REVISITING SANTA FE AUGUST 17TH, 2013 - PART 2

Continuing from my post yesterday, more from the Archives.  

There is a road in Santa Fe that has museums on either side, as well as the botanical garden I shared in a previous post.  You can see what there is if you click here.

It is 12.15 p.m. and we  have just left the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art.  Its history can be found here. After taking a few photos I suddenly thought I should have asked the lady at the front desk if it was okay.  Sadly no photos allowed inside but I understood perfectly.  I apologized and said I should have asked when I first came in.  She was very very gracious telling me that there was a sign but it was a small one and hard to notice. I could take photos outside however.   So, no photos of the inside but by following the links you can get a good idea of what it was like.  The artifacts collected were magnificent!

The last place I like to visit on my way out is the gift shop.  The lady behind the counter was talking to another customer about opera and they were discussing Susan Graham, the Mezzo-Soprano who was performing in The Grand Duchess of Garolstein in Santa Fe.  The gentleman she was speaking with told her that his son had a small singing role and they were visiting to see him perform.  Susan Graham was born in New Mexico but raised in Texas and I have seen her perform at our local movie theater when the New York Met have televised live. 

When the gentleman had left and I gave her my purchases, I told her how much I enjoyed those live performances and that started off another conversation as she told me that with the altitude, many of the opera singers who perform in Santa Fe have difficulty singing.  The opera house keeps oxygen back stage for the performers who are affected.  When I told Gregg this we thought this might explain why we have been feeling extra tired and a bit heady.  Santa Fe is 7,199 feet above sea level.  I think for some it takes a while getting used to.  We have been fine ever since.

From this museum we walked next door to the Museum of Indian Art and Culture.  Their link can be found here.

Again we weren't able to take photos inside but what we saw in the sculpture garden captured our attention.  From the nearby marker I read that the statue above is called "Songs of the Past by Allan Houser, Warm Springs Apache.  Bronze 1993.  From the private collection of TIA"

This one read "Kiva Priest by Robert Dale Tsosie, 2003 - Picuris/Navajo - Indiana Limestone - Purchase through Arnold and Doris Roland Purchase Fund."

The mother and child above is shown as "Transcendence, 2007 - Tami Garcia - Santa Clara Pueblo - Bronze - Edition of 12 - Loaned by Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico."

Another mother and child sculpture, "Doug Hyde (Nez Pierce/Assiniboin/Chippewa) - Shared Knowledge - 1986 - Bedford Indiana Limestone - Purchase through New Mexico Arts Division Art in Public Places Program."

This was my favorite statue.  It towered above our heads.  Gregg is standing in front of Apache Mountain Spirit Dancer by Craig Dan Goseyun - 1995 - San Carlos Apache - Bronze - Courtesy of Sam and Ethel Ballen.  I will be sharing more of this magnificent statue later.

Unfortunately I don't have any information about this one.  I usually take photos of markers but missed it somehow.  Also, I have seen photos of this statue on line when trying to find out what it was without success.  These photos don't do it justice.  When the sun hits it, it shines like gold.  It is stunning to see.

At the suggestion of the lady in the first museum we visited, we had lunch at their restaurant.  She explained it would be very difficult to find a place to eat in town that day.  We both had salads which were very good and shared a piece of blueberry custard pie.  Sorry, forgot to take those pictures.  After lunch we had a wonderful walk around.  The sculptures outside were very interesting.  Inside was just as fascinating.  

The photo of this cute little dog was taken in Santa Fe.  We had tried to get a room in town earlier but there is a famous yearly Indian Market going on that attracts thousands of people.  You can click here to see what it is all about.  We took a drive through downtown and it was busy, busy, busy but very interesting. We gave ourselves a great driving tour.  We were in so much traffic we were at a crawl and were able to take everything in.  We both agreed that we will enjoy coming back one day and stay for a few days.  Here are a few of the photos taken from the car.

I thought the above sign was worthy of sharing.  

This lovely sculpture of the burros is in an area called Burro Alley.  Early in the 19th century hard-working burros were brought into Santa Fe carrying the much needed wood for building and fire.  The donkeys were lined up in the alley and unloaded, hence the name, "Burro Alley".  

A restaurant on the top of this building caught our eye.  Hopefully one day we will be able to have a meal there while overlooking the town.

These beautiful children danced in traditional clothing.  Awesome to see and so young.  One looked little more than a four year old.  They are keeping their age-old traditions alive.

This website shows you more of the historical sites with photos in Santa Fe.

I was intrigued with the adobe buildings of the southwest.  You can read about them at this site.

I would have enjoyed taking some of these home with me.

And that was it for our trip to Santa Fe, and here we are on the road again heading to Albuquerque (New Mexico).

We drove on and reached our hotel at 3.48 p.m.  It was good to stop early that day.  We again slept like a couple of logs that night.

And that's the end of today's post on an old trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We are looking forward to going back one of these days.

  

REVISITING A TRIP TO SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO IN 2013

We have been looking through our old travel photos, and came across two posts of a trip to Santa Fe - the other I will share tomorrow.   Santa Fe is a place I look forward to seeing again when the world settles down.   One of my favorite areas to visit are the deserts.  I always feel drawn to them. Maybe I was a desert tortoise in a previous life!

It's fun to look back on our travel journals.  It puts us right back there.  This one reads:

7.23 a.m. August 17, 2013.   We are in the mountain time zone now.  Having stayed the night in Tucumcari, New Mexico, we are now heading to Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2146 miles into our journey.  A comfortable stay  in our hotel.  

We have 162 miles to Santa Fe.

