Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Day 4 - On Our Way to Arizona

Before I begin there was an edit made to my very first post. Instead of "things written in this blog can be open fror criticism"." It is now written "things written in this blog cannot be crtiticized." Certain people know why this was changed. I am not going to mention their 2 names.

Once again everybody awake at 5:30.

On the road to Santa Fe. Interesting. Lots of open range with sage brush. Very few homes but we speculated that these were big ranches and the ranch house must be miles back on the property. I can't imagine living ot there with not much around. It also crossed my mind--what if they run out of milk and bread. I can't imagine. I might be able to last a month in that type of isolation and only if I had a lot of books. Dear husband would last about a day and a half and he would not be really pleasant to live with that day and a half. There is some snow covering the fields and ditches. It is chilly but sunny.

Coming into the city of Santa Fe I was intrigued with the Spanish, pueblo looking houses. They were so in tune with the environment that it was sometimes hard to see them. They were the same color as the earth, low and unobtrusive. They were the traditional adobe style. They are not my style and it certainly would not be my first pick of a style of house but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate and enjoy this bit of cultural difference.

Santa Fe had narrow streets and I found it to be somewhat quaint. They did have big buildings but they even were the Pueblo style. There were several Indian schools. I would have liked to have taken a look at their curriculum. Big huge Catholic church with a lot of men hanging around. We speculated that they probably were looking for day work. The statue of the Virgin outside this was the one that you always think of Mexico. She was beautiful and I really would have liked to have seen her and the church closer but choices have to be made,

Onto what is called Old Town. Went into a Starbucks because it was only a little after 9:00 and nothing opened until 9:30. It was great people watching. The Starbucks was quite charming and I even got to use my sign language skills because the clerk was deaf. I knew how to sign "coffee" and "water" "please" and "thank you." She understood all my signs.

9:30-got into the shops. Lots of turquoise, sterling silver, Pueblo pottery southwestern clothing. I really like a lot of this stuff but it doesn't fit my style of decorating and the jewelry and most of the clothing doesn't fit my lifestyle. Gloria bought the prettiest poncho like sweater. The color is an electric royal blue. It will be stunning on her.

Guys went on their merry way to do some exploring of their own. I think they went into a bank and also had a snowball fight. Can you imagine?

Now this old town has a pretty little town square with shops around the perimeter. There was what looked like an outdoor hot dog stand in the square but it turned out to be a fajita stand. Gloria & I strolled around diving into the shops. I was wishing that I was wearing something more "artsy." The black pants and pink fleecy jacket just didn't seem to be cutting it in this environment. Gloria fit right in with her coat that is handpainted with an abstract cat with paws coming around the front. This coat has been all around the world with us and on every single trip we have been on since I think 1990 and I wish I had a nickel for every compliment she has received.

In one section of this Old Town they have all of the peddlars and artists. showing off their wares. It was really neat how they were wrapped in their blankets and coats with the geometric designs. Their goods would be spread out on a very colorful blanket. They had pointer sticks with a cup hook on to pick up their jewelry to hand to you for examination. Everything was laid out very precise and neat.

11:00 - on the road to Albuquerque. This is a much bigger city than Santa Fe and doesn't have as much of the Spanish pueblo feel to it. They also have an Old Town so that is where we headed. Hungry. Found an adorable outdoor cafe. It was really nice out so we ordered Mexican food and ate in the cute courtyard. Watched birds in birdbath and fed them nachos.

Onto the shops. They were similar. I bought a book-The Soiled Dove. We did go into a lovely church that was 300 years old. Enjoyed that very much. It was so much "old fashioned Catholic" and I could relate to it a lot.

2;00 - driving toward the city of Socorro. We decided that is where we would look for lodging. It is about 3 pm when we pull into the Holiday Inn. It is nice to be able to have some down time this early. As usual cribbidge was played. I am the only one who does not play but that is OK. We all then played a dice game. Freshened up and went to Mexican restaurant for dinner. Back here at 7:30. Jim snoring at 8:00. Pudge running around getting an extra towel and coffee. Also, talking on the phone with hockey player getting the latest posts on how the teams are doing. Gloria watching TV.

I forgot to mention that Albuquerque has a hot air balloon festival. There were post cards and hot air balloon memorabilia. It looked like it would be an awesome sight. I may have to put seeing that event on my bucket list.

It was a full and great day. Tomorrow we plan on being in Mesa, Arizona.

Going to sign off. Good night.

2 comments:

  1. Once again, I have enjoyed your day. I am so surprised to learn that you are stopping to see sights along the way. In my mind, the guys were going to be focused on getting to Arizon to begin golfing. The mode of travel you are doing is much more to my liking, as you are well aware. Continue to have fun - and posting!

    You missed a big snow storm yesterday. Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It has been fun following your trip with the map. Today I went to Mesa's web site and checked out the area.

    Will be looking forward to hearing about your fun time in Arizona and your sight seeing, and especially your shopping!

    ReplyDelete