Trip Report: Santa Fe in late October

Old Nov 10th, 2014, 02:18 PM
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Trip Report: Santa Fe in late October

We decided to take a short trip to Santa Fe this October, the week after the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.

We flew Southwest Airlines from SFO to ABQ ($566 for two). Left on Thursday and returned the following Tuesday. On the way we changed in LA, and on the return in Phoenix. None of the flights were full and it was pleasant not to be packed like sardines.

In ABQ we picked up a car from Hertz ($183). We bid using Priceline and basically got the price that was available if the car had been picked up in town rather than at the airport. We picked up the Toyota Yaris with a full tank and returned it with a full tank. From what we found, the closest gas station is one exit north of the airport exit, and going east on the local road. The Yaris is not a gas guzzler, and for two it was just fine, although on longer trips I would find the two-door that we had inconvenient because we had to move the back of the front seat any time we wanted to place or get something from the back seat.

We drove directly to Santa Fe and signed in at the Guadalupe Inn ($392 for five nights) http://www.guadalupeinn.com/. We had made reservations through Airbnb although this is a motel/B&B rather than an apartment or a room in someone else’s dwelling. The Inn is well located, within 15 minutes walking distance from the central plaza and 5 minutes from the Rail Yard, which is said to be the up-and-coming neighborhood for bars and restaurants, and its Saturday local market. Very close to the inn there is a French (Continental?) restaurant said to be very good, a couple doors down there is Raaga, an excellent Indian restaurant and almost opposite the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe there is Joseph’s Pub which is very good (reservations essential). Agua Fria Street is a quiet street and the inn is actually down an alley so that one does not hear street noises. The breakfast room is light and cheery. Breakfast is modified continental, by that I mean that in addition to English muffins, bagels and bread, it offers cereal—and milk, orange juice and coffee. I would gladly stay there again.

We ate well. The restaurant where we ate were The Shed, Raaga, Joseph’s Pub, the Plaza Cafe, and Café Pasqual’s.

The Shed (http://www.sfshed.com/home.html ) is where to go for good New Mexican food. Raaga’s has Indian food (http://raagacuisine.com/ ). Joseph’s Pub (http://www.josephsofsantafe.com/ ) is more inventive although it also uses Southwest spicing. The Plaza Café (http://www.thefamousplazacafe.com/ ) looks like an enlarged diner, and the food is home cooking with an emphasis on Southwest style; I had green chili meatloaf, and the desserts were enormous. Café Pascal’s (http://www.pasquals.com/ ) is known for its inventiveness and the chef/owner has a cookbook out, for those interested. Prices with ranged from $58 to $130 (prices for the Shed are at the lower end but not available) for two, tip included. We did not have reservations for The Shed (had to wait 40 minutes) and the Plaza Café (no reservations taken), but did have reservations for the other three which are essential for Café Pascal’s and Joseph’s Pub, while one might get away without reservations during the week at Raaga, at least off season.

For lunch we had our own sandwiches. The Sage Bakehouse (https://plus.google.com/+SageBakehou...ut?gl=us&hl=en ) on Cerrillos just north of Peralta has wonderful bread (the petit pain were perfect for sandwiches) and we purchased our bread there whenever possible—it’s closed on Sunday. A little farther south on Cerrillos there is a big Whole Foods market which has a deli section where cut meat and cheese are available. On Saturday we purchased apples at the farmer’s market by the train depot.

Of the four full days of this trip, two were spent in Santa Fe. We mainly frequented the museums. We purchased the museum pass ($25), which is not necessarily a deal unless one visits at least three museums. The Museum of International Folk Art’s predominant focus is on Latin America (http://www.internationalfolkart.org/ ). Only one third of the permanent collection is visible and I do not understand how the collection can be rotated since the donors stipulated that the dioramas they created cannot be changed. But the museum is a must and will take up half a day. There is one picnic table outside on the service side of the museum (probably intended for staff), which is where we ate after visiting the special exhibits but before seeing the permanent collection. We then visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (http://www.indianartsandculture.org/ ) which faces the Folk Art museum. The ethnographic section is interesting, but best are the exhibition rooms for pottery and jewelry. After having seen these rooms and walking past all the shops in downtown Santa Fe, we had enough of Indian crafts and skipped any other museums of this type such as the much recommended Millicent Rogers museum in Taos. The next day we visited the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art (http://spanishcolonial.org/ ) which is a disappointment, although it had a few modern pieces that are of interest because they reflect an active interest in maintaining the Hispanic identity. One gets a better sense of life and art in the colonial era in some restored California missions. We also visited the Santa Fe Botanical Garden which is also on Museum Hill. It’s only one year old, so that only a limited section is open and is still a work in progress. For that reason I consider the $6 entrance fee with senior discount to be excessive.