At 7.55 a.m. we crossed the Guadalupe county line.  There are sunflowers growing wild on the roadside.  The scenery is now flat scrub land  with magnificent buttes in the distance.  It is a fresh morning, my kind of wake-up weather.  The traffic is light and flowing at 75 mph which is the speed allowed out here.  

We enjoy seeing all the trucks on the road and can now identify Peterbilt from Volvo from their grills in our rear view mirror.

We are driving next to a railway line and we have seen lots of very long trains on our journey.  One very large one had three engines in the front, another had two in the front and two in the back and so on.   All had more cars on them than I had ever seen before.  From what we could see it looked like they were carrying anything from livestock to coal and oil, to those big containers you see being loaded onto ships.

 8.19 a.m. and we are near Santa Rosa traveling through a safety corridor.  Fines are doubled and we must put lights on.  Gregg keeps the cruise control at the legal speed.  We have seen several people pulled over by the police and he remembers going through St. John's, New Mexico where he got a speeding ticket many years ago and before he met me.  When we were driving through St. John's together, I didn't think we were going very fast at the time, we were also pulled over for speeding.  Now that's been about 30 years ago but there is no third time lucky for the police officer in that town because we came via a different route and only saw signs pointing to St. John's.  And we are keeping the cruise control on all the time. 

2205  miles and at 8.22 a.m. we crossed the Pecos River.   We have a strong cell phone signal, woo-hoo!

Driving under several overpasses, we noticed that they have decorated them with beautiful engravings of Indian-style horses and pretty designs.  I missed the one of the horses but caught another that was less intricate.  

8.30 a.m. we passed the sign for San Ignacio.  I love the names out here.

One thing that has changed since our journey across country all those years ago, the amazing number of wind farms we have passed.

8.28 a.m.  Elementary Dear Watson, we have just seen a sign for the town of Moriarty!

9.12 a.m. Crossed the Santa Fe County  line.

10.09 we stopped for gas and a car wash on the outskirts of Santa Fe.  We had more red mud on our car from our trip to Palo Duro than I have ever seen.  It was great being able to drive down into the Canyon for the sights we saw, and driving over roads covered in water was an adventure.  One was deep which gave me pause for breath.  You can see why people own four-wheel drives.

We reached Santa Fe and the first place we headed for was the Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill. You can see it here.   

Oh my gosh, we had a great time walking around.....

and we were told by the two nice ladies at the entrance that it had only been open four weeks.  

We were also told many interesting things, one of them was how the garden was designed to save water.   Gregg is talking to one of these ladies.

I loved the look of this fountain, each side a seat for you to sit for a spell, and maybe doze off to the quiet sound of running water.

Almost immediately I spotted a hummingbird land on a branch of one of the new trees.  I don't know what kind it is.  A thrill all the same as I haven't seen one since the last time we were in California and that's been a few years ago.   

There were many small lizards running around....... 

and of course the flowers were gorgeous!  

The bees thought so too!

I will have more to share on the flowers in a later post.

We have been having fun with the new tripod that Debbie of It's All About Purple recommended.   It's working out great.  Thanks Debbie!

We loved everything about this place and I look forward to the time we can return.  Santa Fe is a great area, and I would recommend this lovely garden to anyone.  We also felt very fortunate to see it in its first month of opening and we look forward to going back when it is even more established.  

We were very lucky not only to stumble upon the garden but we realized that there were several museums nearby, and we went to two of them.  One was the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and the other was the Museum of Indian Art and Culture.  You can look here to see what other museums  you can visit.   If we had the energy we would have looked at them all but as the old saying goes, you have to leave something for next time. 

8-20-13 Part two will be shared as soon as I can.  When we reach the hotel each evening, Gregg and I sit down and we each look at our e-mails and check in to see how our son's day has gone, and other family members and friends.  That's something that has changed with the invention of cell phones and laptops that you can carry easily along with you.  

We were in the Grand Canyon overlooking those gorgeous views and our son called.  We had a nice conversation, interrupted twice because of a weak signal, chatted again for a while and then completely lost that said signal for the rest of our drive out of the canyon.  Gregg also chats to his Dad almost every day, when cell phone signal allows.  Lovely to be so connected because of this wonderful modern technology.

We've been lucky at all the places we have stayed in but it has been sometimes tricky to get a signal to call ahead for a hotel, and we look for cell phone towers or wait for the next community to show up.  

One thing that has changed on this journey that we never did before, is to call ahead for a room.  Of course we didn't have cell phones back then, and the way we travel we might change direction on a whim, so there are days we may not be heading in the direction we first thought.  

Yesterday we found a road we were planning to take that had a detour lasting for miles and miles.  It took us on a road we have never traveled and it was fun seeing something new.  On many of the other roads the fun was in remembering the last time, which in some cases was over 30 years ago.  There are lots of wide open spaces around here.  It truly is glorious scenery, each state offering its own beauty, and so we keep on traveling because this morning we head for Zion National Park.

Sending love and hugs to all family and friends, which of course include all you blogging friends out there. 

And that was the end of that part of my journal.

RANDOM PHOTOS - SOUTHWEST SCULPTURE IN SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

Two versions of the same photo.  The one below I added the frame when I was doodling on my Paint Shop Pro program on Sunday afternoon.  Gregg was watching a baseball game and I was playing on the computer.  

This is a beautiful sculpture I saw on our road trip last May.  We were in Santa Fe at The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.  It was created by Doug Hyde, cast in bronze and is entitled "People of the Red-Tailed Hawk“.  You can read about it on this page.  If you scroll down you will see its photo and also learn more of the man who created it.

One of the many reasons I love the southwest is that I come across these sculptures, and saw many in Santa Fe especially.  I find myself studying every detail.