Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?

Now that it's been through one carwash, the car looks like a car! It's going to need a couple more. There is even dust in the crevices under the hatch lid where a carwash won't reach, but the dust did. Perhaps we can get the dealer to detail it when we take the car in for its 7500 mile checkup the day after we get back (!). We are over 5000 miles now (!!).

Before we could get out of Cortez, I made Bob stop at the Notah-Dineh trading post where I bought a beautiful Hopi pot I had hoped to acquire on this trip.

We did not have an agenda today other than to enjoy the beautiful back-country and two lane roads as we meandered through southern Colorado and New Mexico on our way to Santa Fe.  The mountain parks transformed gradually from green ponderosa pine and grasses to dusty scrub as we approached Santa Fe.

Our hotel was old, cozy and quaint, right near the Plaza, so we were able to walk to just about everything.  At four o'clock they serve Sherry, and we had a nice conversation with various folks from Idaho, West Virginia, and even a woman who came from Perkasie, Pennsylvania, not too far from where I grew up in Willow Grove. The folks from West Virginia were part of a group who are actually a "club" that supports the Art Museum in Charleston. I wasn't totally clear on how they raise their money, but every year or two they go on a trip (that they pay for themselves) specifically to acquire new pieces for the museum.  The woman I spoke with was very animated and explained that she actually had no background in art, although many of the people in the group had studied art history, but that over the years she has learned a lot and finds the trips as educational as they are fun.  Sounds like a great way to spend time!

The hotel room also had a working fireplace in the shape of a Navajo kiva oven, so we enjoyed a real fire each night.  It was great, and in the morning the maid service later new fire for us already to go.

We had a nice dinner at La Plazuela, sitting next to the fountain in an inside "Plaza" reminiscent of many that I have seen in Mexico.  Our waitress's name was "Stormi" so we had a good laugh over our respective names.

The next day we went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, and were given a brief talk by one of the docents prior to looking around the museum.  What a fascinating woman she was!  She lived until she was 99, and worked into her 80s, albeit with some assistance at that time, since she had developed macular degeneration.  During her marriage to the much older photographer Alfred Stieglitz she split her time between New York City and Santa Fe, but after his death she moved permanently to a ranch she lived in until her death in 1986. Wonderful works in many different styles.

The rest of the day we strolled around the Plaza and the surrounding area, poked our heads in and out of stores, perused the wares of the street vendors, and ate street food for lunch. After an hour or so sitting outside by the pool reading, we decided to skip the sherry hour and went to see "The Hunger Games" instead. It was a very enjoyable, if not great, movie, and it definitely helped to have read the books.  As with most movies made from a book, there is a lot of back story that is difficult to get into the film.  But we had a good time.

Virtually all of the architecture in downtown Santa Fe is of a similar Pueblo adobe style, single-story, flat roofs, and either real or faux roof beams extending out beyond the walls. There are a few two-story buildings in the same style, but nothing higher than that.

How to eat in Santa Fe on $20 a day (for two): breakfast is included in the hotel price - $5 tip; lunch, two tamales and a pork taco, $9 plus $1 in the tip jar; dinner in the hotel bar with a $25 credit and a $5 tip - $4.98.  Total for the day: $19.98!