We’ve spent the past two days exploring Santa Fe, New Mexico and its environs. I’ve never been before, so it’s been quite a treat! The weather has been grand – the night we arrived it rained but ever since it’s been steadily warming (today temps are in the mid to upper 70’s). This place is positively filthy with art galleries, and seems to have nearly as many restaurants. It’s hard to tell what would happen if we lived here: whether we’d die of heart attacks from all the rich food or go bankrupt from buying too much art.
We’re staying at a funky place called Zona Rosa that is an annex to the El Dorado Hotel. They are like condos: two to three bedroom places with kitchens, about three blocks away from the El Dorado. We arrived in the pouring rain late Friday night and after picking up our keys headed off to our suite, only to find that they keys wouldn’t work. Turns out they switch the doorknobs and locks out among the suites for security. Unfortunately for us, ours had been mixed up and nobody knew which key worked for our suite. it took nearly four hours for them to work it out – not a great start to our stay! it’s been uphill from there: they knocked a chunk off our nightly rate and gave us all free breakfasts, so we can’t complain. Well, yes we can actually. Saturday night the bozos next door had what can best be described as a drunken orgy in their suite that lasted until about three in the morning. *sigh* They left on Sunday, so last night it was very quiet and pleasant. So it goes.
We’ve eaten at a series of restaurants that have escalated in both richness of food and price. The best so far: Geronimo’s. Also on the really great list: The Compound. To compensate for all the rich food, we’ve been running every morning along the Santa Fe River Park trail. It’s an awesome trail that runs about four miles along the Santa Fe River that slices through the town. Today we went to the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, which has over 140 of her works on display. Wow! What’s special is that if you go outside, you see what made her fall in love with this part of the country – the colors here are just brighter. There’s no better way to describe just how blue the blues are, and how green the greens are, the contrast of the adobe buildings against the sky. It’s just amazing!
Tomorrow we’re off to Los Alamos and Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch, then on to the Grand Canyon before finally heading for home.
Pics of the proceedings up to now are here.