A Day in Santa Fe

I, of course, woke up early on Sunday morning, and had showered, eaten breakfast, and was fully dressed and ready to leave before Amber awakened. As I waited on her, I knitted, and I continued knitting most of the time we were in the car that day. I got a lot of my second Easter sock done during this trip.

We took the scenic route to Santa Fe, called the Turquoise Trail, and drove up to the crest of the Sandia Mountains. The city of Albuquerque is at about 5,000 feet above sea level (Dallas is around 500 feet) and the crest is at about 10,000 feet. I can't help but wonder if my constantly stuffy head and nose and becoming winded more quickly than usual had anything to do with the elevation because both conditions seem to have returned to normal since I've been home. Anyway, the drive up was beautiful and I noticed that the trees became more and more plentiful the higher we got, and that the smell of fir and pine trees became stronger and stronger.

The view from the top was disappointing, to say the least, because the crest was completely enveloped in a cloud. We could see absolutely nothing beyond the thick white fog, and I was disappointed to not even find a picture of the typical view somewhere in the gift shop. The temperature at the top was drastically lower than at the base, and I felt silly (and cold!) in my flip flops. There is also a tram that goes to the crest from the other side, though I think at a different point. Neither Amber nor I were keen on the idea of riding the tram, and we ended up not seeing it during our trip.

The scenery along the Turquoise Trail was beautiful but very different from what I am used to seeing. No grass, no trees--just shrubs and cacti. We stopped in a little artsy town called Madrid and walked around looking at all the little shops. The town was jam-packed with visitors, most of who had arrived on their motorcycles. Amber became very excited when she found out that the movie Wild Hogs was filmed there. We ate lunch at the Mine Shaft Tavern (so named because the town was originally a coal-mining town before becoming a ghost town and then, finally, a settlement for artists and tourism), and I gave New Mexican enchiladas another try. This time I opted for the red chile, and it was great! Amber had her enchiladas sin chile, and I think she enjoyed them best that way.

It was pretty dreary and cold when we arrived in Santa Fe, so we first stopped in at a little coffee shop where we found a handy map of downtown. We decided to park closer to the things we wanted to see, and I was worried we would end up parking even further away when I saw how crowded downtown was. We really lucked out and ended up seeing someone leave a really great parking spot right in front of us.

Very close to where we parked, there was a little craft fair where we stopped to browse. Immediately, a tent full of handspun yarn and scarves and wraps knitted from the handspun caught my eye. I was disappointed to discover that the beautiful, but coarse-feeling, bulky yarn was around $60 for about 30 yards. Ouch! A little further down in a different booth, a second display of hanks grabbed my attention. These were made of buffalo/wool blend and naturally brown. I excitedly purchased a skein of the bulky handspun yarn (30 yards) for $15! I think it even smells a little like buffalo...I couldn't get Amber to smell it.

There is a lot more to see in Santa Fe than to talk about, so I recommend looking at all my pictures. We saw the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi (shown below) and the smaller Loretto Chapel. Though we couldn't go inside due to a wedding taking place, I bought a postcard that shows the miraculous staircase inside. I remember seeing an episode on Unsolved Mysteries (which I frequently watched as a kid) about the staircase, and it was cool to see the location of it.

We also saw the Plaza of the Governors where we heard/saw a Mariachi band and dancing briefly as part of the celebration for the grand opening of the brand new museum across the street--the New Mexico Museum of History. We we able to go inside the museum for free because it was opening day. Afterwards, we found the oldest active church in the US, and the oldest house in ... the building was clearly not modern stucco because there was bits of hay and rock in texture. Maybe adobe?

The pizzeria (The Upper Crust) next to the oldest church smelled fantastic, and it didn't take long for us to decide to eat there. I remarked to Amber that I didn't want to have Mexican food (again), and she agreed. I had to make her repeat herself because she has always claimed to love Mexican food so much that she can eat it for every meal. Maybe that only applies to tex-mex. Amber and I each had a calzone--mine was stuffed with spinach, pesto, cheese, and tomatoes. Yum!

The state capital was the last thing we saw before we headed back to Albuquerque. I wasn't as interested as Amber, so I took pictures of pretty flowers instead.

The drive back to Albuquerque along 25 was beautiful but not as mountainous (to the west, anyway) as the drive up had been. I liked how flat and treeless it was because you could see so far away. While it wasn't raining on us, you could clearly see that it was raining off in the distance.

I was about to link to my uploaded photo album for the trip, but Facebook apparently did not save my pictures last night! Maybe tomorrow...