Saturday - Santa Fe to Albuquerque to Twin Cities to the Motor City

Once again we got up at an hour that humans should not be expected to be alive, much less awake and we left our wonderful little casita that had been home for the past week and took off for Albuquerque. We got there faster than we got to Santa Fe, then again, how many people were awake at this time of day?

As we drove into town I noticed a couple of hot air balloons in the sky. As most people know Albuquerque is a big area for hot air balloons. We stopped to gas up the rental car before returning it. While Bob/Rob/Robert was gassing the car I spotted someone readying a balloon for flight. This was something that I had never seen before. They were just across the parking lot from us so I got a pretty good view. I saw the balloon go from flat to completely inflated.

One last stop at Sonic for breakfast before we returned to Sonic-free land. When we returned the rental car I was certain that the guy was going to say something about the mud on the car. The dirt roads in New Mexico become mud roads after it rains. I guess that it takes a lot to faze a rental car guy, he said nothing. I do have to add that I did hear that a school district was on a two hour delay on Friday due to muddy roads. This was a reason for school closing/delay that I had never before heard.

We got to the airport, got luggage checked and got to the gate with time to spare. I did discover that Northwest has slightly larger seats and a little bit more leg room than Continental. Continental might feed you, but give me more room, please. We landed in one county in the Twin Cities and our next flight was taking off from the next county. There was a tram, but it only took us to the end of the concourse that we were already on. Time to take off on foot. No moving walkways either. We had debated getting something for lunch before we got on this flight, but decided that we were fine. Good thing we got to the gate in time to get in line to board. There we sat eating apples and granola bars. I was amazed at the number of people who had their own food with them.

Our luggage came up fast, the shuttle to our parking lot was right there on the curb and the car stated. The perfect end to a great vacation. The cats are adjusting to us being home, the laundry is almost done and we should be through all of the mail by tomorrow.

Friday - Free at Last

Too much togetherness can go only so far. Bob/Rob/Robert wanted to go for a hike and I wanted to go downtown to go shopping. He dropped me off near the plaza and headed off for Atalaya Mountains. He had great weather for hiking especially after a day of rain.

I spent the afternoon wandering around the plaza area. I found two more stores that specialize in handwoven clothing. It was also fun to just wander in and out of stores spending as much time as I wanted in each store. For as many times as I have been to Santa Fe this was the first time that I have been able to shop around by myself. I had no one tapping their foot foot, looking at their watch or asking me how much longer I was going to be. I did have to consult my map a couple of times as I got disoriented, but I always found my way back to the plaza. I was able to more closely check out the jewelry being sold by the Indians in front of the Governors Palace. I did satisfy my curiosity and went back to a store that sold liquid silver necklaces. I wanted to see if they had them for a better price than what I paid. They were more expensive, so I felt better.

I will add pictures later. Santa Fe becomes a different place on the weekend.

Thursday - A little Rain must fall

Well, it does have to rain at some point on an Anderson vacation, even in Santa Fe. But does it have to rain all day?

We headed to Canyon Road to check out the "art scene." I had been told that I HAD to see Thirteen Moons Gallery. They have a lot of fiberart, but it is kind of out there. You know the kind of stuff that you stand there and stare and and go, uh huh, while everyone else is smiling and nodding. We went in and out of several other galleries some good art, some bad art. I was finding a correlation between ugly art and price. The uglier the art, the more expensive it is. There were some beautiful glass pieces, all out of my price range, but beautiful. Since it was raining we were about the only patrons so gallery owners were all over us when we came in.

After a nice lunch at the casita, we went off to look at some new housing in Santa Fe. We still have this on our "maybe" list for retirement. I don't know if we can afford the lotion to keep my skin from drying out. After looking at housing here, I do have one question: "Where do people here keep their stuff?" No attic, no basement, no storage. With planned neighborhoods, I don't see them letting you have a little shed in the back yard. We also have the problem with all the weaving stuff. We looked at one condo that was nice and the real estate agent and I decided that we could live in the townhouse then buy the condo next door for a studio. Bob/Rob/Robert didn't see the humor in this.

After looking at houses we went to the railyard district. This is the old Santa Fe Railroad station that is being turned into an art and community center. There was one gallery that had a lot of fiber, old and new. Some very intricate baskets and ceremonial clothes were impressive.

For dinner we went to El Parasol, we actually got food from there. This is one of those places that caters mainly to the locals. The food is great. The tacos come right out of the frier and are not on anyone's diet. This is the kind of food that you go back to Michigan and wish that you had a place like this at home.

Wednesday - Oh where or where is Ghost Ranch?

