Santa Fe Highlights - Day 1

It was a whirlwind trip to Santa Fe that left me recharged, reinspired, and ready to dive back into my life.


I drove from Phoenix to Santa Fe with a stop in Albuquerque for dinner at the Duran Central Pharmacy lunch counter. They are famous for their chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce. It was very good. There were two bug-a-boos on that first day. My camera battery died just outside of Phoenix, which meant I couldn't take any more picture en route. (I had the charger in my luggage and remedied the situation that night.) Second, my air conditioner stopped working just outside Albuquerque. The entire day I chased thunderstorms, so the temperature ranged from about 68 to 98 depending on the storms around me. I had the air off and on throughout the day. I rode the rest of the evening in the humid heat without any relief. It still wasn't as bad as driving any summer day in Phoenix without air, so I am not complaining. I got myself checked at the hotel and located the local Toyota dealership for a visit the next morning.


The first day started early with a trip to the Toyota dealership. I didn't have an appointment, but the service adviser was great and someone assessed my problem right away. It was an easy fix, and I was off sightseeing within an hour. (By the way, the Frommer's guide didn't mention the service waiting room but it was quite comfortable!)


The Plaza was only about 2 miles from the Toyota dealer, so I was there quickly. I found the public parking lot on Water street, and hit a few shops as I walked around the block to the Plaza. I arrived just before a tour started, so I impulsively decided to join the tour.


The tour covered the visitor highlights of town and we spent considerable time on Canyon Road viewing the galleries (at a distance) and seeing public sculptures. We also learned some of the history, got recommendations for restaurants and shops, and saw a great deal of the town's charm. I sat on the outside and snapped pictures as we drove. They didn't all turn out, as you might imagine, but I did capture a lot of the highlights this way.


After the tour, I grabbed lunch from a street vendor on the Plaza and copped a squat under the trees and did some serious people watching while I ate. After lunch, I sat with my travel journal, my GPS, and my web-enabled cell phone to plot out which shops I had to visit. I used my cell phone to post pictures on Flickr and messages about my activities on Twitter so my friends and family could follow my adventure. I must say, I felt like a total geek using all of that technology sitting on a grassy plaza in front of the oldest building in the United States.


The afternoon went by quickly. I found a great stamp store and not only had a great conversation there, but bought two fab stamps. I visited about 20 shops in a very short time and by the end of the afternoon, I was ready for a great dinner. I selected The Shed because it was highly recommended and was in walking distance.


I spent the rest of the daylight exploring Canyon Road on my own. Most of the galleries were closed, but since I was only looking, that didn't bother me. The buildings and landscaping were inspiring on their own, and I took many pictures of doorways and courtyards without seeing any of the art inside.


Don't miss the rest of my journey on day 2, day 3 and day 4.

Santa Fe Highlights - Day 2

The second day, my goal was to visit Bandelier National Monument and the science museums of Los Alamos. They are about 40 miles north of Santa Fe, but because of the rolling hills and winding roads, it's about an hour drive.


I love Bandelier. It is my favorite of the national parks and monuments. My goal was to visit Alcove House, a ceremonial cave 140 feet up the side of a cliff. In the cave is a kiva, an underground ceremony chamber. I've been there before, and the place is magical. The day was hot, about 88 and humid. Between the weather, the hot sun, and being at 6,000 feet, the walk was more tiring than I expected. I shorten my visit by excluding the walk through the cliff dwellings and went straight for the climb.


This section of the park has some shady areas with Ponderosa pines, but is mostly open spaces next to the cliff. This is typical of the scenery along the path. Eventually, I reached the base of the cliff and braced for the climb ahead of me. This is the first of three ladders and a series of steep steps to the top. (This is the shortest ladder, also.)


The climb was hard, and at one point, I asked myself if my plan was smart. But I was determined, and I felt tired but not overly strained, so I kept climbing up and up and up. When I reached the top, I admit that I flopped down in the shade on my back to rest for about 15 minutes. It was cool, and there was a great breeze. When I arrived, there were a few other people up there, but they soon left and I had the space to myself. I only wished I could have taken better advantage of the silence because it didn't last.


For the next 45 minutes or so, the place filled up with people. At one point, there were more than 30 people in the very small space. I ended up taking lots of group pictures for people, which I always enjoy. The most amazing sight of the day was a young man who emerged from the top of the last ladder wearing clubbing clothes: a print shirt, a black tie, tight black jeans, and black dress boots. He was my hero! He not only made the climb, but he did it in style. After resting for a bit, I realized that I should be leaving while I was feeling strong again instead of waiting for the crowd to thin out. The climb down was much easier than up because gravity was on my side. It's a bit scarier to step backwards onto a ladder, but I was up for that challenge, too.


By the time I reached terra firma again, I was nearly out of water and the rubber bands I call my legs were grateful that the walk back was downhill. I stopped to rest a few times in the shade, feeling a sunburn starting on my face and shoulders. When I reached the edge of the picnic grounds, I stopped at the well and drank a lot of water. I also soaked my head in the cold water to cool off. I was a sight, I'm sure, but I was so glad I made the trip and proud that I had made it.


The day was slipping away from me, so I edited my itinerary and had to leave out the trip to the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. I didn't want to miss The Black Hole, a surplus shop filled with items from Los Alamos National Labs, including items from the Manhattan Project and other top secret projects conducted at that facility. Fortunately, a storm was rolling in and I could avoid any further sunburn. Armed with my GPS and travel journal, I found my way to the shop even through road construction in town.


