Santa Fe

Everybody always says "you have to go to Santa Fe" and/or "Santa Fe is great," etc. It IS a neat town, nestled in the mountains - very scenic. And the old town is cute. And yes, some very old buildings still stand. But it's so commercialized, it seems like it's only a tourist town (aka tourist trap). For blocks, it's pretty much shopping and restaurants, which I guess is ok if you like that kind of thing. For this non-shopping gal, it wasn't quite my cup of tea. And Greg seemed quite bored - been there, done that attitude. However, and this is a big however, Santa Fe is a mecca for artists and artist-want-to-be's. Which is cool. Very cool! There were little stands all over with people selling their wares, and neat shops too.

In this picture, in front of the long low building artists are selling their items, mostly jewelry, but other stuff too. Each morning there is a lottery to determine which lucky people will be able to have these prime spots. This has occurred every day for the past 400 years!! Because it's such a high-profile spot and it's a lottery, etc., the Tribal Council and the city of Santa Fe research and completely back all the vendors who sell from that location. It's guaranteed to be as stated (silver, copper, not plated, real turquoise, etc).

The Loretto Chapel is a beautiful church. I wanted to go inside to see the staircase. Some say it's miraculous, I'm not so sure about that. But it is amazing. There are no supports - nothing on the inside, nothing on the outside, it isn't supported by the wall. It's basically free-standing. And yes, it is completely usable.

I did find the church itself to be very beautiful also. The arches and the altar just seemed to flow together perfectly.

The San Miguel Church is considered the oldest church structure in the U.S. It was built circa 1610!

The house below is officially the "oldest house" in the U.S.

In many places in New Mexico, particularly tourist areas, it is common to see ristras, strings of chiles, hanging. This is how the chiles are dried for later use in cooking. Ristras are considered good luck, so there are real and fake ones hanging in homes, stores, even cars!