per month traveling from the napa valley of california (where i lived) to southern california to spend time with my parents and the rest of my family. i have spent a lot of time thinking about what i want to accomplish the rest of my life. the taos move continued to be one of the top priority items. after a lot of thought and discussion my husband and i decided to make the move now....life is too short to postpone your dreams. so "one day" became now.

so...here we are. now, why this blog? what is it about? i received similar reactions from everyone i know...or have met...regarding my move. the first response is usually "how cool!" then "why?" then "i don't know anything about new mexico". many people misunderstood what i said and thought i was moving to mexico. sadly, i had to remind a few that new mexico is a state.

my mission is to share my adventures here. taos is so beautiful and full of interesting, creative, talented people. there are stories every where you look. in the may 2012 issue, smithsonian magazine picked taos second in their list of the 20 best small towns (less than 25,000) in america. the taos population is less than 6000k, but swells with tourists who come to ski in winter and hike, fish, spa and try the white water rafting in summer. year-round there is amazing art...taos has more art galleries per capita than anywhere in the country...and the food! oh my...the food! i am a food blogger, love to cook...eat...and write about food. i so look forward to telling you about the food here.

i am a native californian...lived there all my life. for me, living in taos combines the interesting aspects of living in a foreign country while retaining the best qualities of living in the usa. please join me on my journey. maybe you will fall in love with taos too...