Vacation, January 2012.

The spareness of the Marfa landscape begs me to keep it short and sweet. I could wax poetic on our time in West Texas, but I won’t.

This town is an old-wood hound’s heaven, further feeding my obsession with windows and doors.

Of course there were other noteworthy occasions during our stay in Marfa.

• Cacti!

This, I believe, is a cholla.

• Donald Judd’s works in concrete, and the Chinati Foundation tour.

I’m not really a minimalist art fan, but experiencing the works of the three founding members of the Chinati Foundation, Donald Judd, John Chamberlain and Dan Flavin, was well worth it. It’s good to step outside your comfort zone and see something you might not understand right away.

• artists who carve giant wooden pieces of pie (and chips and salsa, in the background)

and pancakes

I’m a little unclear on who the artist actually is, (Campbell Bosworth?) since the gallery host said ‘him’ in reference to the woodworking genius when I asked if I may photograph a couple pieces. She stamped a business card in my little notebook that had info for Camp Bosworth, a site which houses more aaah-mazing wood art and also appears to be led by (or is at least represented by) a woman named Buck. In any case, I like all of it. (Ongoing obsession with wood, duly noted.)

• our vacation meal packing/planning

Yes, I realize this has nothing to do with the intrinsic charm of our desert plateau landscape, but you probably recall our Fire Island vacation a couple years back. We cover our backs when it comes to travel food.

We brought a whole, organic chicken and roasted it (in our cast iron wok, brought along in anticipation of shoddy pots and pans in our rented apartment kitchen) for meals and snacks for a few days.

Friend-raised eggs, homemade bread.

Move over gas station yogurt. Homemade greek yogurt with my brown sugar and honey gluten-free granola. (We take breakfast very seriously.)

Vacationing this year was leaner, but we made it work for us. Bringing our meals made it affordable for us to get away. How do you save money on getaways and vacations?