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Our Practice Run for Retirement
Santa Fe is known, as an arts community but wasn't particularly high on our list of desired destinations. However, it was along our route to Albuquerque and the Balloon Fiesta so we made the stop. As we were driving in, I read in our Good Sam guidebook that Santa Fe had decreed that all buildings must be harmonious with the Spanish Pueblo Revival style (low-slung, earth-colored buildings made of adobe bricks, which consist of a mixture of sun-dried earth and straw). In theory this sounded like a good idea, but the result was not so great. The whole city seems to be 3 stories or less, stucco, in brown earth tones. For such an artsy/fartsy town, it was more boring than attractive. Maybe it’s just that we are not very artsy/fartsy?
Santa Fe is a fairly small town of about 70,000 people. The primary touristy area surrounds the central plaza. To get almost anywhere we wanted to go we were forced to drive along Paseo De Peralta. It and the other roads near it are extremely narrow and congested (not good when driving our big truck). A destination only two miles away easily took more than ten minutes, mostly stop signs every 100 feet or so. It is the oldest capital city in the US, founded in 1610. Apparently most states move their capitals?
The main plaza presented lots of jewelry sellers, all sitting along a wall with their wares displayed on blankets on the ground. The "southwestern" style, that I liked 30 years ago, dominates. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, built in 1869, is one of the main attractions. It is very nice with bronze doors like some we have seen in Europe and a chapel containing a statue known as La Conquistadora – our Lady of the Rosary, the oldest statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the United States.
On Friday evenings the museum of art and the history museum offered free entry, so we drove in to take advantage. We spent a whole fifteen minutes exploring the museum of art, which had a wing dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe. Not impressed! The history museum was better, with (as you might imagine) lots of educational info about the Indian struggle against Mexican and American invaders and eventually just to survive. We had a nice dinner at one of the Blue Corn Cafés and watched the sunset, which was beautiful, and then watched as a storm blew in. Bill went for the truck in the rainstorm, while I waited outside the restaurant. After about 10 minutes I called him to find out if he had decided to ditch me. We had parked near the art museum, and then walked all around, and he could not find the truck. Eventually he showed up after about 20 minutes (Not my fault - Dessa must have moved the truck when I wasn’t watching).
From town we could see a beautiful patch of yellow on the side of a mountain, so we looked up local hikes and found Aspen Ridge. We drove slooowwwlllyyy up to the trailhead, which was jammed with cars but the road was fantastic and full of turns so we came back on Tuesday morning to ride up and down twice (fortunately with fewer cars but still relatively slowly given the 30 mph speed limit).
We hiked up about four miles (with a 1500’ elevation gain) surrounded by the awesome aspens the whole time. As we walked, the wind would pick up and it would snow yellow leaves - beautiful. The trees were so thick it was hard to get a view of the valley but we found a few places to take some pictures (lucky you). We learned that the large stands of aspen mostly emerge after a forest fire. They have a single root system so they can recover and grow faster than evergreens. However, eventually the pine, spruce and fir trees will overtake the aspens blocking out their sun.
As we emerged at the end of our hike, we found three girls dressed in cowboy boots and hats, daisy dukes, and crop tops showing off their midriffs. They were unloading two horses, one of which was a huge black stallion. Bill fed them our leftover apple (the horses, not the girls), and eventually they went off down the trail with one of the chicks riding him bareback (the black stallion not me). They had to be strippers, or Coyote Ugly girls. Certainly not your everyday cowgirls!
For his birthday Bill got a macro lens for his camera. He had gotten some extension tubes (they act similar to a macro lens) for Christmas and had struggled with them all year without much success. We went to the Botanical Garden so he could try out his new toy, so you will see lots of flower and bug pictures again. Even though I said we would try not to bore you with more bees in our last blog…there were tons of them and the pictures were just too good to not share. Needless to say, he likes his new lens (and Dessa was jealous so we have now ordered her a Macro lens for her camera – that means more bug and flower photos in your immediate future). The Botanic Garden was fairly small and seems pretty new. They had design boards in the park that showed that it will someday be much more extensive. There was a third grade class on a field trip there with us, and for once, the teachers and parents were actually teaching the kids and managing them. This is the first school group we have seen that was not just using the field trip as day of running wild. The kids were cute and well behaved for the most part. Bill loves kids and was talking to them and showing them stuff. This is where my third injury to my lower right leg occurred. Bill and I were talking and I guess he was crowding me, because I backed into a cactus (that is not true. She is just a clumsy old lady). I’m sure I said a very bad word in front of the children. When I sat down to pick the needles out of my leg, I found a huge purple knot on my calf where I guess one of the needles had punctured a vein. Fortunately I had a frozen bottle of water in my backpack, and the ice halted the swelling. It was about the size of a half dollar, and left a nasty bruise, that I still have two weeks later.
