Santa Fe

First off, Santa Fe is amazingly, unbelievably beautiful!  Everywhere you turn, there is something gorgeous to see.  We started off our day with a really great free hotel continental breakfast and began our exploration of Santa Fe!

Around 11 we headed over to Canyon Road, one of the most famous areas of Santa Fe.  It is a road about a mile long with over 150 art galleries with countless paintings, sculptures, and other works of art.  It was really neat to walk through a bunch of the galleries, because each artist has such a different style of artwork.  There were so many creative things to see, it was really great.  The whole time John and I were wishing we were more creative!

 Beautiful Chime Garden

With all our artwork browsing, we worked up quite an appetite and had lunch at a place called The Shed.  John and I had some amazing authentic New Mexican enchiladas and I had one of the best mango margaritas I’ve ever had!  It was a really great lunch in a really fun part of town, so after lunch John and I walked around for a bit. 

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was one of the first places we stopped, and it was gorgeous inside and out.  Nearby was The Loretto Chapel, a church that has a mysterious, miraculous spiral staircase.  Apparently, no one can figure out how the stairs were built, because they are twenty feet tall, makes over two complete 360-degree turns, and has no center support.  All thirty-three steps are the same height, and it was somehow constructed without any glue or nails.  It is held together with only square wooden pegs and its weight is balanced on its base and against the choir loft.  It was originally built without a handrail.  It was really neat to see! 

  

 

  

Aside from the churches, we enjoyed walking around The Santa Fe Plaza and browsing all of the local shops and art stands.  It was another gorgeous, sunny day and we had a great time exploring the town!

We followed up our “downtown” experience by taking a drive to Hyde Memorial State Park.  It was unbelievable!  It took us about 45 minutes to drive up the giant mountain, and by the time we reached the top, we were at 10,300 feet elevation!  The views from atop the mountain were stunning!  John and I stopped at every lookout point and absorbed the beauty that surrounded us.  It was truly spectacular. 

We decided to try and catch another Santa Fe sunset tonight, and although not as impressive as last night, it was still stunning!  We watched until the sky was completely dark.  We just finished some great brick oven pizza and are relaxing with some wine before going to bed!  It was another successful day of the road trip!