We flew in Thursday night, me from Chicago (Oracle team meeting) and Ed from San Francisco (AT&T meeting) -- you can kind of see why we needed time together. Our trip started perfect as we both arrived into Albuquerque only 5 minutes apart. Ed found me first - what a nice surprise since I was actually expecting him to land about 1 hour after me. We got our luggage, picked up our rental car and headed off to Santa Fe.
After our hour long drive, we decided we were both really tired and simply wanted a nice dinner and to call it an early night. We found a great restaurant, ‘The Old House’ inside the Eldorado Hotel & Spa across the street from our hotel. We sat next to big roaring fire, drank nice wine and the food was just incredible. Great combinations of flavors and the beef tenderloin melted in your mouth.
Friday morning we both had to work some so we didn’t start ‘splorin’ until around 2 pm however, first we had to have lunch. We heard ‘The Shed’ was famous for their Mexican creative cooking and yep, that was true. Apparently New Mexico is well known for their chili peppers and put them in practically everything.
CHILI PEPPERS
After lunch we started our browsing tour through the Downtown Plaza in Santa Fe. One of the first things we came across was the Miracle Staircase found in the Loretto Chapel. This is a beautiful freestanding staircase rising in a double spiral to the choir loft. Each section is perfectly fitted in a groove--not a nail being used in its construction. There is no central pole, no wall attachment, and no sign of a nail or screw--just a few wooden pegs. It is thought that the unknown carpenter was none other than St. Joseph, in whose honor the Sisters had received Communion every Wednesday that he might assist them in building a staircase.
MIRACLE STAIRCASE
Next...the jewelry stores! Come to find out Santa Fe is rated #4 in the country with the most jewelry stores concentrated in one area. I’m not sure about 1. San Francisco, 2. New York, or 3. Charlotte, NC but I can tell you – every other store here was a jewelry store. This was actually a good thing because Ed and I had decided to look for wedding rings on this trip. In the first jewelry store we found an absolutely BEAUTIFUL ring. In fact, we weren’t sure if we really didn’t want THIS ring but gosh, the sales people were like Sales Vultures!!! I have never felt so pressured in all my life. I think they thought since we were from Dallas we had money to burn and they were there to help us spend it (later we learned that Dallasites are big shoppers there and if you tell them you’re from Dallas, you’re automatically put into the ‘rich’ category!) I was surprised they actually gave Ed a pretty good price on this ring but it almost seems a bit ‘gaudy’ to both of us. And…I might be afraid my finger would be taken off if someone decided they REALLY wanted it! Finally, we got out of that store alive and with all our money and decided to continue our ring-shopping excursion. Eventually we found a ring with a style that both Ed and I really liked but in the end, decided we would have our ring made for us. So, now to find a Jeweler...
WE LIKED THE RING ON THE LEFT...THE BIG ONE!
LARGEST TURQUOISE EVER FOUND - 437,000 KARATS
VALUED AT NEARLY $4 MILLION
It was now dark and getting colder so we decided to head off to the movies. We found a theater playing the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, and sat down for 2 hours of non-stop action-packed 007. Wow…we were worn out at the end of that! Time to head back to the hotel and call it a day.
Saturday…all play and no work today! We’re getting out of town to tour the country and what a FABULOUS day this turned out to be. We’re heading out to the Bandelier National Monument and again, we had no idea of what to expect…everything was surprise! Probably the best part of the day was during our drive when we spotted a blue sign that read ‘Lookout’. Wow…we had to find out what that meant so we followed it just like we were headed down the Yellow Brick Road. At first, we thought the sign was misleading but THEN…we came to the top of the world…or at least what appeared to be anyhow. We were on top of this mountain overlooking a majestic view of other mountains and valleys with waterfalls and the Rio Grand River running through it. I tried to take pictures to capture the beauty but I think I missed it. I don’t have the words or the pictures to describe the beauty, calmness or the peace we felt there. And in addition to that…Ed and I were there all by our selves. It was like we were on top of the world…just us!!! We were running around like kids playing on the rocks and taking pictures. It was SOO much fun.
SELF PORTRAIT AT THE 'LOOKOUT'
RIO GRANDE RIVER
ANOTHER SELF PORTRAIT AT THE 'LOOKOUT'
Ok..Now time to move on as the clock was ticking. We finally arrived at Bandelier National Monument. We paid our $12 per car fee and drove the 3 miles to the Visitor Center. We began our 1 ¼ mile tour of the Frijoles (free-HOH-lace) Canyon to see the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people that dates back more than 10,000 years. [Wow…this was totally cool! This took about an hour or so and we had the most incredible weather. We truly felt as if God’s hand was blessing each second of our trip because it was so perfect!]
BANDELIER NATIONAL PARK
ENTERING THE PARK
LISA CRAWLING INTO THE ANCIENT CAVE
ED TOUCHING THE TOP OF THE CAVE
IT'S BLACK BECAUSE OF THE FIRE SMOKE
BAT CAVE
After this, we quickly drove through the mountains AND the snow over to the Valley Grande where two massive volcanic eruptions more than 1 million years ago covered this area hundreds of feet deep with flows of tuff (compacted volcanic ash). The volcano then collapsed creating a caldera over 14 miles. The tuff was over 1000 feet deep in some places and airborne ash from the eruptions is found as far away as Iowa, Nebraska and Texas. By the way…this eruption was over 500 times greater than the 1980 Mt. St. Helen’s eruptions. Can you believe that?!?!
SNOW AT 8,600 FEET
CALDERA (ONCE THE VOLCANO)
BEAUTIFUL SUNSET LEAVING THE PARK
Now, at this point…we were starving. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast because we were too busy ‘splorin’. We decided to find and drive down Canyon Road, the very famous Art Gallery District with more galleries than one could ever imagine. The waiter from the ‘The Old House’ told us that we should try a restaurant called ‘Geronimo’ on this street. Good Golly Miss Molly, we found it and none to soon as I could eat a horse I was so hungry. Well, I didn’t actually eat a horse, how about an elk? As it turned out, Elk was their signature dish. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not much, NO, let’s face it, I’m not at all a ‘Game meat’ person but for some reason, the waiter described this dish with such passion and conviction, I had to try it. I was apprehensive since I was sooo hungry…buy hey, here goes nothing! Let me tell you IT WAS DELISH! I loved it!!! Once again, we’re sitting by a fire, drinking nice wine, eating decadent food and loving life. (See...I told you, every minute was perfect!).
Sunday morning we were up early as there were still things to see before we left. We wanted to drive around the Downtown Plaza to check out some of the other old buildings and churches. Plus Ed wanted to see the College of Santa Fe which is affiliated with the Christian Brothers University, the college Ed attended. We finished up by seeing everything we had mapped out and just in time to head back to Albuquerque to catch our flight home.
ED EATING ICE CREAM AT THE PLAZA BAKERY
I must say --- this was one perfect trip! You don’t get many of these in life and this was certainly one for the record books.
Thank you Father for such a wonderful time with Ed. We are truly appreciative of all that you do for us!
xoxo
Lisa
