We traveled very few miles in the car today but many on foot. We decided to see three places and do some shopping (a favorite pastime in Santa Fe it would appear). To get our day started right we stopped at Holy Spirit, a coffee shop on San Francisco Street. My brother Steve gets a special “thank you” shout-out for that stop. He was so right – the place has, as they claim, the best coffee in Santa Fe. Now properly caffeinated, we headed for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. It is a fairly small museum and had many of her drawings and paintings and a visiting exhibit by Robert Henri.
It was a special treat to see so many of O’Keeffe’s paintings and to see her work as it changed over the years. In each exhibit hall there were quotes from the artist about her work and her thoughts on painting. Dennis particularly appreciated her thoughts on color. She clearly saw something the rest of us don’t see. For a person with a red/green color challenge (Dennis), this was a great observation. Dennis has always claimed that none of us see colors the same way we just assign names to colors and try to agree on them. It was clear to us that Georgia O’Keeffe had an otherworldly relationship with color and form. We didn’t bring the shrinking ray with us, so we did not bring home any of her paintings!
We walked through the Plaza – keep in mind that it is a Tuesday morning in October – and it was packed with tourists, visitors, and locals. It was fun to watch the people and listen to them shopping, haggling, playing music and planning their lunch stops. We were in search of the Loretto Chapel with its amazing spiral staircase. We only got turned around once (much better at navigating roads!) and headed in to see the chapel. It is now privately owned and maintained and the entrance fee was $3.00. The staircase is referred to as the miraculous staircase. It was built entirely of wood with no handrails and no vertical supports (check out the pictures). A beautiful balustrade was added many years later for safety purposes. The chapel itself is beautiful and has great acoustics – I resisted the urge to sing since there were lots of folks there.
We were starting to get hungry so we walked over to the Blue Corn Café and Brew Pub. This was a great choice for lunch. Their green chili cheese tamales were delicious. We will have to try those at home – I’ll invite you, too. Their beers were excellent. They offer beer in three sizes – pint, 10 oz, and 4 oz. I had two four ounce beers so I could try different “flavors.” Both were excellent.
Sufficiently fortified and needing to walk, we set out for some shopping. There are way too many shops and many sell similar stuff, but many are unique and uniquely expensive. I did pick up some earrings, though, and some piñon incense. Dennis went to the park to listen to music and wait for me. He said that he felt like a true tourist because he was approached by a panhandler. Since we were at the Plaza, we went to see the cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi. It is a beautiful church and Dennis took many pictures, but we were especially taken by the music ministry section. My dear friends at St. Mary Magdalen you should see how neat and tidy the area is! And they have two marimbas! But when we saw the banner, we had to take a picture. I’m sure our music is every bit as lively and lovely, but I bet it is way different. We both wished we could have heard the music ministry during a liturgy.
Our feet were very tired by that time so we found our car, stopped to get a bottle of wine, and came back to the hotel to plan our travels tomorrow. We love the glorious sun here and we did not feel cold at 65 degrees, but the locals long for rain. Their average annual rainfall is 14 inches. There are pluses and minuses in every location.
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