New Mexico May 2004

Part II: Santa Fe and Kasha Katuwe

chapel
Thursday May 13: We drove up the Tourquoise Trail roughly from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. I wasn't as impressed as I had hoped. Some very nice mountain scenery but there was a lot of construction and therefore, delays. And not being a "shopper" I wasn't as appreciative of the artsy small towns as others might have been. We did find an old restored Mission Church (St Francis of Assisi chapel - left) in Golden, but it was locked up so we had to admire just the outside. We stopped in Cerrillos and visited a rock shop and antique store, neither of which were very impressive (IMHO).

palace We got to the Santa Fe Hilton around noon - we had some lunch at the hotel sandwich shop (El Pinon) and by the time we finished they had a room ready for us. John had to speak at a pre-conference session right after lunch so I unpacked a bit then went off to explore the downtown which was only a couple of blocks away. The Palace of the Governors (left) and the St. Francis Cathedral (right) are the best known landmarks. Outside the Palace, Native American artisans sell their wares. A lottery system determines who gets what position on what day but it's always full. I went through the Cathedral and bought a lovely water color print. I learned later that one of the statues in front (below left) is the first Native American saint.

Then I just wandered around the area, scouting plans for the next day and visiting some of the many mini-malls that are primarily art galleries. Since I had no intention of buying anything, and it was mostly way out of my budget anyway, I tried to think of it as going through "museums." :) That evening we had dinner with others in the Iowa delegation at the Bistro 315 - French nouveau cuisine. Very pricey but great food and a nice change from our usual budget meals!

San Miguel Friday morning I went on an Aboot About walking tour of the area. My experience with London Walks was very positive so I was interested in seeing how the Santa Fe version stacked up - very well, I think. Our guide was fun and very knowledgable. Besides the basic sightseeing facts, she told us fun stories and gave us lots of trivia that made it all a bit more colorful. We walked all around the Plaza and saw inside some of the older buildings, compared architecture, and so on. We went through the cathedral while a session of a Women's Diversity conference was in progress. Just before we left, the whole group of over 100 African American women stood and sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth." Our little group of a dozen sightseers joined in, too - it was mighty awesome and made me cry. We visited the Loretto Chapel (above center) and saw the "miraculous staircase" (above right). I won't repeat it all here, but if you don't know the story, you can read about it at the Chapel web site . We then walked down to the San Miguel Mission (right - the oldest mission in the US) where the tour ended.

art in capitol It wasn't lunch time yet, so I walked another couple of blocks to the capitol, that doubles as an art museum, and I was there just as the Phoenix Boy's Choir was performing in the rotunda. So I had a wonderful background of music as I admired various works of art (two shown here). It's an interesting building - built on a kiva model with the round chambers sunken below ground.

After a quick "lunch from the fridge" I headed off to Albertson's to restock the pantry then had time for one more trek. I had read about the highest point in Santa Fe which was presumably at the Cross of the Martyrs. Naturally there were lots of steps (I didn't count them) but the views were indeed very nice. Interestingly, I couldn't spot many landmarks other than the Cathedral because the buildings were all low and mostly adobe, so from the top they looked much the same. A couple views in opposite directions shown below.

Fridays in Santa Fe are "free museum" evenings - the downtown museums have no admission charge from 5-8 PM. I had told John that's what I would do while he was at his banquet. But he decided that sounded like more fun, so he skipped the banquet and we visited 3 museums - the Palace of the Governors (mostly history), the Museum of Fine Arts (a variety but my favorite was the Tony Price exhibit of "atomic art" see atomicartist web site to learn about him and his work) and then the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum that included many of her own paintings as well as a collection of photographs by her husband, Alfred Stieglitz.

new curtains Saturday morning, May 15, John had the final session of the conference and I went to the laundromat and the grocery store. I think I actually had the best part of the deal! After lunch at Maria's we visited Plants of the Southwest (one of John's favorite mail order places) and then some fabric stores where we actually found some fabric for our kitchen curtains! Finally, after a year, our Mexican-flavored kitchen is finished off now with Santa Fe style curtains (right). :) We spent about an hour lazing around in the hot tub then went to dinner with the Iowa folks again - at the Anasazi this time. Another upscale place with really good food.

Sunday we headed off to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We hiked about 3 miles through the canyon and then up to the top overlook. I kept saying "incredible" and "awesome." No more words are needed here - just the pictures!

See what I mean? Every time we turned a corner I wanted to take more pictures. The last one is what I call "us at the top of the world!" Back from the edge a bit, under a tree, was a perfect place for the lunches we had packed. Then we reluctantly climbed back down and headed for Roswell.

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