Off to the Southwest

This and the next couple of subsequent posts will be from things that happened in January. Cade spent more time away for law school in January, this time in Santa Fe. Luckily, this trip was much shorter, 3 weeks instead of 10 last summer, and I got to take advantage of his travel by visiting and exploring with him. Since this was a shorter stay for him and I was back here still working and preparing for the spring semester, I came out for a brief weekend visit. Since there was the holiday on January 18th, I was able to take the prior Friday and following Tuesday off to extend the visit for a long weekend. While it was a quick visit, we were able to fit in more than I thought possible in three days. Let’s start with the first night and full day of the trip.

I was able to fly out around noon on Friday and made it to Santa Fe that evening. It was a decently long day with one layover and a shuttle ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, but with the two hours difference, we still had some time that evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side note: This was the first big trip where I got to use the new camera my parents got us for Christmas. It was so nice to capture amazing photos of our adventures!

Once I dropped my stuff off at Cade’s casita and chill for a little bit, we headed for our first dinner out. Cade had gotten lots of recommendations for a place called The Shed and was told that we had to get a margarita. So, we did just that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The food (as a later learned, pretty much all New Mexican food) was a big spicy for me, but it was good nonetheless, and the margarita was delicious!

We also walked around the plaza a bit to see all the lights and headed back to relax with a fire and rest up for our jammed packed weekend to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we allowed ourselves to sleep in just a bit and started by picking up our rental car that would be our ride for the next few days. After dropping it off at the casita, we headed downtown to explore Santa Fe. We started by checking out some of the must sees, including

• The merchants at the Palace of the Governors;
• the San Miguel Mission, which is the oldest church in the United States;
• the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi;
• the Loretto Chapel, which has a famous staircase;
• the Scottish Rite Temple, which was designed after the Alhambra in Granada, Spain;
• Canyon Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also took a hike up to the best location for seeing the city and landscape, Fort Marcy and the Cross of the Martyrs. It was so pretty up there, and we definitely got our exercise for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our hike, we stopped for lunch at the Santa Fe Bite, another excellent recommendation from Cade’s coworkers. And, of course, with all that hiking we deserved some beer. Cade also got a green chile burger, which is one of the Santa Fe staples. He had had one prior to my visit, but this gave me a chance to try it. While it was, again, spicy (just a little this time, though), I’d highly recommend trying one if you’re in the area. It was delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right before dusk, we headed over to Canyon Road to look at some local artwork and got some amazing views of the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the plaza again on our way home and got to see all the little farolitos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To finish out our day, we made another fire to help with winding down and got ready for our next day of adventures that would take us out of the city.