Santa Fe (Feb 2017) . . . Read this One for Sure!

The older I get, the less I want "stuff".  So for this last Christmas, Scott promised to not buy me any presents - and he didn't (for those of you that know him - that was a really hard for him, cause he loves buying & giving presents). Instead, we had an experience, made some memories & visited somewhere neither of us had been before . . Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Not to bore you with historical & interesting details - but there's some pretty cool stuff I didn't know about Santa Fe.

1. It's the oldest state capitol city in the US - yes, really!  Of course, you have to count the years that it was inhabited before New Mexico became a state . . but whatever.
2. It has a cool, old, city plaza that has buildings dating back to the 1600s.  Of course, they know cater to the rich with tons of jewelry & clothing stores, as well as more art galleries that I could begin to count.
3. They LOVE (and I mean LOVE) the chile . . red, green, yellow, a mixture - they don't care.  They put them in, on, next to, over, stuffed into & underneath EVERY type of food they eat.  If you go - bring along a heavy stash of TUMS, Rolaids, Alka-Seltzer to cut the heart burn.  Or do what I did and eat a LOT of ice cream!
4. They are at the heart of Pueblo Indian territory . . and that's where we spent most of our time.

We visited Taos in an attempt to see the Taos Pueblo.  Unfortunately, one of the elders had died that day (so we were told) and they had an unscheduled closely.  Taos was not what I expected AT ALL.  It must be more quaint in the winter with snow . . in February, it just looked old & dirty.  Oh that's right - February IS winter.  None the less, their snow had come & gone about a week earlier and I was still unimpressed.

We did see a herd of mountain sheep on our drive along the river (suggested by a local guy we met that morning at breakfast - where we were eating red chile pork stew & tortillas - who said we had to get off the highway and hit the dirt road along the river - A REALLY GREAT suggestion by the way!)  . . AND a really cool suspension bridge that's like 600 feet above the Rio Grande River Gorge (again, we were told we had to go there - but found out that it's a huge site for suicide jumpers - there's actually call boxes along the bridge that are direct lines to the suicide hotline - kind of sad, but there's also graffiti messages all over the boxes telling people they're loved & have value in the world . . kind of nice if you think about it).

So the next day, we go to Bandelier Museum.  This place is really awesome if you're in to seeing how the Pueblo Indians lived - and we were.  After climbing from the "floor" of Santa Fe, way up in to the mountains (covered with snow - so you know we had to be much higher than Taos), we drove about 2 miles DOWN into this huge valley, ravine, cavern - I don't know technically what they called it!  There we find the ruins of an entire city - yes, city . . partially on the valley floor and the other built into the hillside (these were we told, made up kind of a "high rent" district of the time!).  Amazing to see & crawl around them.  The picture of Scott & me below was taken at the top of cliff - it was the ceremonial site and we had to climb up FOUR ladders (and back down again) to get there.  This was a bit gnarly for a little chicken shit like me - but I did it and was pretty proud of myself!  

We also got saw a small herd of deer (about 7) that were NOT afraid of us humans at all.  The buck was just laying down by the tree watching "his herd".  We saw them twice while we were in the park.  We walked a path of about 2 1/2 miles and they had moved about an 1/8 of a mile in the same time frame.  Oh well, we all have our own priorities!!

So of course, the rest of the trip was spent looking for the best places to eat (we actually did some other touristy things - but honestly, food is always MY priority)!!  If you go - there are three places I highly recommend: 

1. BEST BREAKFAST - Plaza Cafe  . . chilaquiles (Mom & Amy know I'm kind of a crazy woman for chilaquiles), pork carnitas covered in green chile & blue corn pancakes with pine nuts were all outstanding.  YES - we ate all of these in ONE MEAL (no judgment please!)  **Sue - they don't make a bad fish taco for dinner either - yes, even deep in the desert, you can get some pretty tasty fish tacos!
2. BEST BREAKFAST #2 - Sage Bakehouse.  The reality is I really can't rate one of these restaurants over the other - cause they were both EXCELLENT - just different.  Sage is like a great, French bakery.  The breakfast tatines (kind of sandwiches, even though it translates to toast) were outstanding on fresh baked bread with eggs & serrano ham & avocado & cheese . . accompanied by house made pickles & really good olives.  They're lattes - both coffee & chai tea - were served in big cups with saucers and were yummy!  We had to get a big, old crown thing - that was like the BEST bear claw I have ever had - and a yummy, almond croissant to go - cause I never could pass up an almond croissant!  Of course, we needed some picnic supplies, so a loaf of bread to go was our last purchase!  Scott loved it so much (and it was like a 2 minute walk from where we were staying) that he went the next morning while I slept in.  Of course, he brought me an almond croissant for the road!
3. BEST DINNER in all of NEW MEXICO - La Boca!  Yes, a Spanish tapas place that was hands down the BEST tapas I've ever eaten (of course, I've never been to Spain).  We loved it so much - we went back 2 nights later - cause we couldn't stop thinking about it.  Even though the dishes & drinks we had the first night were all wonderful, we MADE ourselves order all different dishes - and they were ALL FANTASTIC!  The wait staff, the bartender (who entertained us because there were only seats at the bar) and the flight of 3 sherries with the most fantastic chocolate-almond-fig cake I may have ever tasted (and must duplicate) rounded out a great close to a second, magnificent dinner. . delicioso!!!  **What's the word in Spanish, Amy??

Scott picked up the crud the last night we were there - but persevered though another Pueblo Monument & the drive back to Santa Fe on Sunday - only to arrive to a flight that was delayed by 3 hours.  I have to say - he held up well - but as usual when traveling with Scott - something happens!  That kind of stuff just follows him - makes for interesting travel stories (at least after the fact).

All in all - a great Christmas "present-experience" - that I only wish would have included my parents (since we'd all talked about going together for years).  Oh well - there's always another time!