Santa Fe Plaza Wanderings

On my last full day in Santa Fe, I got up in the morning and walked over towards the main Santa Fe Plaza to shop and wander about. My first stop was at El Santuario de Guadalupe, which was built in 1781! It is not a church any longer, but an art and history museum. It sure is a pretty, old building.

 Next, I strolled down to the St. Francis Cathedral and milled about trying desperately to get a photo of the church without people everywhere. Apparently you have to get up at the crack of dawn to accomplish this feat. Anyway, still pretty, even with strangers in the photos :). I did realize my desperate need for a wide-angle lens though when trying to photograph both the insides and outsides of these churches. 

 Another try at artsy.

 One of the bell towers with the blue iron fence.

 My next goal was to walk over to the Loretto Chapel and try to photograph the "miraculous" spiral staircase. On the way, I ran into a few sunflowers. I am coming to realize that I have a thing for sunflowers.

 Oh look! I'm on Route 66!

 Arrival at the Loretto Chapel, which was built in 1873.

 Here we go into the church...

 More people in my shot, darn it. I even waited about 30 minutes, but they just kept coming :). Anyway, this is The Miraculous Staircase. Legend has it that it was constructed or inspired by St. Joseph the Carpenter and was supposedly built sometime between 1877 and 1881. It took at least 6 months to build and has two 360 turns with no visible means of support.

 There! I cut them out :)

After visiting the Loretto Chapel for awhile, I headed out to do some shopping. Santa Fe is full of wild clothes and beautiful jewelry. As I was emerging from an underground shop, this beautiful pot was right in front of me. Besides visiting a few shops (Santa Fe School of Cooking and Spirit), I also spent some time admiring all the beautiful Native-American handmade jewelry at The Palace of the Governors. I found the artist that I bought a couple of necklaces from in 2006, and I bought one to replace the one I lost, which was my all time favorite necklace! That was pretty exciting!

 Around noon, it was time to start heading back to the condo. My friend and I had lunch reservations at El Farol on Canyon Road at 1 PM, and then we were walking the galleries. As I was just about to cross the street, I heard a lot of commotion going on in this tree. This raven was making all kinds of noise. It was hoping around from branch to branch making some interesting noises. It was not the noise a crow makes, so I am pretty sure it was a raven. Anyway, we stared at each other for awhile, and he/she actually seemed calmer with me there. Not sure what that was about.

 Next and final Santa Fe post will be from Canyon Road. Cheers!

A Day Trip to Taos

To give my friend some time to paint on my third day in Santa Fe, I headed to Taos in the morning on my own. The reason I come to visit Santa Fe quite often is because I have a very good friend who is an incredible artist (Cathy Carey, Art Studio San Diego-Santa Fe!) and she teaches classes in Santa Fe a few times each year.  I headed out around 9 AM for Taos. I really wanted to visit and photograph a church about 5 miles outside of Taos called San Francisco de Asis. On my way out of town, I noticed a patch of these beautiful yellow wildflowers on the side of the road. Well, I couldn't resist, I turned around and planted myself on the ground for a few shots. My favorite one is below.

Black and White of San Francisco de Asis Church in Ranchos de Taos

Before actually getting to the church, I turned down a wrong street and saw this interesting looking metal shed. I'm not exactly sure what it all means, but it is obviously some sort of religious symbolism.

I spent about 30 minutes here at San Francisco de Asis Church walking around and taking photos from many different angles. It was a very bright and sunny day, so it was a little challenging to take decent photos. Here are a few that I thought came out okay.

With purple sage in the foreground.

After photographing the church, I walked around the neighborhood for awhile and took a few more photos. I loved this house with the blue door, chilis and flowers out front.

After walking around for awhile, I got back in the car and started heading back toward Santa Fe. I stopped in Pilar to visit the Rio Grande Visitor Center and to take a few photos around Pilar.

Layers of color

Not sure the name of this river, but it a tributary of the Rio Grande.

