More Santa Fe

Tuesday March 24: The weather continued to get colder but it was still sunny. We packed up our warm jackets and headed out to Los Alamos by way of the Shidoni Foundry—8 acres of sculpture displays and, yes, foundries, including a glass foundry.

A few of the Shidoni sculptures

I've never seen a blue cactus bloom, but this seems to work.

The only practical use for lobster bouys in the desert. These are made of glass.

Then onto Los Alamos with a stop to check out the views enroute.  Yep, there's snow on the mountains but the weather is beautiful for us.

We visited the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos.  First stop, the restroom where Pat learned how to efficiently dry her hands.

There are lots of exhibits about the research being done there today.

  

There were also stories about their early works--the Manhattan Project. It was extremely interesting to read about how this mesa with it's simple ranch school was transformed.  In fact it disappeared. Everyone who went there had the same address (109 East Place) in Santa Fe. Personal letters were edited to assure no secrets slipped out.  Frankly we spent very little time on the actual story of the successful deployment of their technology. We know that story.

Then we continued on to Bandalier National Monument, which preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Pueblo People. Pueblo structures there date from 1150 to 1600 CE. We'd been there about 20 years ago but it was great to see it again.  

A Kiva (round pit house entered by ladder from a hole in the roof.

A natural formation but could be a cool sculpture.

Exiting one of the cliff dwellings.

Dinner was at Chez Mamou...a little touch of France.  A great bottle of wine from the Languedoc, an excellent cordon bleu, and interesting conversation with the wine loving couple at the next table.

Wed March 25: Museum Hill, yes there is a collection of museums on a hill outside of Santa Fe. It includes a nice cafe for a break between visiting the 3 museums. We visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Museum of International Folk Arts.

A portion of the sculpture a life-size sculpture
at the entrance to the museum complex.

No pictures in the Indian Museum
but this was in the plaza.

The Museum of International Folk Arts...simply jam packed with displays...none with titles. There is a detailed printed museum guide that provides the explanations. 

Guatamalan Masks (for a minute there we were transported back
to Bill & Heidi's Mask Museumin San Miguel!)

 The exhibits are mostly displays of village life. At least a hundred of them.

We enjoyed dinner at La Boca Taberna, a basque tapas (pinxtos) bar.  We discovered two things here:...a birthday beer, Tapas and two dessert wines, a Torrentes (outstanding) and a Malbec.

A birthday beer with a candle mounted on the beer can.
...a bit tricky to drink! 

Susana Balbo Late Harvest Torrontes and
Late Harvest Malbec. Both very nice.

A Koshari

Thurs March 26: We started the day by returning to capture the name and location of the shop we enjoyed so much and where a very knowledgable salesperson had enlightened us about Koshari, the clowns and enforcers at events. 

130 Lincoln Ave / Suite F

Then on the History Museum, a half day affair. The museum covers the history under the Spanish (starting with early contact in the 1650s), then the Mexicans (following the Mexican Revolution in 1821) and then the US (following the Mexican American War in 1848). It includes the development of the Sante Fe Trail and the influx of traders and settlers. And finally the railroad led to the rise of the founder of the hospitality industry Fred Harvey. 

Map showing Indian Groups across the now US

With the completion of the railroad to Santa Fe, Fred Harvey pioneered hospitality featuring consistent standards.

Fred harvey hired young unmarried women and provided them a handbook.  

During the Great Depression, the west was seen as a romantic place and holiday cards by the renowned artist "Gus" Baumann were prized. 

Then there is the story of how the Native Americans contributed to the WW II (as well as coverage of the Manhattan Project...but we had learned of that in detail at Los Alamos.)

There was a special exhibit of "Marias in the Americas".  I had always wondered how Mary appeared in so many parts of the world.  Now of course I understand it was Mary (Maria) in various costumes surrounded by locally revered characters and symbols that would help the locals revere Mary (and the Catholic Church).

We continued on to the New Mexico Museum of Art.  Since we had missed the Georgia O'Keefe museum, we were pleased to see this:

Georgia O'Keefe Red Hills with Pedernal, 1936

Other works that caught our eye...

Van Gogh?  No.  Robert A. Daughters, Truchas Road, 1961

Billy Schenk, Coming Down from the Mountain, 1993

While at the Art Museum, we learned that the Georgia O'Keefe had opened earlier than expected and we got to examine her various styles and subject matter. 

This is a photo of a photo of Georgia's Studio with it's view of the countryside.

A final stop to see the Loretto Chapel with it's miraculous spiral staircase with 2 full 360 degree turns and no visible means of support...

Tomorrow...on to Albuquerque.

 

From San Miguel to Santa Fe

Friday March 20: We left home at 5:45am and made it to Del Rio TX around 7pm. We expected it to be a 12+ hour drive but were baffled when our Garmin seemed to add an hour. We finally realized that Garmin understands that the US moved to Daylight Savings Time already. The drive went well until we hit extremely heavy rain about 50 miles from the border. We crept along. And cheered whenever the rain decreased and we could see more than 10 feet ahead.

Views along the drive...very captivating (not).

We imported our Honda to Mexico and legally drove it with it's California plates for the past 9 years. But the CA plates are expired so we got plates for one of the few places that nicely accommodates Ex-Pats. And now, presto-chango, we are from South Dakota!