Most of our time on the second day in Santa Fe were spent visiting the museums in the center of the city. These were the Georgia O’Keefe Museum (http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/ ) which was interesting and had the added attraction of a special exhibit—Miguel Covarrubias: Drawing a Cosmopolitan Line; the New Mexico Museum of Art (http://www.museumfoundation.org/muse...-museum-of-art ) which gives a history of New Mexico’s art; the Museum of New Mexico (http://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/ ) for those who want to know the history of New Mexico well laid out with artifacts, exhibits, photos and descriptions, and the attached Palace of the Governors which gives more of the same connected to a specific site, the “palace” itself.

The next two days became modified planned days. On the first day we drove up to Taos with the intention of visiting the pueblo, the Fechin House and the Harwood Museum of Art. On the drive up we stopped at an overlook to look at the scenery and take pictures. As I took my last picture I felt an intense stinging and burning pain on my knee. It was so bad that I immediately pulled down my pants and knocked off my knee what looked like a small black spider. The intense pain lasted an hour—the time to drive to the tourist office, get directions to an Urgent Care clinic and be seen by its nurse practitioner to be given a Claritin pill and an ice bag for the knee. The pain was eventually reduced to an itch that lasted a week. We then drove to the Taos Pueblo, but the road was under construction, so we had to wait for a shuttle van to go to the pueblo. We decided that too much time would be lost, so we left the parking lot and drove back to the Fechin House. It is now the Taos Art Museum (http://www.taosartmuseum.org/ ). The house is an adobe house that was modified by Fechin. It has been restored and a good deal of his furniture remains, so that the house is a combination of Southwest adobe and Russian folk. I fell in love with the downstairs wall made of a white clay adobe mixed with straw—the straw can be seen, which means that the soft white is original to the design; the coloration in the picture is quite representative: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...57622984070940. The nice thing about the house is that the original furnishings have been left intact, including all the kitchen and bathroom fixture. The art downstairs is Fechin, the upstairs contained a special exhibition of a contemporary artist of mediocre quality. We had lunch in the back where outdoor tables are available. The Harwood Museum of Art (http://www.harwoodmuseum.org/ ) was disappointing, with mainly contemporary works on the walls. While driving around Santa Fe and then to Taos we had noticed how much the landscape was close to Gustave Baumann prints, or rather realized how realistic his prints actually were. We had hoped to find some larger collection of his work on view, saw a few in Santa Fe, and thought, wrongly as it turned out, that we should find more of his work in Taos. A subsequent reading tell us that he was very distinctly a Santa Fe artist.

On our return to Santa Fe we took the high road. We stopped by the Rancho de Taos and the Trampas church which have wonderful exteriors but which were closed (it had been the same years earlier). We arrived in Chimayo too late to see the interior.

On the second day, I thought of going to Bandelier National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/band/index.htm ) and then stop by Chimayo on the way to Las Vegas. But it turned out that going to Las Vegas was too far, so we visited Bandelier and then drove to Abiquiu and from there to Chimayo to see the interior on our way back to Santa Fe. We visited Bandelier on the last day of the season when a shuttle bus transfer was required. We spent the morning there, took the shuttle bus back and then picnicked at the visitor’s center (there are tables outside, but no shade—a hat is essential). During high season, a visit to Bandelier would take much longer. For one thing, the lines for the shuttle may be longer and one might not get the first bus out. When visiting the archeological site, one can climb the ladders to look in what remains of the cliff dwellings. But these location can take at most three people at the top, and people want to have their photograph taken at the top of the ladder; all of which represents waiting time.

On our last day back to Albuquerque we took the back road along the eastern slope of the Sandia Peak. Nice scenery, but the towns were not particularly appealing, especially Madrid which turned itself into a gaudy tourist emporium (from what we saw driving through the town).

Here are the pictures of the trip added to pictures taken on previous trips:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca...984070940/show
Michael is offline  
Old Nov 10th, 2014, 04:17 PM
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We were at Bandelier the same day! I told my husband that I was glad we picked the fall and not the high season to visit.

Sorry about your spider bite.
wtm003 is offline  
Old Nov 11th, 2014, 03:57 AM
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Sounds like a very nice trip. I love Bandolier, but usually go off season and also visit Tsankawi, the more remote area about 5 miles closer to Santa Fe, never any crowds there. Has the damage from the floods last year been fixed?

Thanks for the report.
emalloy is offline  
Old Nov 11th, 2014, 08:14 AM
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There is no evidence of damage at the center in the canyon, but I think that the barriers are meant to be permanent, at least until the burned out area has sufficient growth to retain the waters.
Michael is offline  
Old Nov 11th, 2014, 10:30 AM
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Thank you for the restaurant reviews. The eating choices in Santa Fe are mind boggling.
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Old Nov 11th, 2014, 01:36 PM
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Thanks for the nice report!

We're planning a weekend in Santa Fe, probably in February. Does the Guadalupe Inn have refrigerators in the rooms?

Lee Ann
ElendilPickle is offline  
Old Nov 11th, 2014, 04:17 PM
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We did not have a refrigerator in the room.
Michael is offline  
Old Nov 11th, 2014, 10:29 PM
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Next time, La Choza instead of The Shed.

Glad you had a nice visit, you should have come a week earlier to see the balloons - they were especially grand this year.
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