2008-OCTOBER-NEW MEXICO-SANTA FE

I want to add a note in here, lest I forget. Judy and I had agreed when planning our trip that we'd make no room reservations ahead of time and find accommodations as we needed them. We'd been extremely lucky and each night had stayed in a Comfort Inn, some nicer than others. Each offered a free Continental breakfast, so we had that meal taken care of. Judy was very disciplined in her eating, as she was on a very successful Weight Watchers program and that was a big help to me. We ate good meals, but we ate when we were hungry and didn't overindulge. And we did lots of walking so we got exercise while we were on vacation! Woo-Hoo for us!

SANTA FE

The next day, which was Wednesday, the 8th, we hung around in Abiquiu long enough to visit the Farmer's Market and some local consignment shops and then headed out to our next destination, Santa Fe. It was only about an hour from Abiquiu, so we had almost the whole day to look around. Santa Fe is a pretty city, but the streets are extremely confusing and it's not an easy place to get around in. As long as we were on the main drag, we did OK, because we knew where our hotel was and we knew where the Plaza was. We headed straight for the Plaza and stayed there the rest of the day. There were many, many places to shop and we did our fair share. As far as I could tell that was about the only thing to do in Santa Fe. It seemed too commercialized and didn't have the simple charm of Abiquiu.

One place I've wanted to see for years, but forgot it was in Santa Fe, was the Loretto Chapel that holds the Miraculous Staircase. Mama and Daddy had been to see it and were impressed by it and then I saw a movie based on the story of the staircase and thought it was very compelling. I wish I had seen it.

We ate dinner on the balcony of a restaurant that overlooked some of the shops on the plaza. It was a very pretty, very artsy city, but we could have been in any of a hundred cities in the U.S. I just wasn't too impressed with Santa Fe.

The next day we got up fairly early and I went to find a car wash to wash the dirt of Abiquiu off my car. We were on our way to Albuquerque and would be upgrading our accommodations. I didn't want the valet to get his clothes dirty parking my car.

After the car wash I went back to the hotel, we packed up and left for Albuquerque.