Santa Fe

My friend ADiver, whom I met in kindergarten, invited me to meet her here in November. I want to!

I will be in Santa Fe next weekend!

Can anyone recommend a good restaurant for vegetarian food?

I don’t care if they also serve meat – I just want delicious (preferably regional) options.

I will be in town Thursday – Sunday.

Pink skies, adobe, good eats, deserts, lightning, natural beauty.

NM road trip with Greg…

I was here at college for eight months. Unfortunately, I didn’t really like living here – but I loved the times when I had visitors and could just go out on the plaza and pretend I was a tourist. The shopping is awesome, great (though busy) atmosphere on the square, wonderful weather between April and October. The scenery is nice, too. The so-called miraculous staircase (pictured) wasn’t all that impressive, but the church it’s in is beautiful.

If you’re looking for a nice, affordable place to stay, I recommend the Santa Fe Motel & Inn; if you’ve got money to burn, try Hotel Santa Fe or La Fonda Inn (right on the plaza!). Or if you’re feeling really lucky, go for the Inn on the Alameda. Unfortunately though, you won’t find a large hotel room for under $200/night in any of these. For eating, Pasqual’s (on the plaza) is terrific but busy; Rooftop Pizzeria (also on the plaza – upstairs in one of the mall things) is very affordable for the great atmosphere and food. Blue Corn Cafe and both of the “NYC” delis (New York Deli/Brooklyn Deli) are good for everyday eating, and Osaka is a great Japanese steakhouse, but all of those are way down Cerrillos, a good ways away from the plaza.

Drove to Bandalier National Monument. Though speechlessness would have been a more appropriate reaction to the views, we managed to talk, during the drive and the explorations of the cliff-dwellings. Lunch in Los Alamos, while en route to San Ildefonso Pueblo. Another gorgeous drive to Chimayo. Then back to our Santa Fe adobe to rest up for our picnic dinner on the grounds of The Santa Fe Opera, followed by a performance of Tan Dun’s Tea: A Mirror of the Soul.

Returned to Museum Hill, visited the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art and the Museum Of Indian Arts & Culture. Sought out 3 establishments that New Mexico Poet Laureate recommended to Poet Nephew during their networking confab at the print shop at the Palace of the Governors: Garcia Street Books, Downtown Subscription, (a newsstand and coffee bar, where we had lunch), and Photo-Eye Gallery. Went downtown to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Bought hemp yarn at Santa Fe Hemp for some future weaving project. Cursory search for the La Fonda window through which a cougar leapt last night, after marauding the streets of downtown!

Started the day with the sad discovery that Stonefridge no longer exists. Then, a day trip to Madrid and the Petroglyph National Monument. (Details at those pages.) Dinner at The Ore House.

Reunion (after about 35 years) with a second cousin and his family at the Museum Of International Folk Art, lunch at the Mission Hill Cafe, a chatty tracing of the labyrinth just across the plaza. A turn through the campus of St. John's College. Dinner at Coyote Cafe.

Window- and sidewalk-shopping downtown at The Plaza. Harumphing through St. Francis Cathedral. A Jorge Luis Borges purchase at Collected Works Bookstore. Lunch at Café Pasqual's. Strolling through Palace Of The Governors (with a moment of special convergence at the Print Shop) and the New Mexico Museum Of Art. Dinner at La Casa Sena.