Another day we went to the Randall Davey Audubon Center, where we saw almost no birds other than 2 woodpeckers. I think maybe birding requires sitting very still and quiet, as well as better camera equipment. Neither of us is good at just sitting, so this may be a hobby we need to reconsider when we are much older. We also hiked Atalaya Mountain. Since we both were still having a hard time catching our breath during our hikes, we checked the altitude. As it turns out, the altitude in the Denver area was 5000 feet as everyone knows, “The Mile High City”. It was 6000 feet in Colorado Springs, and it is 7000 feet in Santa Fe. As a comparison, Dallas is at 440 feet. No wonder we have not adjusted.
Santa Fe has a really cool newly developed area at their old railroad yard where they hold a large farmers market and have a theater, shops and restaurants. The Raptor Rehabilitation organization was there with three birds they had helped, so I did get some bird pictures after all: a gorgeous hawk; a one eyed screech owl; and another small bird. They were amazing creatures. The biggest attraction at the market was roasted green chilies, which are delicious, and they put them on everything here.
Our favorite find in Santa Fe was Clafoutis French Bakery & Restaurant. It was a tiny place, with an even smaller parking lot. No chance of getting the truck in there so Bill parked next door at the Dry Cleaners after he asked them for permission since they had several signs saying they would tow non-customers. We ate there twice and had the Green Chile Quiche both times (Real Men do in fact eat Quiche – or at least I do). It was fantastic so maybe the folks from Santa Fe are smart to put Roasted Green Chile in all their foods. As good as the Quiche was, the baked goods were so much better. We tried more than ½ dozen of them and each seemed better than the last.
Overall Santa Fe was ok, but not a place we would revisit. Now we are off to Albuquerque and the Balloon Fiesta.
Santa Fe is a fairly small town of about 70,000 people. The primary touristy area surrounds the central plaza. To get almost anywhere we wanted to go we were forced to drive along Paseo De Peralta. It and the other roads near it are extremely narrow and congested (not good when driving our big truck). A destination only two miles away easily took more than ten minutes, mostly stop signs every 100 feet or so. It is the oldest capital city in the US, founded in 1610. Apparently most states move their capitals?
The main plaza presented lots of jewelry sellers, all sitting along a wall with their wares displayed on blankets on the ground. The "southwestern" style, that I liked 30 years ago, dominates. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, built in 1869, is one of the main attractions. It is very nice with bronze doors like some we have seen in Europe and a chapel containing a statue known as La Conquistadora – our Lady of the Rosary, the oldest statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the United States.
On Friday evenings the museum of art and the history museum offered free entry, so we drove in to take advantage. We spent a whole fifteen minutes exploring the museum of art, which had a wing dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe. Not impressed! The history museum was better, with (as you might imagine) lots of educational info about the Indian struggle against Mexican and American invaders and eventually just to survive. We had a nice dinner at one of the Blue Corn Cafés and watched the sunset, which was beautiful, and then watched as a storm blew in. Bill went for the truck in the rainstorm, while I waited outside the restaurant. After about 10 minutes I called him to find out if he had decided to ditch me. We had parked near the art museum, and then walked all around, and he could not find the truck. Eventually he showed up after about 20 minutes (Not my fault - Dessa must have moved the truck when I wasn’t watching).
From town we could see a beautiful patch of yellow on the side of a mountain, so we looked up local hikes and found Aspen Ridge. We drove slooowwwlllyyy up to the trailhead, which was jammed with cars but the road was fantastic and full of turns so we came back on Tuesday morning to ride up and down twice (fortunately with fewer cars but still relatively slowly given the 30 mph speed limit).
