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| Sue and Larry at Ghost Ranch |
Just returned from a lovely weeklong visit to Santa Fe, NM. It wasn't our first visit, but it had been close to 10 years since last we were there.
We shared an AIRBNB condo with our longtime friends and frequent traveling companions, Mart & Bob Larson.
Martha & John Birney, Denver friends, drove down from Denver to spend part of the week with us.
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| John, Martha, Mart, Bob, Sue, Larry |
It is so much fun to explore an interesting town like Santa Fe with friends who share your interests in history and art, of which there is a lot in SF.
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| Dancing St. Francis at the Cathedral |
Like Williamsburg, today's Santa Fe is a construct, but also like Williamsburg it is a successful one. Most of the buildings in the town center are brown or beige adobe, and the main plaza looks like an amalgam of Old Mexico and 1940's America.
We were told that the city's population is around 60k. On many days, I am sure there are as many tourists as there are city residents, but fortunately during our visit that didn't seem to be the case, so it was easy to stroll along the city's sidewalks taking in the history and looking at the many shops, featuring Southwestern art or Native American jewelry..
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| Larry and Bob at the O'Keeffe Museum |
During our visit, all of us became more aware of Georgia O'Keeffe. One of our first stops was at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum which had just mounted a new exhibit on her life and her art.
With the aid of an audio tour that we could download on our phones, we learned about this remarkable woman and her then revolutionary ideas about abstract art.
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| Photo of landscape |
It was an incredibly delightful and enlightening two hour visit and whetted our appetite to learn more about O'Keeffe and the her adopted home of New Mexico.
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| O'Keeffe painting of landscape |
When O'Keeffe first visited New Mexico in the 1920's she stayed at Ghost Ranch and instantly felt at home.
Drawn by the isolated beauty, she returned year after year to paint its high plains, mountains, and desert landscapes.
One of her favorite subjects was the Pedernal mountain. It can be seen clearly both at Ghost Ranch and the town of Abiquiu.
The photo above shows the cloud-shrouded Pedernal mountain on the day we visited; the picture of the O'Keeffe painting is on the right.
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| Stan and Arin Bader's Guest House |
We tried to visit O'Keeffe's home in Abiquiu, but lacking an appointment, we were not able to get in.
Serendipitously, though, we were able to visit with Stan and Arin Bader, friends we first met in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Stan and Arin have a beautiful 58-acre ranch, orchard and vineyard just outside of town. Although we had not warned them of our visit, they greeted us with open arms and showed us around their home and grounds.
In addition to selling berries, grapes and raisins that they raise on the ranch, they also operate a small two-room guest house, Las Parras de Abiquiu. We instantly fell in love with the ranch and guest house and their lovely, landscaped gardens and have vowed to return in the not too distant future for a weekend visit.
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| Bob and Mart at O'Keeff's cottage on Ghost Ranch grounds |
While in Santa Fe, we found a number of great restaurants and had some really fun and delicious eating experiences. The Shed, just off the main plaza and only a couple of blocks from the O'Keeffe museum, serves traditional New Mexican cuisine--for us that means hot.
Larry, who usually enjoys spicy food, ordered some chili con carne that he couldn't eat. The others enjoyed their less seasoned but tasty tacos, burritos, and enchiladas.
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| Santa Fe clouds--nature's art |
One evening, the six of us enjoyed tapas and live jazz at El Meson. The tapas were varied and all that we tried were delicious.
We ate in the bar dining area where an excellent jazz duo entertained us for much of our time at the restaurant. The service was excellent and we would highly recommend it.
But our favorite eating discovery was the Tea House on Canyon Road. Every tourist to Santa Fe makes it to Canyon Road which is literally block after block of mostly high end art galleries.
On our last afternoon in Santa Fe, we trudged up Canyon road, dropping in and out of galleries as the spirit moved us, the art attracted us, or the chill drove us to seek warmth. The gallery hosts were invariably friendly and knowledgeable about the art on display and about Santa Fe. Late in the afternoon, hungry and chilled, we asked one of the hosts for dining recommendations. She reeled off a number but said her favorite was the Tea House.
It was a great find; featuring simple, organic and locally grown food as well as a large variety of teas and local beers, everything we had was filling and delicious. As we lingered over our late lunch, the owner/chef Rich stopped by our table for what turned out to be a 15 minute discussion of food, cooking, travel and Santa Fe. It was the perfect way to finish our day--that, and the carryout desserts that we ordered to feast upon later that evening back at our condo.
