3651. Have pizza in New Mexico

 We are pizza snobs and are on a quest to find the good pizza whenever we travel. I decided to try to have pizza in all 50 states among other things. Since we were actually staying in New Mexico, I decided we should have pizza for dinner. The hubby agreed. It doesn't take much convincing when it comes to pizza but he was hesitant about finding good pizza in New Mexico. I figured since we were staying in Las Cruces, a college town, we might have some luck. With the help of Trip Advisor, I narrowed the pizza choices down to 4 and by process of eliminating, I settled on Luna Rossa Winery and Pizzeria.

Luna Rossa was only 2 minutes from our hotel and open until 9 on Saturdays. It served pizza along with out pasta dishes. The pictures of the pizza looked appetizing. It is located on the southwest side of Las Cruces off of I-10. 

We started off with an appetizer. The hubby got cultured. Since these were true Italian appetizers, there wasn't any garlic bread or breadsticks. We went with the bruschetta. I don't like tomatoes and figured I would just brush off the tomatoes. There was no need to brush off the tomatoes. Even with the tomatoes, the bruschetta was fabulous. The hubby even agreed. The bread was perfectly done and the mozzarella was fresh which helped mask the tomatoes which we diced nice and small.  

Then our pizza came. It only came in one size -- 12 inches. We went with the Salsiccia Piccante or spicy sausage pizza. The sausage was not that spicy. It was absolutely amazing pizza like straight from Italy pizza. The crust was thin and chewy. It was near perfection even for these pizza snobs. 

Since Luna Rossa is also a winery, I had to have a glass of wine with my pizza. It was really only a tasting room as the actual winery is about an hour west of Las Cruces. The wine menu featured a variety of reds and whites both sweet and dry. I went with a Moscato. It was really sweet but also good. In hindsight I probably should have gone with the Zinfandel or even the Gewurztraminer something more semi-sweet. 

The one thing that sold me on Luna Rossa for pizza was they also had gelato. I told the hubby we are having gelato with our pizza. My poor, uncultured husband had no clue what I was talking about until we got to the restaurant and he saw all the flavors of gelato. We both had gelato for dessert. He had French Vanilla and I went with Chocolate Brownie. There were several good options to choose from including Stracciatella which I had in Door County and enjoyed. Of course you can never go wrong with any flavor of gelato. It was the cherry on top to a great meal.

Yes, it was a very pricy dinner for us but it was well worth the $55 price tag. I highly recommend stopping at Luna Rossa if you are ever in Las Cruces. Maybe one day I will check out the actual winery in Deming. 

3634. Visit the White Sands National Park in Alamogordo

 When the hubby said he wanted to go down through Las Cruces on our way to Arizona, I was like we are stopping at White Sands National Park. We are literally driving by it. Since he is not really into the whole National Park thing like I am, I try not to go out of the way to see one. If it is a quick detour, I will add it to the list. Like I said, we were literally going to drive right by it. We had to stop.

White Sands National Park is located about 30 minutes south of Alamogordo on US 70 or about an hour east of Las Cruces. It is open daily 7:00 AM to Sunset. The visitor center was open 9-5 when we were there. It is $25/car (4 adults) to visit unless you have a National Park Pass. You can actually visit the visitor center without going into the park. 

We got to the park around 4:30 and had to be out of there by 6:10. I knew we weren't going to be there that long. I wish did have more time (and a less grumpy husband) as the sunset at White Sands is supposed to be spectacular. 

After checking out the small visitor center, we drove into the park. I had plans to drive to Roadrunner Picnic Area and then sled down the dunes there. Those are the beginner hills. Technically you can sled any where in the park but I figured a beginner hill was perfect. However, the hubby found the Playa Boardwalk Trail and parking area first. You can buy a sled at the visitor center for $20. PistachioLand was selling them I saw. I asked Carly if I could borrow her sled. She said I could. I did not buy the $3 wax either. I was taking my chances.

We parked at the boardwalk and was happy to see people attempting to sled. I grabbed Carly's sled that I lugged all the way from Wisconsin despite the hubby giving me crazy looks. We walked down the boardwalk a bit. Then I crawled through the rails of the boardwalk and headed towards a short dune.

I forgot how difficult climbing sand dunes really is. I left my flip flops at the bottom of the dune. Yes, I had flip flops/sandals on again when climbs sand dunes. Not sure I will ever learn. It least the sand wasn't hot. Even though the dune was maybe 10-20 feet high, it was tough trudge up the hill. The hubby said I sunk into the sand which I did.

Once I got to the top, I found a clear path to the bottom that would not result me running into a plant. The people we saw sledding were having a hard time sledding with their round, plastic saucers. I was a bit concerned but I didn't need to be even without the wax. Carly's sled worked great and if we weren't short on time and the hike up the dune wasn't labor intensive, I would have gone down again.

We headed back to the car and headed out the park. We saw plenty of dunes on the short drive from the visitor's center to the boardwalk. I would have loved to keep driving the loop but it is about a 8 mile loop that can take a good 1-2 hours. Obviously we didn't have that much time. 

The hubby said he would have loved to see a missile launch as White Sands National Park is on the edg of an Army Missile range. They actually close the park and US 70 when they do missile testing. White Sands Missile Range was one of the sites of the atomic bombing tests during WWII. 

Despite our short visit, White Sands is a gorgeous park that you can easily do in a day. There are hiking trails from various parking lots and plenty of sand to sled down. Just remember to bring plenty of water as you are in a desert with little water. Hopefully we will come back and explore more of the park some day.

3636. See the giant pistachio in Alamogordo

 Last year a former co-worker from my teaching days was stuck in Alamogordo, NM while they got their RV fixed. They visited PistachioLand, home of the World's Largest Pistachio. Of course, I had to add it to the bucket list. When the hubby said he wanted to avoid the mountains on the way to Arizona and take a southern route through Las Cruces and Tucson, I saw that we were LITERALLY driving right by PistachioLand. I added it to the list.

PistachioLand is a working pistachio farm and winery on US 54 outside of Alamogordo. It is open daily from 9-5. The parking lot is not huge but there is plenty of parking in a back field as well. 

The first thing I did was take a picture of the giant pistachio.. another giant statue added to the list. And of course a selfie with it. The hubby wanted nothing to do with the giant pistachio.

We wandered in the gift shop next where you can sample wine and taste pistachios. As much as I wanted to try some pistachio wine, we were on a time crunch so I skipped that. I did try some regular pistachios and decided I am still not a fan of pistachios. 

Due to time constraints, we did not take the farm tour. For $3 a person, you can take a 30 minute tour tram tour of the pistachio orchard and vineyard. Maybe on another visit we can take a tour. The trees were still hibernating so nothing was green yet anyways. You can book the tour ahead of time or walk ups are available as well. 

We also did not have ice cream. Initially I was going to demand we have a mid afternoon snack but then I found out the pizza place we were having dinner at had gelato. Gelato won out. Again I think the time crunch would have made us skip the ice cream anyways. They have homemade pistachio ice cream along the several other flavors.

It may be a typical tourist attraction that still survives but it is definitely worth checking out. Just make sure you leave crabby people in the car and leave plenty of time to do everything.