Santa Fe, New Mexico

2009-05-03

We left Las Crusces close to 9 am and drove up interstate 25 to Santa Fe passing through Truth or Consequences and Albuquerque, which brought back fond memories for Lori when she spent a week training there during one summer when she was 15 with the Phillips 66 splash club in the New Mexico University pool for a swim meet. We arrived into Santa Fe around 12:30 pm. We checked into El Farolito B&B and Lori was impressed as it had a sitting room and a bedroom with a fireplace. It had that nice cosy B&B feel to it. There were approximately 8 other rooms of varying sizes and a main area that had tables, a fireplace, many books and a computer. There were also common areas outdoors. Wayne, one of the owners, checked us in, showed us around, helped us to make reservations for dinner that night and pointed us in the right direction of various places to see in Santa Fe. We unpacked, got settled and made our turkey sandwiches for lunch. As it was Sunday, most things closed at 5 pm, so we decided to venture out. There was a local arts market on Sundays, so we started there, and much to Ian’s surprise, Lori did not find anything to buy. While there was nice pottery and handmade goods, Lori knew from her trip there before that most things in Santa Fe were expensive, no matter where you were shopping.  We walked down Paseo de Peralta to the State Capitol. As it was Sunday, the Capitol building was not open, so we walked around the round, sandy structure. It had a few interesting sculptures around it. We walked up Old Santa Fee Trail to the San Miguel church. It was closed when we went by and as they wanted money to enter, we decided not to wait around for it to reopen.  We continued up the street to the Loreeto church, which has a famous unsupported spiral staircase inside. It was open, but again they wanted money to enter and we were not the fussed about seeing it, so we enjoyed the small market that was outside the church. There was also a series of silent, artistic wind chimes that we enjoyed taking photos of. We walked down Water street to Old Santa Fe Trail where we found another open aired market. Ian was tempted at this market and we walked away with a brightly painted armadillo. For those of you not from Texas or the southwestern part of the USA, this creatures have an “armored” plating around them, a snout, a tail and can get up to the size of a possum.  We walked to the city’s plaza, main square, and ducked in and out of several stores, but made no purchases. Lori enjoyed looking at the jewelry being sold by the Indians in front of the Palace of Governors, which is one of the oldest buildings in the USA.  We continued up Lincoln Avenue and enjoyed taking some more photos outside the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts. Our feet were starting to get tired, so we walked to St. Francis Cathedral, which unfortunately had a lot of construction outside, and then went back to El Farolito to relax before dinner. The inn keeper, whose name we can unfortunately not remember, had put out homemade cookies and biscotti, which we of course sampled over some tea and coffee. We spent some time catching up on the news around the Swine Flu and our emails. We left the B&B at 6:30 pm and had a short walk up Washington Avenue to Santacafe for dinner. The restaurant is inside The Padre Gallegos House, which was originally built between 1857 and 1862 by a colorful, controversial priest and politician. A water well was built inside the home, but has since dried out. The house has been used as a chapel, boarding house, offices and retail space. As neither of us were starving, we split a starter of shrimp and spinach dumplings. Dumplings are not Ian’s favourite thing, but as it was Lori’s birthday dinner, she got to pick and he actually liked them.  For her main, Lori had pan seared Australian Barramundi with Yukon Gold potatoes, baby artichoke, sugar snap peas, red beets (which she gave to Ian) and roasted red bell pepper cream. It was a wonderful meal and nice to have some great fish. Ian went for the pan seared Emerald Valley Ranch Filet Mignon with asparagus, green chile mashed potatoes and salsa verde. His meal melted in his mouth as well. What is a birthday celebration without dessert; so of course we had some; Lori had a strawberry and rhubarb fool, which had whipped cream and a blonde (white) brownie, while Ian had a chocolate upside down cake. Suitably stuffed, we enjoyed the walk back to the B&B, where we tucked ourselves up in a cover bed and watched part of the last Xmen movie.

For those of you not from Texas or the southwestern part of the USA, this creatures have an “armored” plating around them, a snout, a tail and can get up to the size of a possum.

Additional photos - http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=ACE4D32C853&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

2009-05-04

Lori enjoyed waking up in a cozy bed on her birthday. We took our time getting ready and then enjoyed a hearty bedfast of fresh fruit, home baked cake, eggs for Ian and  a egg, sausage and cheese casserole for Lori. We relaxed in the room until we had to check out at 11 am.