DAY SIX: 9/15/09

We’re sitting in the Albuquerque airport waiting for our 1:24 flight to Denver, which is listed as “on time”. We planned to get up at 9 AM and be out of the motel by 10, in case we wanted to take a short snack stop. I woke up about 8 AM and started my usual pre-trip gastrointestinal upset trips to the bathroom (a situation shared with Matt). Unfortunately, in a one-bathroom motel room, that was shared with my roommate. We took our immodium and hoped for the best. We left around 10, as planned, stopped for a full tank of gas, and then went on to the freeway. Unfortunately, we had to stop at McDonald’s to use the restrooms. All I could imagine was having to stop at fast food restaurants all the way to Albuquerque. Luckily, that did not happen.

We did not see any gas stations close to the rental car return so we got back on the northbound freeway, got off at the next exit, and found one. We tried to get back on the southbound freeway but that on-ramp was closed. We took the detour which led us farther south than our original rental car return exit and came back around on the northbound freeway. I thought we were going to use up our new gas just returning the car.

When we checked our bag out of Seattle, it weighed 49 pounds. I knew we had no hope of keeping I below the no-charge 50 pounds if we bought any souvenirs at all. As predicted, our bag weighed 57.5 pounds when we checked in here. I had Matt open it up and we took our out tote bag (which impressed the United clerk), put in two pairs of shoes and my makeup bag. I was getting ready to zip up the big bag and put it back on the scale when the clerk suggested we weigh the smaller bag (duh). It weighed 7.5 pounds so we thought we’d be right on the 50 for the big one. It weighed 49 pounds so I don’t know where the other pound went.

Although we had a great time on our vacation, we are SO looking forward to getting home!

DAY FIVE: 9/14/09

Today is our last full day in Santa Fe. I sent Matt down for his morning coffee (walking) and I drove to meet him later. We visited a glass gift shop (the glass blower was not there) and I tried to visit a glass bead shop but it was closed. The curse of the lack of Monday shop hours. We then drove back to the Plaza so we could see it after the close of La Fiesta.

Before visiting there, we tried to tour the Cathedral. They were having a funeral so we could not go in, but there were windows set into the wall so we could look in and listen to the service. We could also visit the gift shop, of course. In the Plaza, there was a great decrease in the number of food booths on the Plaza, but an increase in the number of individual native vendors surrounding the Plaza. So, I bought a pair of earrings for myself. Although I do love my ring, I wish somewhat that I had waited until today to look for it.

There was a fountain outside the cathedral that was dedicated to the “first European settlers”. There was a monument in the Plaza dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives to the “rebels” and “savages”, meaning, of course, the Native Americans. There was another plaque there that mentioned the monument was carved using “words of the time” and that, hopefully, times and words have changed. I hope so, too, as the use of the word “rebels” to describe the residents prior to the solders seems rather rude.

We walked to the Loretta Chapel which was open! We were allowed to take flash pictures which we took full advantage of. I took one of Matt in front of the staircase. We, again, visited the gift shop.

We walked up to the Upper Crust Pizza restaurant, which we visited for drinks only on Saturday. This place was voted best in 2009 and it lived up to its reputation (great pizza and garlic bread!). Two met two couples from Arizona and a couple with a whippet. The storm clouds were beginning to move in so the sky was spectacular.

We visited the Mission, next door to the pizza restaurant. It was closed on Saturday because we didn’t get there until after 5 PM. We were also allowed to take pictures inside and, again, could visit the gift shop. I started getting overcome with heat (the couple from Arizona said it was “cooler” in Santa Fe) so we started back to the car. Matt wanted to visit the Native American musical instrument shop he missed on Saturday so I sat in the shade while he went inside; he was disappointed in the lack of instruments and the high prices.

Back in our room, we enjoyed a little rest and air conditioning, then went in search of the Kokopele tile I didn’t buy the other day. We went to another souvenir center but it only had one in navy blue (not a color we used in our house). Despite the opportunity of buying a full-sized, rearing horse, we left and returned to the Jackalope. Good timing on our part as we only had 10 minutes to closing, but were able to find both the one we were looking for and another one with pueblos on it.

We also drove back to where we viewed the burning of Zozobra so we could see how far up we had to climb.

We talked about dinner (the possibility of eating only chips in our room didn’t appeal) and settled on Carl’s Jr., where we enjoyed tasty chicken strips and rather enjoyable fries. Alas, there was too much food to eat so we actually brought 3 of 8 chicken strips back to the room where they remain uneaten.

We found an Office Depot and picked up some bubble wrap and tape so we could protect our purchases. After returning to the room, I told Matt I wanted to pack the suitcase with clothes so I could add the bubble-wrapped purchases where they won’t get squished.

Currently, at 8:30 PM, we are ending our stay in Santa Fe watching TV and working up an appetite for chicken strips and chips.

