Santa Fe, New Mexico - Part 1

Since we got carried away in our last extremely long blog post and tons of photos, future posts will be shorter for a quick read and easier download!  The Santa Fe blog posts will consist of six parts, since we stayed there for six weeks!  Here is Part 1.

Roadrunner - New Mexico's State Bird

At 404 years old, Santa Fe is the oldest capital city in the United States and is situated in the high desert at 7,000 feet above sea level.  Santa Fe is 37 square miles with a population of 68,642.  Like Florida, Santa Fe averages 300 plus days of sunshine per year, but lower humidity!!

We were surprised at how brown everything looked in Santa Fe because of the style of architecture.  The three main styles of architecture in Santa Fe are Pueblo, Territorial and Northern New Mexico.  In the oldest parts of the city, new buildings, additions and remodels must conform to one of the styles identified below:

Pueblo Style

Inspired by Native American adobe buildings and Spanish mud-brick churches, the Pueblo style features earth-colored stucco walls with an adobe-like appearance, rounded corners at intersections, brick flooring, rows of vigas and flat roofs drained by canals.  Although at one time there were mostly one-story, today’s Pueblo-style buildings are often multi-storied. 

Territorial Style 

The Territorial style is similar to the Pueblo style but features sharp-cornered walls, brick coping around the roofline and wood-trimmed windows.  For the Northern New Mexico style, the area’s early settlers added pitched roofs to their Pueblo-style homes to facilitate snow runoff and prevent destruction to their roofs and homes.

Santa Fe KOA

We arrived at the Santa Fe KOA RV Campground on Labor Day, September 1. The KOA was a small park set in a canyon within a canyon, so we were told.  The weather was still warm enough for the hummingbirds and Scrub Jays to frequent our backyard amongst the juniper and pine trees. 

We were at Trader Joe's and next door was a Wild Bird store, so we stopped and decided to buy a hummingbird feeder and another bird feeder.  One hummingbird discovered our feeder, but then the season was over.  The Scrub Jay continued to visit the other bird feeder for the rest of our stay.

There were so many things to do and see in Santa Fe and the surrounding area that we rarely had time to just sit and relax at the RV. 

  

Railyard and Farmer’s Market

To get the lay of the land, we visited the Railyard and Farmer’s Market in the Guadalupe District near downtown Santa Fe.  It was a quaint little area with a train station for the “Rail Runner Express,” featuring a roadrunner as its logo.  One day we were driving on the highway at night and saw three lights coming toward us…it was the Rail Runner Express travelling between the north and south lanes of the highway!  

The Railyard was bustling with people that day as local artists displayed their wares.  In the heart of the Railyard there were contemporary art galleries, independent bookstores, one-of-a-kind boutiques and numerous cafes.  

As we strolled down the tracks we found the Farmer’s Market, one of the top 10 markets in America, with fresh vegetables, poultry, meats, eggs straight from the farm, beautiful bouquets of flowers, baked goods, jams, jellies, handmade soaps, a local vocal artist, and one of the many bicyclists in this region, named Paul.  He stopped and offered to take our photo, as it was obvious we were tourists.  




He was delightful and suggested places to eat, especially for dessert, which got Sharon’s attention!  We later saw him riding along the highway near our RV campground.  He had to be in his 70’s but very fit.  We ate lunch at The Flying Star Café recommended by Paul and Sharon had to try a dessert.  Delicious!

Canyon Road

One place we planned to visit but ran out of time was Canyon Road, an art lover’s mecca.  It is a mile long and is Santa Fe’s most famous street.  There are art galleries showcasing contemporary sculpture and paintings, works by old masters and traditional Native American weaving, ceramics and jewelry.  With its beautifully preserved and restored adobe and Territorial style homes, Canyon Road is architecturally artful as well. From its beginnings 250 years ago as a prehistoric footpath between indigenous settlements along the Santa Fe River and the Pecos Pueblo across the mountains to the east, Canyon Road is now home to more than 100 of the world’s finest art galleries, containing works by the Taos and Santa Fe artists of the late 1800s and early 1900s as well as those by modern masters and has become a premiere art-buying destination known around the world.   We will surely take this walk when we return to Santa Fe someday.