Saturday March 21:  We drove on, through the rain and the oil fields, to Roswell NM. 

Yep, that Roswell.

They invited us, we came. We found a great art museum (Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art) but nothing overly weird.

by Susan Cooper

Al Souza, "Ridicule"  Puzzle parts and glue on wood.
I just keep imagining this as a Jigsaw puzzle...

Marian Winsryg "Cat and Bird", Digital inkjet print.
This one is my favorite!

Sunday March 22: We arrived in Santa Fe around noon. Aside from some early fog, the day was beautiful...so much better than the long drive in the rain from Del Rio TX to Roswell NM. Our car was in sad need of a car wash from that drive.

It's strange. As previously mentioned it was only after we arrived in Del Rio that we remembered that the US is on daylight savings time and hence we lost an hour. But then we crossed into NM (Mountain Time) and we gained our hour back! We are advised that AZ doesn't even do daylight savings time. This is very complicated. ;-)

Enroute to Roswell yesterday, Pat did a little research on HomeAway and located a conveniently located and charming little house in Santa Fe.  It has designer touches throughout.  It was part of a complex built to be sold a high-end condos but is now rented out to visitors.

The Living Room

The carved door

A sample of the painting decorating the living and dining room.

Our afternoon in Santa Fe was quiet. We had a tapas lunch and then wandered around the plaza. Well we shopped our way around the plaza. We talked to a guy who has been selling products from Latin America for 30 years. He had some gorgeous fabric art from Peru. It was new to us. 

Peruvian Fabric Art

Later we visited a shop with work by artists from the SW. I was taken by some dolls decorated with black and white bands of color. They are "koshari" dolls, sometimes called "clown kachina dolls". The kosharis were basically the court jesters of the Hopi culture. As we learned this we realized how much less we know of ancient SW culture than of ancient Mexican culture.

A few shops later we entered a shop that focused on Peruvian products but also carried the beaded keyrings from Guatemala. I think the shopkeeper was so impressed with my VAST knowledge (ie I now knew about that fabric art from Peru, plus those keyrings) so when I expressed interest in some cute ornaments, she gave me two for the price of one.

Here are a couple shots of the Plaza area...

It is really hard to shop for things that are displayed on the ground.
I wonder if sales would improve if buyers could actually see
the wares that are for sale???

Note: While the "Indian wares" are sold from the ground,
others get the benefit of tables to display their crafts...

Monday March 23: It started off as a disappointing day. Being Monday the main museums were closed. So we went to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum.  It was officially open but in reality most of it was closed while they installed a new exhibition. 

Georgia O'Keeffe, Petunia No. 2, 1924

We wandered through some shops and then headed to Canyon Road, renowned for it's art galleries. Along the way we passed a couple sculptures of burros...just to remind us of home.  

Despite living in San Miguel with it's many galleries, this was indeed quite special. We stopped into many galleries, all at random and all were great. Either serendipity was with us or there are a lot of great galleries on Canyon Road.

The Great US Roadtrip — Overview

Bill & Pat are close to qualifying to receive Mexican permanent resident status.  This is great because it reduces the paperwork requirements. It is bad because we will not be able to keep our car (a 2006 Honda CRV with less than 25K miles on it.)  We can't keep it because the car was made in Japan and does not qualify for Mexican "nationalization".  

So we plan to sell the it...but first we need to put some mileage on it. So it is time for a US Roadtrip.  

We originally planned to depart Mexico in early May but learned that we'd need to start the trip earlier than we initially expected...long story re immigration status and our misunderstanding re the timing. The revised plan is to do the southwest, leave our car in California for 5-6 weeks while we return to SMA for details in transitioning to Permanent Resident status. Then back to CA and on around the US arriving in Maine for our 50th high school reunion in early August...and on, on, on.

Here's the trip overview...

• Depart SMA Friday March 20
• First real stops: Santa Fe & Albuquerque
• Move on via Flagstaff and Grand Canyon if weather permits
• Spend a couple days in Vegas (for the shows...we are not into casinos
• Arrive in Northern CA early April
• Fly back to San Miguel April 11

• Return to CA when our paperwork is ready…mid May?
• Head north through Ashland OR and the Oregon Coast to Seattle.
• Then back through Portland and Hood OR (Columbia River Gorge) to Salt Lake City.
• And on to Grand Canyon (if missed earlier), Page AZ, Monument Valley/Moab UT
• Arrive in Colorado around the end of June/first of July
• Travel through Minneapolis & Wisconsin to arrive in Chicago for July 12-July 22
• Then on through Detroit (gotta see the Diego Rivera Murals) to Niagara Falls and Montreal.
• Arriving in Maine likely on July 30 (Our 50th High School Reunion is August 1.)
• Be in Garland for family visits from July 30 through August 2
• Stay on the Maine Coast for a week or so then onto Boston
• Next Newport RI and Long Island.
• We’ll be in NYC from Sep 1-10.
• Move on to Wilmington and Washington DC. 
• Arrive in Charleston SC around the first of Oct.
• On to Savannah, and New Orleans (arriving mid Oct.)
• We plan another home exchange there but haven’t booked it yet.
• From there we hope to visit friends in OK and then onto San Antonio.
• In Texas we plan to sell our car and then likely we’ll head back to SMA.
• But if we still have the travel bug, who knows?