DAY FOUR: 9/13/09

Sunday today and we treated it as such. Matt got up around 9:30 and I sent him off for donuts. He then went off for coffee by himself while I stayed in and watched HGTV. I got a bit woozy so called him for orange juice and took a rest. The housekeeper came by twice but I finally just told her to switch towels since I could not seem to get up the energy to do anything. I think the combination of heat and green chile caught up with me.

We planned to shop at the Jackalope today and see a movie. The Jackalope has a combination of souvenier items and local artist work. One booth contained clay items made by a couple from Mexico. They made us a flower and stem and gave it to us for free. I told Matt to buy something, too, so we got a small cow playing a fiddle. The man gave us an information sheet and welcomed us to visit them in Mexico. The information sheet told us his mother made the first chia pet.

We enjoyed a sandwich at the original Schlotsky’s Deli (I had the original sandwich, as it only seemed right). We tried to find a park so we could call home but didn’t have much luck. We drove around some of the outlying neighborhoods, in search of said park, so we got to see some local housing and a very colorful cemetery. We ended up at Border’s for about 15 minutes and then went to the movies. We saw “Julie and Julia” which was absolutely fabulous! I told Matt afterwards that I wanted to buy it and he thought I meant the cookbook.

Tonight, we are staying in and relaxing since we have been so busy.

DAY THREE: 9/12/09

I am still not able to connect to the internet. I spoke with the office man, who told me to wait until his son arrived, which he did shortly after that. He told me the wireless site (finally) and said to double-click on it and enter the password on my room receipt. So, I tried that tonight; could not find the site on my wireless list; added it; tried to enter the password in the network key field but still could not connect. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! I suppose I can try the library.

On this trip, I’m beginning to see why Anna travels solo. Matt throws his dirty clothes on the floor (the housekeeper actually found his pajama pants somewhere and laid they on the bed). He splashes all over the bathroom sink. He tries to finish my sentences (I thought I had him better trained). I know I’m spoiled when I travel for work and have the room to myself so I need to work on more patience. At least he carries what I hand him and gets me drink refills and snacks, so he’s good for something. I do love him.

We started our day having breakfast at the Counter Culture Café, which we discovered behind a fabric store and thrift shop I suggested we visit before having pizza for lunch. We looked at the menu at the Café and saw that they served breakfast all day so we stayed. The breakfast was very generous and good; I could not finish it and, in fact, donated two pieces of bacon to Finn, a dog I met.

In search of pueblos, we drove to the Bandelier National Monument, which was about 30 miles away. When we got to the entry gate, we saw that the charge to get in was $12. We didn’t have our jackets/sweaters and it was a bit cloudy. The ranger said we would have to walk beyond the visitor center so we might want to pick another day. We drove off to find another pueblo and ended up in the White Rock at the visitor center. The representative told us to go back to Bandelier; that we could see cliff dwellings from behind the visitor center. Plus, we would be on the canyon floor so it would be warm. We were able to walk on a short trail, up the side of the canyon, and actually climb up ladders to cliff dwellings. Were they small! Matt said the dwellings were occupied in the mid-1200’s AD. The roof was so low we had to bend over to walk through the rooms. I can’t believe were in spaces occupied so far back in history! We got some great pictures. I was a bit worried when another hiker offered to take a picture of Matt & me in the dwelling and then started to back down the ladder with my camera. He stopped when I asked him where he was going with my camera!

Matt took some pictures from the car on the way up to the Monument. On the way back to Santa Fe, we stopped at Camel Rock to take another picture, to make sure it was clear. It’s an amazing configuration.

We got back to Santa Fe before 7 PM and dressed up for our more expensive Mexican-style dinner, to judge by the outside of the restaurant. We chose tonight for that event so we’d have more than a day to recover, should we need it. The restaurant wasn’t so expensive. It was mainly “new Mexican”, whatever that means. Matt ordered chile rellenos and I had the combination plate (enchilada, tamale, and taco). When he asked if we wanted red or green sauce, we both chose green, to try something different. It was SO SPICY! My lips fell asleep. We didn’t know the green was the spicier of the two, but now we do. We shared a flan to cool down our digestive tracts.

We drove through town to find the Capitol building, in case we want to take pictures before we leave. We decided to stay close to the motel tomorrow and go back downtown on Monday, since the Fiesta will be over by then and we’ll experience fewer crowds.

DAY TWO: 9/11/09

Today was very, very busy. We got up around 9:30 and started our day out at Dunkin’ Donuts (“because we kin”). We talked about items we needed, including a cane for my poor aching feet. Our next stop was Walgreen’s, which only sold ugly canes; our next stop, Target, had none but we did find an umbrella with a long enough handle to double as a cane. Since I could not find shoes with better support, off we went to the Outlet Stores and found that Dr. Scholl’s makes shoes with built-in gel sections. We checked out a couple more stores (Coach carries dog collars and leashes) there but didn’t buy anything (yet).