The Plaza/Downtown

Back in the day, more than 400 years ago, the historic Plaza, originally a presidio, or fort, was the epicenter of Santa Fe life, government and commerce.  The Plaza was established in 1610 by Don Pedro de Peralta.  Today, the Plaza is lined with fabulous shops (lots of turquoise jewelry and bead shops for Sharon), restaurants, art galleries and museums.  Some of the city’s finest hotels, such as La Fonda on the Plaza, and some of the oldest landmarks are just a block away, making the Plaza and downtown area an ideal place to immerse yourself in Santa Fe’s past and present. Here is some of the artwork Sharon liked at some of the galleries.

 

Star of the Night - Rhupert

 













Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

The Plaza featured the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which was built between 1869 and 1887 by Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, and combines adobe, French-Romanesque and modern architectural styles in a breathtakingly beautiful sight both inside and out.



Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum

As we walked around the Plaza, huge sunflowers burst above adobe buildings against the blue sky.  The local Native American artisans displayed their handmade jewelry, pottery and other arts and crafts on blankets beneath the portal of the Palace of the Governors. 
The 900+ vendors represent forty-one tribes, pueblos, chapters and villages in New Mexico, the Navajo Nation, and parts of Arizona.  Strict rules are in place for those who sell their work under the portal and the rules emphasize authenticity (a maker’s mark is required on all goods), traditional materials, and handmade work produced as generations and generations of Native artisans have created it.

We toured the Palace, which was built with thick adobe walls in the early 17^th century, and is the oldest continuously occupied government building in the country.  It has seen Spanish soldiers, Pueblo peoples, Mexican governors, U.S. generals and territorial governors. It became the state’s first museum in 1909.  The Palace houses exhibitions, collections and artifacts to chronicle the history of Santa Fe, as well as New Mexico and the region. 

 

Linked to the Palace is the New Mexico History Museum which covers prehistory to today covering more than 500 years of history through the experiences of Native peoples, Spanish colonists, Santa Fe Trail riders, outlaws, the railroad, artists, scientists, hippies and more.



Trolley Tour

We enjoyed lunch at La Boca, a tapas restaurant which was very tasty.  Following lunch we took an open-air trolley tour around the city which opened our eyes to even more places to explore. Our tour guide shared the story of how people still think New Mexico is not part of the United States and that the state created a license plate that said “New Mexico USA”.  However, on the newer license plates the USA was removed. Too funny!

Loretto Chapel and its Miraculous Spiral Staircase

We also toured the Loretto Chapel, formerly a Roman Catholic Church built in the 1800s. Today the chapel functions as a museum and wedding chapel. The chapel’s “miraculous” spiral staircase is an architectural wonder; its construction is the subject of much speculation. It was built by an unknown carpenter who appeared in answer to the prayers of the Sisters of Loretto.

Simulation of how staircase looked
between 1878 and 1887 before
 the banisters were installed

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

“My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me.”

Sharon has been a longtime admirer of Georgia O’Keeffe, one of the 20^th century’s most significant artists.  The museum, which opened in 1997, is dedicated to the artistic legacy and life of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), and is the only museum in the world dedicated to an American female artist.  The museum’s collection of over 3,000 works comprises 1,149 O’Keeffe paintings, drawings and sculptures that date from 1901 to 1984.  Some of its special exhibitions are either devoted entirely to O’Keeffe’s work or feature some of her art combined with works by her American modernist contemporaries such as Ansel Adams featured during our tour.

O’Keeffe believed it was impossible to be taught how to paint a landscape.  She thought it was something an artist had to discover for herself; something she had to feel deep within her bones.  When she visited New Mexico, she learned quickly and never stopped being inspired by her surroundings.

After making her mark in New York, O’Keeffe became inspired by New Mexico’s natural beauty in 1917 when she traveled from Texas to vacation in Colorado.  She spent several days in New Mexico and instantly felt as if it were “her country.”  She couldn’t quite put her finger on what drew her to the land, but she thought maybe it was something in the air. She said that the sky, the stars and the wind were different.

