On Saturday, February 1, we went on a day trip to El Paso. We headed out early so we could get brunch at Dead Beach Brewing. It was pretty quiet when we got there and we had our choice of where to sit. We took a spot right in the middle of the bar. They have a very cool space with lots of nice metal work and cool, hand carved taps. Even though it was only 9:30am, we tasted a bunch of beer. At first I wasn’t sure I was going to get a beer. But they had a tasty IPA so I got one of those. Karla got a coffee drink with their stout in it. Very tasty. As we were waiting for our food, we took a self guided tour of the brewery. Back at the bar, I got the briskets with chorizo gravy and Karla got the eggs Benedict with green chili hollandaise. Mine was delicious. Karla was not as impressed with hers. Karla tried another beer and I got a short pour of their chocolate stout. I bought a tin tacker and a koozie.

From the brewery we drove to downtown El Paso. I found a spot in a parking ramp. We walked around a little and went to the El Paso Museum of Art. The new light ceiling that I had read about was on. I am sure it is more impressive at night. We went inside and there was some stuff set up for Chinese New Year. There was some galleries about the light ceiling. But the galleries upstairs were closed. That was disappointing. There was a Siempre Selena display on the upper landing. But that was it. We went outside and walked around some more. A lot of people were dressed up. (For Chinese New Year?) And a lot of groups were dressed alike. Some with matching track suits.

We went in the El Paso Museum of History. They had an interesting display about music in El Paso. We also went to the history of El Paso exhibit, but we couldn’t see everything because there were tables set up with information about Chinese New Year. We looked around a little more and headed out.

We walked along El Paso Street and just kept going. Both sides of the street were lined with shops. Lot of discount stuff. Probably not much different than stuff right across the boarder. Karla got a pair of new pink high-top Converse knock-offs. They’re pretty cool. We went into a thrift store and there was a pair of used, real Converse leather high tops in my size. I got those. We walked all the way down the street where we could see the border. We walked back on the other side. We looked at some more stuff but did not buy anything else.

We left downtown and made the short drive to The Magoffin House. When we parked, a security guard ask if we were interested in a tour. He radioed ahead to let them know we were coming. I guess there are a lot of unhoused around and they had to keep the house locked. A tour had just started so we waited a bit. Another couple joined us on the tour. Interesting place with a lot of history. After our tour we walked around the neighborhood a little. There are a lot of historic building, but there are a lot of unhoused people. We got in the car and drove around the neighborhood a little more to look at some more buildings.

When we were done I drove to Dead Perezidents Brewing. It was a little crowded just because there were too many tables in a small space. We got some spots at the bar and a flight of beer. We requested 4 IPAs but they were out of their anniversary IPA. We got a stout that was good. I really liked the Tricky Dick hazy IPA and got a crowler to go. I thought they would have food but I did not see anything.

I mentioned food and Karla wanted to check out L & J Cafe that I had mentioned earlier. We probably should have gone there before Dead Perezidents, but it worked out. When we got to L&J, we could see it was crowed and there were not a lot of places to park. We were lucky and found a place a block or so away. We went inside and I tried to get to the host stand and get our name on a list and find out how long the wait was. As I was doing that, Karla found two places at the bar. Excellent. We took those. Chips and salsa were good. Karla got a burrito that was excellent and I got some pretty tasty steak tacos. Karla said her burrito was one of the best. She couldn’t finish the whole thing and took some home.

It had been a long day and it was getting dark. I forgot all about going to Rosa’s Cantina. Oh well. We went back to our Las Cruces Airbnb.