I have noticed several buildings with an individual’s name on each, but no indication of what the building actually holds. Some are more clear on what they hold but most are a mystery.

We headed to the Plaza downtown, even though we figured it would be crawling with Fiesta crowds. We were not disappointed. Just finding a parking spot was difficult; luckily, we were able to find a spot in the Cathedral lot for $10 for all day. The Plaza was filled with food vendors (Turkey legs! Corn on the cob! Elephant ears!) and surrounded by mostly over-priced stores. We did find a good lunch place, enjoying and sharing blue corn tacos (named after the restaurant), roasted corn and red chile soup (“it’s spicy!”), and a surprisingly large side salad with a pickled jalapeno in it.

We walked to the oldest house in the USA, a shop that sold jackets made out of blankets (which we did not purchase since most were in the $250 – 300 range), and the Loretta Chapel, which houses the staircase built by Joseph. The Chapel was closed because of a wedding. I told Matt that was unfortunate since that was the major reason we came here. We will return on Sunday or Monday. We managed to fit in some shopping during our walking and made a few purchases, none of which will be listed here as they are surprise gifts.

I discovered in the guide book that the Georgia O’Keeffe museum is free on Fridays between 5 – 8 PM so we headed over there. That required moving the car which was another adventure. There were several works by Georgia but I had to give up after about seeing half of them because my foot was flaring up again (curse my plantar fasciitis!). We decided to just drive aimlessly and see what was outside of Santa Fe. We found many houses made of adobe in the Indian pueblo style. We also found where Zozobra spent his last minutes on earth. It still smelled like charcoal. We could see the hill we watched from, about .5 mile away.

Not that we intended to eat at any more chains, but we ended the day at the KFC so we could bring home some dinner and I could get off my feet.

DAY ONE: 9/10/09

Left Seattle on the 6:04 AM flight (thanks, Katie, for driving us to the airport). We had about .5 hour before we had to get on the plane so we visited the Red Carpet Club. Since they switched to cereal (not in individual containers), there were no more granola bars. I asked about that but was told they are going “totally unwrapped”. Darn! That’s where I get my granola bars for my weeks on the road. We reserved seats 6A and 6C on the flight to Denver, hoping no one would take the middle seat but no luck there. We gave her the window. We purchased two LUXE snack boxes on the plane; I ate the hummus and chips but Matt didn’t even open his. We had about 1.5 hours in Denver so we went into the Red Carpet Club and had some water and snacks. There wasn’t much out since it was still breakfast time. Our flight to Albuquerque left on time; it was only one hour so we only had drinks served.

It took about 40 minutes to have our rental car delivered! I was appalled! It’s a Mazda mini-van so we have plenty of room. I have a video of Matt inspecting the car. It took two brains to figure out how to lower the 3rd seat so we could fit our suitcase in it. We went downtown Albuquerque to find a lunch place. I thought we should eat at Roosters, but we ended up at Maloney’s Tavern. Apparently, the non-smoking pattern has not reached this city yet. It took us about an hour to get out of the city (including lunch).

Our 60 mile drive to Santa Fe was held up by an accident; we literally crawled along for about 4 miles, taking 20 minutes. After we passed the scene, it was quick driving into Santa Fe. We had no problem finding the motel. I asked for a room with a king bed and a tub. They only had one; she gave us two keys to try but the larger room only had a shower. I just can’t cope with that. As usual we immediately took a nap. Just as we left the office, the rain poured down on us. Of course, we did not have an umbrella!

We were told about the “Burning of Zozobra”. The guidebook says, “85th Burning of Zozobra: The torching of 50-foot-tall Old Man Gloom, a puppet stuffed with thousands of scraps of paper bearing the citizenry’s sad thoughts, is a highlight of Fiesta time”. I had understood it was to occur at dusk. We drove towards it and parked in an event lot ($5, not $50 like Seattle) and started to walk the .3 miles to the site. Several people were going up a hill; I mentioned I heard that was where the people watched from who didn’t want to pay the $5 - $10 entry fee. So, up we climbed. We had a good view from about .5 mile away. Instead of dusk, we sat there for about an hour before they torched it. There were fireworks now and then, and occasionally the puppet would swing his head from side to side or lift an arm, but it was tiring sitting on cement that long. Plus, we had to listen to a drunken reveler on the higher part of the hill scream out obscenities. Before the fire began, Zozobra had to compete with lightening in the sky opposite his perch.

It was about 9:30 when we were returning to the motel so we just picked up some Sonic burgers for dinner. I upsized mine, thinking the coke might keep me up late. Luckily, I knocked my drink off the bedside table and spilled over half of it.