August 20, 2014 Santa Fe, New Mexico

We drove a long way for us today. 200 miles. We took  a back road, Highway 96 though a beautiful area of mountains.

The valley was full of fields of sunflowers, ranches, red rock cliffs and mountains. Abiquiu reservoir, near this area is where Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch is, and much of the red rock scenery she painted. If we hadn’t already made reservations in Santa Fe it would have been fun to explore around here.

After we got settled we headed to downtown Santa Fe and the Plaza and wandered around. Most of the shops were closed after 5. Here is the nice light on the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis.  This is a statue of Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), the  first Indian of north America to be promoted a saint in front of the cathedral.

In front of this gallery were these great sculptures- the same artist as the piece The Peace Maker, we saw in Seminole canyon in Texas (second photo)-loved it in both places. A shop with chili ristras out front.

A shop with bright Mexican flowers. I was crossing the street just as a car was turning the corner and the driver started honking, pulled over and jumped out. It is the only person we know in Santa Fe- Michael Naiman. We are sort of related-he is my sister’s husbands son.  We had emailed and planned to get together sometime while we were here, but is was such a coincidence to run into right after we got here. We are going to have lunch on Friday, and he is giving us tickets to see the opera Friday night.

John sitting on a school of fish by the convention center. There was live music in the plaza this evening.

We stopped at the Blue Corn Brewery in downtown to taste their IPA. Then on the way home we stopped at the Second Street Brewery, but due to a power outage it was closed. There were some lights on and people were inside eating, but it must have just happened, when we went in it was closed.  I saw this sign in a window on the plaza-fresh rubber chickens, $22 lb, and the woman’s restroom at the Second Street brewery. The lights were out in there, it was lit with candles. I know we are in the right place when they have a chocolate trail!