The shop did not disappoint me. Inside, I found the most amazing collection of useful and useless electronic and other waste I could imagine. Used motherboards, capacitors, transistor, relays, typewriters, pressure gauges, door hinges, broken office equipment, power cords -- aisle after aisle of more crap than you can imagine. If you don't believe me, here is one view I encountered.


I bought a few items I plan to use in my art. I grabbed a quick sandwich at a local grocery store deli and ate it in a city park outside the town's library. Then, I headed back to Santa Fe, dodging more thunderstorms through the amazing desert scenery.


Don't miss the rest of my journey on day 3 and day 4.

Santa Fe Highlights - Day 3

The big event for the third and final day was the Tesuque Pueblo Flea Market. This is unlike any flea market you have ever visited. The vendors bring goods from all over the world. There is no junk here, no resale/garage sale merchandise.


From this inauspicious entrance lies one of the five best flea markets in the world. There is no entrance fee, and no cameras are allowed, so I don't have pictures of the inside. I do have pictures of the many treasures I picked up.


Clockwise, starting from the left: a hand carved angel, a collage, two cards with additional collage images, a blue and purple fabric pouch from Guatemala (my new camera bag), a piece of religious folk art from Ethiopia, the stamp (from the Santa Fe stamp store and not the flea market), fabric stamp from India, shivalingam stone from Laos, tin assemblage (Love is the Key), a fabric pouch from Guatemala, a blue glass door knob. They are all resting on a piece of kuba cloth. I bought a few other things, but these are the highlights.

I spent time talking with several vendors, including a man from Syria selling rugs who talked to me about Islam, a vendor selling wall embroidery panels from Peru, a woman selling textiles from Guatemala, a man from South Africa selling kuba cloth and sculptures, a man from Ethiopia selling religious folk art, a man from Gilbert, Arizona selling rocks (a weakness of mine), and lots of southwestern jewelry vendors.

I spent much more time at the market than I planned, so I had to eliminate the road trip to Taos I had planned for the afternoon. Instead, I returned to the Plaza to hit a few more shops and find a delicious dinner.


I was walking past the Inn of the Anasazi and noticed their outdoor patio was adorable. I figured it was expensive (it was) but decided to eat there anyway. I had a luxurious time sitting there in the late afternoon, enjoying the best chicken quesidilla ever with a spicy mango margarita.

When I was ready to leave, something really amazing unfolded. I was waiting for my check when a woman was seated at the next table. She had wanted a table in the shade, but the only ones left were in the sun. My table was in the shade, so I spoke to her and invited her to join me at my table because I was leaving. She accepted. In the few minutes between her joining me and my check arriving, we discovered that we do the same kind of work in two different cities. The coincidences only got better from there. I ended up spending the rest of the evening with my new friend, Marlowe. She went with me to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum and then we sat in a Starbucks until they kicked us out, gabbing the whole time.

I ended my evening by packing for my return trip and scheduling a few stops for the drive home.

Don't miss the rest of my journey on day 4.

Santa Fe Highlights - Day 4 (Wrapup)

The last day of my vacation was the drive home to Phoenix. I had planned to get an early start so I could arrive in Albuquerque at a shop called Papers! when they opened at 9 am. However, things didn't go exactly as planned and I got a later start.

The drive to Albuquerque takes about an hour. I stopped to refill the gas tank and my cooler (filled with healthy snacks for the road) and then arrived at the shop at 10:25. Imagine my total surprise when the shop was closed, and the sign said that they open at 10:30 on Saturday! Talk about great timing.

The shop is very nice. They have the large sheets of paper like The Paper Studio, and lots of paper related items like postcards, notecards, and other items that appear to younger shoppers. (They are located next to the University of New Mexico.) I was the first person in the shop, but within minutes, it was FULL.


The trip home was uneventful. I didn't stop along the way to take pictures, even though I had wanted to get some in Holbook. It just seemed like a good idea to get home at that point. The drive is really lovely, as you can see from these pictures snapped while driving. I've mastered the art of pointing the camera and shooting through the windshield without framing the shot. Some turn out good, others, not so good, but it's the best I can do while traveling alone.



The travel journal worked out so much better than I even expected. I love the new forms I created. At the start of each trip segment, I pulled out the forms for the places I wanted to visit and placed them in the clipboard on the front. That way, they were ready for me to glance through as I was deciding my itinerary on the go. It also made it super easy to fill in the forms for the places I visited. I was seen in more than one restaurant and other locations filling in the forms on my travel journal. It made deciding where to go a lot of fun, and gives me a record of things I definitely want to do again (and those that I will skip). Each night, I would re-read the completed forms, and I must admit, I had already forgotten some of the details I recorded in the moment. Maybe it's my age, or maybe it's just a good idea to take notes as I go. My next trip will be much better because of these forms.

The journal took a lot of use and abuse, and held up very well. I did find that the front cover needs to be reglued (the side at the honeycomb). Otherwise, it survived the trip without incident.

I took over 450 pictures with my new camera, and about 50 pictures with my cell phone. Many of the cell phone pictures went straight to Flickr. I'm working at editing the camera pictures and getting them posted as well. It may take another week to get through them all. The good news is that my camera's memory card holds about 1,000 pictures based on how full it got on this trip. That's a lot to cull down to add to the travel journal, eh?

With all of this writing, I haven't started to talk about the inner journey of my trip, the things I found on my mind, the dream images that haunted me, or the new ideas for who I want to be and what kind of work I want to do. Perhaps those thoughts will flow out later.