Pilar Mountain

Grazing Horses

After Pilar, I headed back to Santa Fe and then we went for a walk around the Plaza and did some shopping. We tried to go to a pet bakery to buy Sazi something for her 9th birthday, but it was closed. We putzed around Collected Works Bookstore, which was a really cool place! Tonight we headed out for my absolute favorite restaurant in all of Santa Fe, Cafe Pasqual's, and they did not disappoint!! After dinner we walked back to my friend's place and sat outside on the deck and had some wine. A lovely end to a fun day! Tomorrow is my last full day and I am walking to the Plaza in the morning and Canyon Road in the Afternoon. Night!

High Road to Taos Artist Tour

On my second day in Santa Fe, we headed out on the High Road to Taos Artist Tour. http://highroadnewmexico.com/tour.html.  Basically, the artists open up their homes and/or studios to the public for these two weekends in September. Our first stop was not at a studio, but rather at El Santuario de Chimayo, which is a really cool church with a lot of history. Built in 1856, pilgrimages are made here every Easter. These pilgrimages originated by U.S. soldier who prayed to the Santa Nino during the Bataan Death March. Here is more information in case anyone is interested: http://www.elsantuariodechimayo.us/history.html.

 El Santuario de Chimayo

Offerings on a fence in a field of yellow wildflowers.

 

 Pilgrimage Crosses

 Reflections of the shrines in a pool of water.

 Shrine Shadows

After El Santuario de Chimayo, we got back on the road for the artist tour.We made it to Truchas, Chimayo, Cordova and Condiyo areas...there was just not enough time to make it to all of them. I guess that is why it is a weekend thing! Anyway, we hit some really cool places.Our first stop was at Weavings by Marie in Cundiyo. She made some beautiful weavings and we each bought something! Next we headed up to the end of the road in Truchas and stopped at Casa Sandoval. While my friend was looking at beads, I found this lovely field of flowers to photograph (below).

Our third stop, which is pictured below, was at the gorgeous Hand Artes Gallery with a sweeping view of the valley. As I was standing here taking this photograph, I noticed what I first thought was a dog making it's way up the hill, but then quickly realized that this was not a dog at all, but a coyote. Of course, I did not have my zoom lens on the camera, but if you look real close, you can see the coyote in the middle of the image. Several people came over to join us to watch the coyote stroll past several horses, who didn't seem bothered in the least, and make his way up the hill stopping occasionally to glance around.

Beautiful hanging wind chime below. My friend bought one this same color! They were very heavy!

This photo op was calling my name!

Next stop, was Cardona-Hine Gallery and Studios. This gallery was filled with exquisite paintings and sculptures, but, alas, was beyond my price range. We did, however, run into several adorable dogs at this gallery who were a lot of fun...one of which knocked me down as I was kneeling to take a photo of the window below :).

The little devil posing for the camera!

Next stop was at Connie Salles and a shared co-op of all the local artists. This "Make Art Not Bombs" mural was painted on the side of Connie Salles Gallery.

Next to the Connie Salles Gallery where the mural was painted was this old falling down building that almost looked like it was bombed...sort of struck me as ironic.

Our final gallery stop of the day, and my absolute favorite gallery was the Bill G. Loyd Gallery. He specialized in those lovely bell wind chimes and RAVEN sculptures. Ravens are a favorite subject of mine, so this was a very cool stop! 

Loved this sign as we were walking in. I met that Alpha female dog too!

Beautiful porch!

Lots of chimes and ravens!

I bought a smaller version of the raven pictured below to go out on my patio.

Our last stop of the day before heading home was at a lookout point for the badlands along Highway 76. Pretty cool!

After arriving home around 3:30 PM, we took Sazi and Yogi out for a nice walk and then went to Naaga for Indian cuisine...delicioussss!!!

Well, that's about it for day two of Santa Fe. It was a really fun day and the weather was picture perfect! Tomorrow I drive into the mountains of Taos to visit San Francisco de Asis church and a few other spots!