Santa Fe

Early in the morning on August 16, I kissed the kids good bye, wished Bryan the best and abandoned ship for a long weekend in Santa Fe New Mexico with my mom.  A few years ago my parents were in Santa Fe and learned of an annual Indian market that they had just missed.  My mom always hoped to go back for it, but it wasn't exactly high on my dad's list of potential vacation destinations.  It was decided that I would be a much better companion for jewelry shopping, art gazing and jewelry shopping than my dad anyway, so my mom invited me to join her.  Of course I accepted. 

After a seemingly endless travel day, and a few scenes straight out of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", we finally arrived in Santa Fe at about 4pm.  We checked into our room and immediately made our way to the bar for a snack, and in my case a beer.  That's when it hit me: I was responsible for only myself for the whole weekend.  And, it felt great.  I could eat when I wanted, sleep when I wanted, rest when I wanted and shop without having to rush.

The first night we didn't do much except take in our surroundings.  Here is the beautiful church at the end of the street where we stayed.

 Friday morning we were off to an early start, although I woke up on my own without a child crying for me.  We headed about and hour north to Taos to visit the Pueblo...which was closed...until 12:30pm.  Good thing we got going early.  Oh well, we shopped in Taos and had lunch before returning to the Pueblo after 1.  The Taos Pueblo is the oldest continuously inhabited pueblo in the country.  It was amazing.  We shopped (shocking), talked with some of the inhabitants and toured the pueblo.

 We were only 12 miles from the Rio Grande Gorge bridge, so we figured, 'why not?'.  I'm glad we did, it was breath taking and I just kept taking pictures.  None of them captured the scale of the gorge.  And then, a semi went across the bridge and we could feel the whole thing bouncing.  We made a pretty speedy exit after that.

 Mom and I got a little adventurous on our way back to Santa Fe, taking the 'High Road to Taos'.  Even if you are going from Taos to Santa Fe the signs all read 'High Road to Taos', strange...  Anyway, it was a highway through the mountains and a lot of fun...although we were pretty excited to see the interstate at the end of it. 
Here we are at a scenic overlook.  I'm pretty sure Mom was going to leave me.

The 'High Road to Taos' takes about twice as long as the low road and it's pretty desolate (although we passed four post offices) so we were thrilled to see this, even if the bullet holes were a little unnerving.

 The next day, Saturday, was our first taste of the Indian market and our shopping day.  There are no pictures.  There wasn't time.  The streets were lined with white tents, boothes, and the middle was packed with people.  Jewelry, Indian jewelry, was the most commonly sold item, but there were people selling arts of all kinds: pottery, paintings, bead work, stone and wood carvings, even a guy making turkey calls (we bought two).  The list goes on and on.  Because there were about a million people and only ten restaurants we decided to make a reservation.  All they had available was 5:15 (blah).  But, by 5pm we were worn out and ready for dinner and bed.  Ha!  This is pretty much the only picture from that day, and the only picture of me so I felt obliged to include it.

 During the market there were lots of dances and programs to give visitors a taste of the culture.  We saw these little guys on Sunday and they pretty much stole the show.  There were four or five other dancers with them, a drummer and a singer, but no one could take there eyes from he little guy in the back.  He danced his steps and shook his rattles at all of the right times, mostly because he kept peeking around the girl in front of him to watch the young man that was leading the dance. 

Santa Fe and the Indian market was unexplainable.  I bought some jewelry, gifts for the kids, and a handmade silver money clip for Bryan, but I took home much more than that.  It was a wonderful trip and I hope to do it again.  Maybe next time Lilly will come...or maybe not.  Thanks again, Mom, for a wonderful weekend.
I know what you are thinking....what about Bryan and the kids?  How did they do all on their own for five days?  Bryan's mom and Aunt Peg we kind enough to visit that very weekend and help out with the kids.  I'm pretty sure that he would have been OK, but a little back up never hurt anyone.  Thanks ladies for making my vacation guilt and worry free!