Friday, August 30, 2013

… explore a few of Santa Fe’s attractions …

… after doing a few errands that took way too long. Technically, our lengthy stay at the Santa Fe Jewelry Supply Co. was spent looking at beautiful turquoise stones, tools, benches, etc.! 

Next was the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; a small space, the museum owns nearly half her lifetime output of 2000 paintings and sketches. Two excellent movies about O’Keeffe are shown in constant rotation, and both showcased things we had seen the day before – where she lived and what she painted. My favorite takeaways from the guided tour: O’Keeffe developed her own paint colors, and placed paint numbers on some of her sketches which matched the finished works, much like a paint-by-number canvas. One of five sisters, she had the childhood nickname of Queen Georgia because she was so demanding.  She loved bones and thought of them not as a sign of death and decay but of endurance.

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We strolled down the street to the New Mexico Museum of Art, a pleasant space with a wide variety of exhibits. We were particularly interested in seeing the Clovis points on display, having recently learned that the greatest cache of Clovis points in the world is in the Maryland/Delaware area, including excavations near Baltimore. Leaving the Museum, we saw what we thought was a hummingbird. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a Sphinx moth. Who knew? 

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From there we walked to the Plaza, and shopped the authentic and beautifully-made native wares displayed on the wide porch of the historic Governor’s Palace. The Governor’s Palace is the oldest government building in New Mexico.

Tired and hungry, we drove to the Train Station for a lovely dinner at Tomasita’s, recommended by Steve Coffman. The meal was fantastic, especially the sopapillas, served stuffed with meat as a main course, or filled with ice cream as dessert. They were also our bread with a delicious honey butter… 

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On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the lovely Santuario de Guadelupe, which happens to be the oldest shrine to Our Lady of Guadelupe in the US. The church is surrounded by beautiful rose gardens.

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An outstanding day!

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