Twelve years later, in the mid-1930s, she began roaming areas south of Taos.  She was completely inspired by the brightly colored red and yellow hills, the jagged white cliffs, the pale greens of the cedar trees, and the bleached desert bones she collected.  All of these natural New Mexican elements became subjects of her work through the 1940s.

In 1949, she made New Mexico her permanent home and continued to paint, draw and make pottery until her failing eyesight forced her to retire in 1984.  In 1986 she passed away at the age of 98 in Santa Fe.  Her ashes were scattered in the wind at the top of Pedernal Mountain, which is frequently featured in her paintings.

Museum Hill

The trip to Museum Hill was one that will go down in our history book!  The day began on 9/11 with a trip to drop our Jeep off to be detailed in town.  We rode our bikes a block away to visit the local fire station that was holding a 9/11 remembrance.  It was interesting to see all the history of the Santa Fe Fire Department and talk with the local Fire Chief and fire fighters.

We decided to ride our bikes to Museum Hill about 3 miles from the fire station.  The  “hill” was more than we could handle on bikes.  As the elevation continued to take us higher, and the breathing became more difficult, we would have to walk our bikes up the hills and ride down until we finally reached the museums in 1.5 hours!

The Milner Plaza, with its gardens, mountain views, sculptures and the hilltop café made the bike/walk trip to Museum Hill worthwhile.

Museum of Indian Arts & Culture

The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture featured 12,000 years of Southwestern Native American cultural history presented in an exhibition developed with Native consultants.  More than 1,000 objects and artifacts help tell the stories of creation, centuries of survival, and everyday life in today’s world. There are changing exhibitions developed from the museum’s collection of 10 million archaeological artifacts and traditional Native American art objects and a continuing display of 500 Pueblo ceramic pieces from ancient times to today.  No photos were allowed inside the museum.

The museum also featured a huge exhibit called Turquoise, Water and Sky. For over a thousand years, people in the Southwest have used turquoise for jewelry and ceremonial purposes, and traded valuable stones both within and outside the region. Turquoise stands for water and for sky, for bountiful harvest, health and protection.

The exhibit presented hundreds of necklaces, bracelets, belts, rings, earrings, silver boxes and other objects from the museum’s collection, illustrating how the stone was used and its deep significance to the people of the region.  The exhibit included all aspects of the stone, from geology, mining and history, to questions of authenticity and value. It is estimated that Native Americans had been working with turquoise about 1200 years before the Spanish arrived, with the heaviest mining taking place between AD 1350 and 1600.  Roughly 200 mines have been discovered throughout the Southwest, most believed to have been started by Native Americans, who used shaped-stone hammers, mauls and adzes to chisel the pieces of sky out of the rock.

Museum of International Folk Art

The collection of folk art in the Museum of International Folk Art was amassed by internationally recognized designer Alexander Girard.  Whether the topic is the folk art of Latin American mountain villages, metalwork of West Africa, intricate textiles of Eastern Europe, or the shadow-puppet tradition of Java, the museum’s exhibits explore cultures through their traditional arts.

 

 

The dynamic exhibitions are made compelling by the field research of curators who travel the globe to find folk artists and document vibrant cultural traditions, and to add to the collection of more than 135,000 objects.

The exhibit celebrates the rich Hispano folk tradition of animal woodcarving in New Mexico and its continued influence on the national and international scene. The exhibition highlights the historic roots of New Mexican woodcarvers, offering early twentieth-century examples of whimsical animals.  Carvers fostered the iconic images of friendly burros, howling coyotes, and Technicolor rattlesnakes, reaching deep into the popular culture of the southwestern United States.  These animal sculptures have become emblematic of Santa Fe’s cultural character.

Sharon was so exhausted from the trip up to Museum Hill, that Mike decided he would ride back to pick up our Jeep and return to pick up Sharon.  Mike had the ride of his life!  It was so much fun as it was downhill all the way and it only took Mike 15 minutes, hitting speeds up to 25 mph on his bike!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Santa Fe adventures!

“We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.”

Sydney Smith (1771 – 1845)