After a night of thunderstorms, yes I brought rain to very, very dry Santa Fe, we took off for Abiqu the home of Georgia O'Keefe. There is a special fiber exhibit at the museum there
The scenery did change quickly which always surprises me. At times we drove along a river so things were fairly green, then we drove back into desert. We drove and drove and wondered just how far it was to Abiqu, it didn't look that far on the map. We finally found Abiqu, not a whole lot there but still not sign of Ghost Ranch. We kept driving, it had to be here somewhere. Then we hit the Red Rock area. You start to understand why Georgia O'Keefe was attracted to this area for painting. I also learned the lesson "if you see a great photo opportunity stop to take the picture now, not on your way back."

We went beyond Ghost Ranch to the Welcome Center to view an exhibit by the weavers of the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center. There were some beautiful pieces and some that we didn't really get. I can see that they use a different colour pallet than I do. There is also a lot more tapestry here than in the midwest. I guess that they are just not as in as much of a hurry as we are. I don't see myself ever doing tapestry long term. I keep planning to do another one, just don't know when. Outside of the welcome center we could go up to an observation platform and see Georgia O'Keefe's studio. You cannot actually tour it since it is a private residence.

If you look very carefully at the picture at the base you can see the studio. I mean VERY carefully.










Now on to Ghost Ranch. Eek, the dreaded school bus. Luckily they were in the paleantology area and we headed to the anthropology area. They had the weavings displayed around their anthropology displays. The docent explained that they regularly have art displays here, and most of them are fiber related. when she was not looking or busy elsewhere I took a few pictures of pieces that I found particularly inspiring. There were a few artists who overlapped from the previous display to this display, but for the most part there were new ones. When we came out of the museum the clouds had rolled in. The red rocks were not quite as impressive as they were with the bright blue sky as a back drop.

We stopped along a river to eat lunch. It was very quiet and we got to watch some birds. We tried to find something to see in Abiqu, but discovered that there just isn't anything there.

If it's Tuesday this must be Taos.

Tuesday we awakened to weather forecasts of rain, thunderstorms and just generally not great weather. We decided that this would be the day to take off for Taos. The first thing that we did in the Morning was to go to the Santa Fe Farmers Market. We got some roasted garlic flat bread and a couple of fresh tomatoes for our salads.

















The tour guide we had on Monday suggested taking the "high road" to Taos so we decided that this sounded like a great idea. This involved some very beautiful scenery and a game of "name that pine tree." It also involved a game of "why does this town exist?" and "wow am I glad that there wasn't a car coming there."









We stopped in Chymayo and checked out two traditional weaving studios/stores. One thing that surprised me was that their looms were the kind that you stood at. Give a a good loom bench any day. One place the gentleman explained the differences in the patterns and how their weaving had evolved over time and which patterns were from which era.

Back on the road for more clutching the dashboard and wondering when the rain was going to start. We did make it to Taos.






It was amazing how the landscape had changed from Santa Fe. Things were actually green up here. We found the first weaving destination with little or no trouble and enjoyed looking at their gallery and other items that they had for sale. Luckily there is very little room left in the luggage so I did not buy any yarn. The next place sold wonderful fabric, the sort of fabric that one does not find in your average fabric store. There was this cashmere shawl with hand knotted fringe that was calling my name, but I resisted. Then on to lunch at a place called Orlando's north of town. Another one of those places where tourists just don't show up. We had blue corn tortilla enchiladas filled with shrimp. Yum.

One more weaving shop then back on the road for Espanola. We took the "River Road" back. This meant that we drove along the Rio Grande for most of the way. We found Espanola just fine, but finding the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Center was a little more challenging. It was worth the effort once we did. They have a combination of school, store and gallery there. We poked around and spoke with the woman there. She primarily weaves tapestries, I've done, don't want to again, but she was able to answer some questions on a few pieces and on some yarn.

Bob/Rob/Robert has been a great sport being dragged from fiber place to fiber place. I do remind him that I did go on two hikes so this is payback. Hopefully he remembers this.

Day Three

Today we took the Historic Walking Tour of Santa Fe. I have been here several times and have seen a lot of the historic buildings, but I have to admit that I did not know all of the history. Our guide was a former National Parks Service employee and at one time served on the Historic Architecture Committee for Santa Fe. For those of you who have not been to Santa Fe you might not be aware that everything is built in one of two styles and covered in adobe. The feeling was that they didn't was Santa Fe to just look like every other US city.

I learned a lot on the tour and saw a lot of my old favorites. We toured Loretto Chapel. The picture above is the miracle staircase in the Chapel. It makes two 360 turns. The nuns prayed to St. Joseph for a miracle after everyone said that there was no way to build a stairway. A carpentar appeared on the ninth day of their novena and built the stairway. He disappeared before they could pay him or thank him. It was made with no metal nails.

