April 16 – 17, 2024

We left the Visitors Center and headed to Santa Fe, just a short distance away. We parked in the Old Town area in front of an Art Gallery. With a little time to spend, we went into the gallery and saw some exquisite pieces of art. The Segmented Wood bowl pictured below has the same pattern inside as outside.

Time to head to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. This is a huge collection of her works, and we enjoyed the outlay of the museum which started with her early days and showed the development of her work. It was such a delightful morning. The picture of the Bella Donna intrigued me – such a beautiful picture of such a deadly plant.

Time for lunch. An employee at the gallery suggested Tia Sophia’s and directed us to Burro Alley. It was a GREAT suggestion. Lunch was delicious.

We then went to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis. Beautiful inside and out.

A short distance down the street is the Loretto Chapel. We are told that when the church was built, there were no stairs to the choir loft, only a ladder, which was difficult for the nuns to climb. Many builders were consulted, but no one could come up with a way to build the stairs because of space constraints. The nuns prayed a novena to St. Joseph – the carpenter. On the 9th day, a stranger came and offered to build the staircase. Using only a few simple tools, he created a 20 foot spiral staircase (33 stairs) with no visible means of support. He disappeared when he was finished and never asked for payment.

A friend had recommended that we go in to see the La Fonda on the Plaza hotel which is on the site of the town’s first inn. The property is the oldest hotel corner in America. The southwest decor is beautiful.

Next stop was to find a place to stay for the night. We headed to Hyde Memorial State Park. We scored a free spot for the night as someone else had left before their reservation was complete. We were next to the camp host Ken – we spent a lot of time talking with him and his very friendly dog. Ken was helpful in offering suggestions as to why our generator wasn’t working.

The next day we left the park and saw a herd of deer on our way out. They didn’t even move as we drove by – obviously not bothered by people! We headed back to town, today to the Botanical Gardens. Obviously, the plants of the southwest are considerably different than what we have back east. We enjoyed learning about many of the plants out here – and appreciate them for their own beauty.

We then headed to the Capitol Building. The great thing about this building is that they have fabulous exhibits of art done by people in the state. Legislators were not in session, so we were able to roam about the building.

Not done yet today. Went to the San Miquel Mission – the oldest church in the US. Then we walked up the Cross of the Martyrs – which commemorates the deaths of 21 Catholic Clergy during the Pueblo Revolt. Along the way there were plaques that gave the history of the Santa Fe area. Then to the Santuario De Guadalupe Church. We couldn’t go inside as there was a long line to see the relic of St. Jude – which had been at our home church earlier this year.

And THEN…we went to the House of Eternal Return – Meow Wolf. How to explain this??? The advertising literature says that it is an immersive experience. That it is. It’s so strange, that I can hardly explain…you walk through this “house” that artists have created. There is actually a mystery that you can try to solve about the family that “lived” there, but we were too engrossed in what we were seeing. I’ll just show a few pictures.

That was all we could take in one day. Off to Buffalo Thunder Casino to spend the night in their parking lot.