We hiked up about four miles (with a 1500’ elevation gain) surrounded by the awesome aspens the whole time. As we walked, the wind would pick up and it would snow yellow leaves - beautiful. The trees were so thick it was hard to get a view of the valley but we found a few places to take some pictures (lucky you). We learned that the large stands of aspen mostly emerge after a forest fire. They have a single root system so they can recover and grow faster than evergreens. However, eventually the pine, spruce and fir trees will overtake the aspens blocking out their sun.
As we emerged at the end of our hike, we found three girls dressed in cowboy boots and hats, daisy dukes, and crop tops showing off their midriffs. They were unloading two horses, one of which was a huge black stallion. Bill fed them our leftover apple (the horses, not the girls), and eventually they went off down the trail with one of the chicks riding him bareback (the black stallion not me). They had to be strippers, or Coyote Ugly girls. Certainly not your everyday cowgirls!
For his birthday Bill got a macro lens for his camera. He had gotten some extension tubes (they act similar to a macro lens) for Christmas and had struggled with them all year without much success. We went to the Botanical Garden so he could try out his new toy, so you will see lots of flower and bug pictures again. Even though I said we would try not to bore you with more bees in our last blog…there were tons of them and the pictures were just too good to not share. Needless to say, he likes his new lens (and Dessa was jealous so we have now ordered her a Macro lens for her camera – that means more bug and flower photos in your immediate future). The Botanic Garden was fairly small and seems pretty new. They had design boards in the park that showed that it will someday be much more extensive. There was a third grade class on a field trip there with us, and for once, the teachers and parents were actually teaching the kids and managing them. This is the first school group we have seen that was not just using the field trip as day of running wild. The kids were cute and well behaved for the most part. Bill loves kids and was talking to them and showing them stuff. This is where my third injury to my lower right leg occurred. Bill and I were talking and I guess he was crowding me, because I backed into a cactus (that is not true. She is just a clumsy old lady). I’m sure I said a very bad word in front of the children. When I sat down to pick the needles out of my leg, I found a huge purple knot on my calf where I guess one of the needles had punctured a vein. Fortunately I had a frozen bottle of water in my backpack, and the ice halted the swelling. It was about the size of a half dollar, and left a nasty bruise, that I still have two weeks later.
Another day we went to the Randall Davey Audubon Center, where we saw almost no birds other than 2 woodpeckers. I think maybe birding requires sitting very still and quiet, as well as better camera equipment. Neither of us is good at just sitting, so this may be a hobby we need to reconsider when we are much older. We also hiked Atalaya Mountain. Since we both were still having a hard time catching our breath during our hikes, we checked the altitude. As it turns out, the altitude in the Denver area was 5000 feet as everyone knows, “The Mile High City”. It was 6000 feet in Colorado Springs, and it is 7000 feet in Santa Fe. As a comparison, Dallas is at 440 feet. No wonder we have not adjusted.
Santa Fe has a really cool newly developed area at their old railroad yard where they hold a large farmers market and have a theater, shops and restaurants. The Raptor Rehabilitation organization was there with three birds they had helped, so I did get some bird pictures after all: a gorgeous hawk; a one eyed screech owl; and another small bird. They were amazing creatures. The biggest attraction at the market was roasted green chilies, which are delicious, and they put them on everything here.
Our favorite find in Santa Fe was Clafoutis French Bakery & Restaurant. It was a tiny place, with an even smaller parking lot. No chance of getting the truck in there so Bill parked next door at the Dry Cleaners after he asked them for permission since they had several signs saying they would tow non-customers. We ate there twice and had the Green Chile Quiche both times (Real Men do in fact eat Quiche – or at least I do). It was fantastic so maybe the folks from Santa Fe are smart to put Roasted Green Chile in all their foods. As good as the Quiche was, the baked goods were so much better. We tried more than ½ dozen of them and each seemed better than the last.
Overall Santa Fe was ok, but not a place we would revisit. Now we are off to Albuquerque and the Balloon Fiesta.
- comments
Clay Eddings My wife and I were there in the Spring and had much higher expectations as well and booked an entire week in Santa Fe. We had more fun (and definitely more interesting food) either on the way to/in Taos or in Albuquerque than Santa Fe. Live and learn. :o)