Then we did some shopping. There was a shop that we went to three years ago and we knew that it was "just off of the plaza" but were not quite sure what direction or how far. We tried to fin it yesterday and did not make it there. I talked to Douglas yesterday and he had a pretty good recollection of where it was. We found it today, but it had been taken over by new owners. We found some of the things that we were looking for and Bob/Rob/Robert found another blanket. I got a chili pepper wreath. Now I just have to figure out how to get it home in one piece.

Day 2 - Part II

I didn't get this picture from Tent Rocks in with the previous post. Bob/Rob/Robert was facinated by the two rock formations. The one on the left I thought looks like an alien. The one on the right looks like a golf ball on a tee.








Below is a view from our patio. I was surprised as we were driving up from Albuquerque to see that there was still snow on the mountains.

Day 2 - Mothers Day

Here is a picture os the casita in which we are staying. We are not in the main part of Santa Fe, but on the outskirsts. It is very quiet here. and we have wonderful views.
We went to Tent Rock National Monument today. I got part way up one of the trails and realized that with the change in elevation I was not going to make it up a 1.5 mile trail that went UP over 600 feet. So Bob/Rob/Robert took off with the camera and I took the shorter loop. I did enjoy the hike. Saw some interesting wildlife and some blooming cacti. I must admit that the pictures that Bob/Rob/Robert took from the top of the trail were quite impressive. You can see why the place is called Tent Rocks. He found the striations of colors very impressive.



I sat just off the trail and waited for Bob/Rob/Robert for over 45 minutes because I found two cacti in full bloom. I periodically would say in a loud voice "OK snakes I'm here you can leave me alone." I watched a lizzard scurry back and forth and finally gave up after I wasn't sure what that noise was that I heard in the bushes. We did find this cactus just off of the highway and I got Bob/Rob/Robert to take a picture. I wanted to show people that there are flowers in the desert.

We decided to take a loop back to Santa fe and drive through Bandelier. Well, anyone who knows about us and short cuts knows how that went. We did see the Rio Grande, again, another river that was unlabeled, cattle and horses wandering on the road and drove through several Indian reservations. We never did quite know where we were or find where we wanted to be. Finally we found I-25 and headed back to Santa Fe.

We did a quick tour around the square and I got my birthday and Mothers Day present. We tried to find a store that we bought a lot at when we were here three years ago, but we must have gone in the wrong direction. I asked Douglas if he remembered wher it was and he told us what he remembered. We will try again.

Detroit to Albuquerque to Santa Fe

After getting up at an hour that is earlier than any human should be awake we took care of last minute things and left for the airport before 6:00 AM. We got through security quickly discovering that the TSA people are actually rather pleasant early in the day. I guess that at that hour they have not been yelled at or had to deal with stupid people. Note to self; take wrist brace off before going through the metal detector.

Our flight to Houston arrived a half hour late despite leaving the gate five minutes early. This meant a quick sprint through the Houston airport to get to a terminal that I was not sure was even in the same county. We did make it on time, but we among the last to board the flight. Luckily Bob/Rob/Robert had printed our boarding passes and taken care of seat selection the day before.

We arrived in Albequerque when the first disaster of the trip happened. Bob/Rob/Robert when to take care of the car rental paperwork when he discovered that he did not have his drivers’ license. He knew that he had it when he went through security in Detroit and he swore that he put it back in his wallet. This meant that I had to sign all of the paperwork for the rental car and do the driving. Bob/Rob/Robert ranks me doing all of the driving and him riding somewhere between extreme dental work and dropping a bowling ball on his foot.

After we left the airport we headed for El Modelo for lunch. If you are ever in Albuquerque head here for a great meal. It is on 2nd Ave. in a light industrial area. From both the location and the cliental this was clearly not a tourist place. We both got the tamale plate, figuring that this was something that I do not make. I wish that there was a way that I could take some home with me.

A quick stop at Petroglyphs National Monument. Bob/Rob/Robert did the first hike solo. I saw the height of the trail and decided to sit this one out. Here is a picture of him at the top of the trail:















I went on the two shorter trails and must say that the pictures on the rocks were really worth the hike. Here are a few of them:





















On our way to Santa Fe Bob/Rob/Robert took off his socks and shoes to give his feet a rest. When he put his shoes back on something fell out of one. I joked that maybe it was his license. He looked down and guess what was there? Yup, his license. He waned me to pull over right then to let him drive. Keep in mind that this meant that he had that license in there for two flights a sprint through the Houston airport and three hikes. I don’t think that he would pass the “Princess and Pea” test.

I will write more on where we are staying next time.

The Day Before

We leave tomorrow. Today I am trying to get everything taken care of and make sure that I have figured out everything that I want to see when we are there. Bob found out that there is a fiber exhibit that opens on Saturday at the Ghost Ranch. What great timing. Bob has changed the car reservation, again, but we now have better seats for the trip down. Back to getting ready.