MARFA, TX
Marfa, Tx
“Haha yeah! We should hang out sometime, or go on a roadtrip! We could go to Fredericksburg for a day or something.”
“Oh my gosh yes! That would be so fun! or- have you ever heard of Prada Marfa? I’ve always wanted to go there-”
“wait... SERIOUSLY?! DUDE ME TOO! LET’S GO!”
6 hours and 49 minutes later, Kadison and I found ourselves sitting on top of her car just outside of Marfa, looking along the night sky horizon for the famous "Marfa Lights". Unsurprisingly, the thought of dinner quickly overcame our desire to look for aliens in the night sky and ten minutes later, we found ourselves inside our trailer at El Cosmico, cooking dinner in a 4x4 kitchen, blasting "Settle Down" by the 1975. So all in all, we were living the life.
The next morining arrived with a beautiful sunrise and two cups of hot chocolate (no coffee allowed!). After packing up all of our things (so much luggage...) we left El Cosmico and headed into town where I was pleased to find only one blinking stoplight.
We stopped in at the Marfa Bookstore, where we read through a copy of Kurt Cobain's diary (we spent longer reading than we did walking from one end of town to the other) and headed to Squeeze Marfa for lunch. Located just around the corner from the Hotel Paisano (the location for the James Dean movie "The Giant"), the resturant is tucked into the side of a building, providing a quaint place for a sandwich and smoothie.
We tried to go into several art exhibits, but all were closed, which is understandable, considering it was a Tuesday. One door was open, and naturally, we went inside. After snapping some pictures, we realized that a private tour (I think it was a tour?) was happening and we had in fact, wandered our way into a closed building. Luckily, they were very nice, and let us take a few pictures before we left.
(below)
After wandering around town for a bit longer, we decided it was time to head out and make our way to Valentine, TX.
"What's in Valentine Texas?"
The whole reason for our trip, actually.
Prada, Marfa (which is actually in Valentine, not Marfa) is an art exhibit, a social experiment, and a famous destination all in one. Surprisingly, when we pulled up to Prada, there were a few other groups of people there. Kadison and I were not expecting this, so we decided to wait it out and take our pictures once everyone had left. About an hour later, after many groups had come and gone, we gathered up our clothes, shoes, stool, tripod and 7 cameras and got to "work".
Prada Marfa is also known for this picture, which we took upon ourselves to recreate. (lol)
(just a disclaimer, we did NOT meet Beyonce while on this trip so I did not take this picture, unfortunately)
3+ hours, at least a dozen honking cars and six tourist groups later, we packed up and headed to our evening destination, the McDonald Observatory.
We took the scenic route, through the mountains (yes, actual mountains) and pulled over in a spot where there was no service (let's be real there was no service really at any point from here on out). The view was unbelievable, I didn't know that Texas could go from desert to mountains so quickly.
We enjoyed a stargazing party at the McDonald Observatory, and had a late dinner at a 24 hour diner called "Penny's" in Alpine. (Milkshakes at 1am=great life choice)
We headed home the next day exhausted and happy, my face aching from smiling so much.
And to think, we weren't even friends on Snapchat before we took this trip !!
"Hey, I reallllly want to go to Austrailia someday..."
(to be continued...)
P.S. video coming soon ;)
