Today was another fun filled day showing Grandma Patty around the area.  We got up, and headed north to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where nestled just to the southwest of the city is Old Mesilla.
Mesilla was a lively social center in the 1880s. People came from as far as the City of Chihuahua and Tucson to attend bailes (dances), bullfights, cockfights and theatrical presentations.  At the time Mesilla was founded, the population of the town was concentrated around the Plaza for defense against Apache Raiders who were a constant threat to the settlement. Today, many of the adobe buildings built during that era remain, and quaint gift shops, galleries, and world-renowned dining and drinking establishments occupy the Plaza and its surrounding historical buildings.
 
For lunch, we ate La Posta.  La Posta is originally famous for being an important stop on the Butterfield Stagecoach Line.  Today, the restaurant offers many fine traditional "New Mexico" Mexican dishes make from century-old recipes handed down over the years.
 
Mesilla is also famous for being a stop for outlaws, such as Dutch Hubert, Nicolas Provencio, and Billy the Kid.  It was at the jail and courthouse on the southeast corner of the plaza that Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in 1881.
 
The Plaza and gazebo were refurbished in 1978 to better accommodate the residents and the growing number of visitors. The Plaza is also home to many cultural and historical activities.
 
Originally built of adobe in 1855, Basilica of San Albino was rebuilt to its present structure in 1906.
 
After Old Mesilla, we headed to New Mexico State University to visit the Zuhl Museum.
Part art gallery, part natural history museum, the Zuhl Museum at NMSU is the home of the Zuhl Collection containing over 1,800 beautiful specimens of petrified wood, fossils and minerals.
 
The Zuhl Museum was neat, but we still had some daylight to kill, so we decided to go to the Las Cruces Children's Museum.