Hellooooo! Hope all is well with you! We have stumbled upon perfect weather. We only meant to stay in El Paso for one week. When all is said and done, we will have been here for eight weeks! Sunny and 70 most days. I can see what attracts snowbirds, or in our case, rainbirds.

El Paso – Museum Town!

El Paso has been one pleasant surprise after another, one being the quality and quantity of its free museums! Here are the museums we have visited since the last blog post. Prior to that we visited the Border Patrol Museum and the Archaeology Museum…both also free and interesting!

El Paso Holocaust Museum & Study Center

This museum is thoughtfully presented and highlights El Pasoans who were victims of The Holocaust. There are some unique displays like a replica rail car you can board and a hidden monitor displaying images that only those who choose to see them can see. I wonder why we can’t learn from our mistakes with such “large” brains? I didn’t take any photos inside this museum.

International Museum of Art

This amazing museum is located in a mansion that was once the home of William Ward Turney and Iva Guthrie Turney, a prominent couple in West Texas politics and ranching in the early 20th century. Touring the rooms of this home was as big a treat as viewing the beautiful pieces of art throughout.

Missions of Socorro and San Elizario

Socorro and San Elizario seem like charming small towns within El Paso. I’m not sure whether they are neighborhoods or towns. The people there are very proud of their history and take special care of the historic landmarks. Everyone we met was friendly and generous with their time.

Socorro

Socorro’s mission opened in 1682 and is still operational. It is beautiful inside on both an artistic AND spiritual level. Off in a corner was a pretty darn graphic sculpture of Jesus after being taken off the cross. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Another area of Socorro has a National Historic Landmark called the Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center. Hard to believe there was a time when the US government encouraged Mexican immigration (to deal with a farm labor shortage). This was one of the training locations and barracks. The buildings and grounds are dilapidated, but it appears that some restoration is in the works. After picking sandburs out of our shoes, we headed to San Elizario.

San Elizario

San Elizario is charming and geared a bit more to tourists than Socorro. The day we were there they were setting up 2,000 luminarias along both sides of each street in preparation for an event and reenactment that night. We only noticed two people lighting them. That seems daunting.

We walked into the mission in San Elizario to find a quinceañera ceremony in progress. We snuck out and later caught a glimpse of “the dress,” a princess-style, super floofy, beautiful dress more elaborate than most wedding dresses. I asked someone in a shop if there is a similar ceremony for boys. No, nada!

This town has many original buildings, one of which is the Old El Paso County Jail Museum, an adobe building from 1821. The original cells are still there and the walls, doors and artifacts are original. This is the only jail that Billy the Kid broke INTO. He disguised himself as a Texas Ranger and they let him in. He then helped a friend escape.

Centennial Museum at University of Texas El Paso (UTEP)

The UTEP campus is beautiful from the landscaping to each building’s colorful tile accents. The Centennial Museum is surrounded by a lovely desert garden. Inside we were greeted by a friendly student working at the desk before being let loose to explore two floors of displays.

The museum covers a vast range of topics and highlights studies done in the field by professors and students of UTEP. Even many of the informational display boards were created and designed by students.

Catio Corner

We have been busy knocking over the tabletop Christmas tree at night. We also allowed our humans to take us to the vet for our checkups and shots. We put on special holiday versions of ourselves by growling AND hissing while being examined. Good, spicy stuff.