Santa Fe Getaway

Way back in October, Nephi's wonderful sister ellen came to stay with the boys for a few days while Nephi and I escaped together to Santa Fe. It was soooo nice to spend a few days together, and Santa Fe is definitely a place better to explore sans children. We explored the main downtown plaza and ate some really good food for lunch one day; the kind of meal where you're like, "Even this steamed broccoli is soooo good!!" and really mean it. We toured the Palace of the Governors which is very old indeed, then spent a bit of time in the adjacent New Mexico history museum. They had a special exhibit on cowboys - the real ones and the mythical ones - and we took a little tour. It was interesting. Although they had one section about cowboys in literature and Nephi mentioned to the guide All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy which was not included in the exhibit, and she had no idea who he was which was super weird because he lives in Santa Fe and in my mind just knowing I was in the same general vicinity as Cormac McCarthy was one of the major perks of visiting Santa Fe and John Grady is like the ultimate mythical cowboy.

Anyway, we also went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum later that day. She is really amazing. Although again it was a little strange, because the museum was focusing on her lesser known works that she did while summering at her husband's property in upstate New York, and here we were in Santa Fe expecting, you know, Georgia O'Keefe desert stuff. Also we went into some stores that sold $1000 cowboy boots and fancy silver jewelry, but that's not really our scene. And we went to the farmers market in the morning which was like farmers markets are. Also, apparently Santa Fe has a really great jazz scene at night, which is also not our scene, so we just watched some movies in our hotel room and ate some super good African goat curry takeout.

The next day we went to mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Assisi which was beautiful and interesting.

Then we wandered along Canyon Road and into some of the many art galleries there. It was fun to stop in a few; I was surprised that a lot of the art was actually reasonably priced for original art. A few hundred dollars could get you a smallish painting, for example. We weren't really looking, though.

We kept on walking through an old, beautiful neighborhood up to the Audubon Center. Old Santa Fe really is my aesthetic; I love everything about this.

We finally got to the Audubon Center and it was closed, which was ok. I love the desert southwest; the plants and the smell and the blue sky.

We then relied on Nephi's unfailing, uncanny sense of direction to wind down back to town through the woods and along a stream. I was obviously dressed for the experience. The day could not have been more beautiful, all bathed in golden sunlight.

The next day on the drive home we stopped at Taos Pueblo, a Native American village that has been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years, which is pretty amazing and cool. Although only like 15 people actually live there now. We had a nice time walking around. Also, Nephi laughed at my novice selfie taking ability.

Nephi was feeling artsy, as you can clearly tell from this very artsy photo of the church there.

So then we came home and of course discovered that all was very well here and dinner was ready and waiting for us. The boys went bowling with ellen.

And they also made a fancy tiered cake with her (she makes wedding cakes for people and is really good.) And why not give it bunny ears, even though it is a cake and that doesn't really make sense?

Ben loved her.

We sent her off the next day with a million thank yous. It was super fun for the boys, and so refreshing for Nephi and me. Santa Fe was fun to see, although we didn't love it like some people do. The old section is very pretty, although it is kind of like a very old, extremely high-end shopping mall with lots of restaurants and tourists. And outside of that relatively small area the city is not pretty at all, just sprawling six lane roads with all the usual fast food and strip mall development. So unless you're ultra rich and can live in the old section and want to pretend everything else doesn't exist I'm not sure it would be that great of a place to live. But maybe you could spend your days stalking Cormac McCarthy. Or wandering along streambeds on gorgeous October afternoons.