This morning, we awoke around 6:45 am to embark on our one full day devoted to sites in and around Santa Fe. After grabbing some complimentary breakfast to go, my parents, Justin and I headed up to the Santa Fe Ski Basin.
The really cool thing about the drive to this summit is that within about 5 minutes of leaving town, you are met with the complete package of mountainous terrain, aspen and pine-laden forests and plenty of S curves and hairpin turns along the road. We made a few stops on the way up to the ski area. The first one was a viewpoint looking down on Santa Fe and several other peaks in the distance. There was one particular peak that we vouched was at least 80 miles from where we were standing.
The next spot we stopped was purely to get a closer look at some of the aspen groves that are so prolific in this area. We hiked a random trail until we lost the sound of the main road (probably not quite 1/4 of a mile), and Justin took some early morning pictures of the trees with the bright, clear blue sky in the background.
Once we got to the Ski Basin, we basically just looped around the road and proceeded with our descent back into Santa Fe. We made one more brief stop-off at another vista. However, it didn't prove to be as interesting or scenic as our earlier stops.
When we reached downtown Santa Fe, we parked in a lot and headed to some of the popular tourist spots. First, we went to the Loretto Chapel with the famous floating spiral staircase. The chapel was quite small, but very impactful. It was probably one of the prettiest churches I've been to in quite some time...not that we step into churches very often. I'm very excited to see some of Justin's photos that he took at this location...they should be quite beautiful.
Next, we headed back to the plaza, where we had spent some time the previous evening. Of course during the day, there's a whole lot more hustle and bustle since all of the shops are open, including many street vendors. Across the street from the plaza was the Palace of the Governors where Native Americans had all of their handmade wares laid out on blankets. I saw some really cool copper bracelets, but I just didn't have the energy to wheel and deal on this particular day.
We continued on our way and went into a few shops as we made our way to our lunch spot called La Casa Sena. One of the stores I stopped in was called Todos Santos Chocolates and Confections. I picked up a half dozen truffles of varying flavors such as dark chocolate with cardamom center, white chocolate with rose hips, chocolate infused with black pepper, etc. So far, each one has been quite enjoyable. I'm sure we'll knock off what we didn't finish today by some point tomorrow.
So, by 11:30 am we were seated at our table in the courtyard of La Casa Sena. My mom and I treated ourselves to a glass of white wine with our lunch and we each order a different trout dish - hers was Ruby trout, mine was Rainbow trout. Both were very good, but a bit hefty of a meal for lunch. Justin and dad had varying burgers - dad's was organic beef and Justin's was antelope. I tried Justin's burger and it was actually very good. It wasn't gamy at all and was extremely lean and tender. One other highlight of the meal was the complimentary blue corn muffins, which were quite similar to a corn bread.
After lunch, we walked about a block to the St. Francis Basilica. It was much bigger than the other chapel and had some fantastic stained glass windows that were catching the midday sunlight beautifully. But, I definitely prefer the Loretto chapel over the Basilica any day. The thing about St. Francis that I probably got the biggest kick out of was that Stravinsky conducted about 3 concerts there in the 50's...and they were public, free concerts as well!
From the church, we walked about 5 more blocks to Canyon Rd., the art gallery hub of the city. The next couple of hours were spent trying to beat the afternoon heat, while dodging in and out of mostly unaffordable galleries. The one disappointment that I had was that we didn't really find one gallery that featured blown glass pieces, which I love. We did, however, come across a really cool gallery that featured aluminum, copper and stainless steel canvases that were painted with various scenes. The gallery was called Mark White Fine Art. Most of the pieces were 3-4 thousand dollars, but they of course, can work out interest-free payment plans to obtain the art. When we get home, we are definitely going to research the gallery some more and consider purchasing a piece.
Also, while we were walking along Canyon Rd., we made Justin take pictures of cool doors along the way - doors in turquoise and red and various degrees of distress. It's silly, maybe, but they could turn out to be some really cool pieces that can be combined into a set if we decide to print and frame them.
Finally around 3 pm, we had had enough and decided to head back to the hotel for a nap. I crashed for a good hour or so before it was time to get ready for our dinner reservation at Luminaria. By about 6:10 pm, we arrived at the restaurant and were seated in their outside courtyard. As early as we ate, it actually turned out to be quite beneficial because we didn't have to deal with the dinner rush and crowds. It got crowded by the time we were finishing our meals.
So, what did we eat? First, they brought out a light pastry-wrapped beef wellington appetizer. Then, we each had a bowl of the restaurant's award-winning tortilla soup that they kept bragging about. It was very good, but I just love my good old McAlister's tortilla soup. For dinner, I had herbed pork tenderloin with a goat cheese polenta; Justin had beef tenderloin with a wild mushroom torte; mom had chile rubbed shrimp with pasta; and dad had chicken with mushroom, asparagus and truffle mashed potatoes. I think we all enjoyed our main courses, but the soup was so rich, none of us were able to finish our plates but Justin. Where there's a will, there's a way, right? For dessert (which was included with my parents' meal), they had a champagne soup with sorbet and fresh strawberries.
Following dinner, we went to another restaurant and piano bar a short drive away called Vanessie. The pianist on duty was named Charles, and he weaved his way through familiar broadway tunes, classical music, country and rock. After getting our drinks and getting settled, Justin and I got up and sang All I Ask of You from Phantom. Then, a short time later Justin sang Besame Mucho, and I sang Over the Rainbow. Justin, of course, really hammed it up with the ladies and actually serenaded one of the board members of the Santa Fe Opera.
Anyway, the experience was a lot of fun and was a nice nightcap to our evening as well as a great way to wrap-up our time in Santa Fe before we leave tomorrow. Next time we are in town, we'll probably visit Vanessie again.
We got back to the hotel about 10pm and proceeded to re-pack for our journey tomorrow to a landmark in Utah. More to come then!
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