Route 66 Santa Fe day trip

Mindy took us to Santa Fe for a day trip to see the city and do some shopping. I'm counting it as a continuation of our road trip, since an older alignment of Route 66 went through Santa Fe before a vengeful outgoing politician had the bypass route through Albuquerque built! We followed as much of the old road as we could on our way there.

But first, we visited the Academy, where Mike's cousins went to school (6th-12th grades). It's a big campus to make room for the middle school, upper school, and additional athletic and educational facilities accommodating some 1400 students.



We did see the occasional signs of the old road on our way northeast from Albuquerque.



Much of the route is now surrounded by Indian territory, including a number of pueblos (villages). We saw the remains of some old-style adobe houses (in various states of repair).



Mindy's job as a pharmacist has taken her into the pueblos to serve the native population, so we pulled off the road to drive through San Felipe pueblo. Photography is forbidden within the town, but among the gravel-paved village were some really interesting gems. We saw the round adobe kiva, an enclosed space that is used for religious and social ceremonies that are obscured from outsiders. There was also a stunning adobe church with murals on the front face. The people of San Felipe, like many tribes, adopted Catholicism from the Spanish, and practice a complex blend of Roman rites and native ritual.

One thing we could photograph, leaving the pueblo proper, is the tribe's major business investment.



Santa Fe is a pretty town, particularly in the vicinity of the Plaza at the Palace of the Governors, the old main square. Even new architecture is done in the pueblo style to maintain the original appearance.



After getting lunch we parked close to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis and checked out the church.





The beautiful baptismal font was particularly lovely.







We headed to the La Fonda, a historic old hotel in Santa Fe that was bustling with activity.





The front desk:



These light fixtures are a modern take on an old-fashioned art form. Punctured tin was used for lamps when glass was expensive and hard to come by, and increasingly complex puncture designs became a means of artistic expression.







Part of the seating for the hotel restaurant is in an enclosed plaza with a balcony.





The view of St. Francis from La Fonda and the Plaza:



We walked through the Plaza, which is surrounded by shops and, on one side, the old Palace of the Governers. Along the front of the palace, under a shady walkway sits a row of native artisans selling jewelry and other small items. Only Indians are allowed to set up their wares along the walkway, and most if not all are the actual craftspeople who produced the objects for sale. We walked by once and checked out the items, and a collection of small decorated pots caught my eye. Unfortunately the seller wasn't there at the time, but when we came by again later I bought a small round pot with a notched edge (unfortunately I didn't think to take a picture before the seller wrapped it up for me!) The significance of the shape molded into the edge of the pot is a representation of the stairs down into the kiva.

Santa Fe has a number of museums, and we opted to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum. There was a curated exhibit on the reciprocal influences of photography and painting, which was inspired by O'Keefe's marriage to photographer Alfred Stieglitz and the way their respective artistic visions were shaped by the relationship. (Again, unfortunately, no photos allowed!)

After the museum we visited the Loretto chapel. No longer an active church since the Sisters of Loretto sold the property, it functions primarily as a museum.







The most famous sight in the chapel is the "miraculous staircase," a spiral stair constructed without central or external supports. The story is that the sisters prayed a novena for help constructing a way into the choir loft (ladders being too unladylike), and at the end of the novena an unnamed carpenter showed up at their door and began construction. The resulting stairs were a technical marvel, but he left before he could explain his technique or even get paid for his labor.







The bannister was added after the fact to make the stairs more safe, but a mock-up image shows the original appearance of the staircase.



Before leaving Santa Fe, we got ice cream and took a walk along Canyon Road, a long stretch of road containing many art galleries.



Mindy obliged us and took a picture of us together.



There were several neat sculpture gardens, including this awesome wind garden! Photos don't do it justice but I failed to get a video of the sculptures in motion.



Driving back to Albuquerque on the highway, Mindy pointed out the Old Chief, who you can see lying down in the distance with his hands on his chest.



On the southbound road, we kept a sharp eye out for "the Notch," a cut into the top of a high ridge that was made to allow the passage of old Route 66. A dirt roadbed is still visible threading through the cut.



We spent last night finishing our laundry and re-packing for the camping portion of our trip. I expect internet access to be intermittent at best over the next four days (two nights at Mesa Verde and two at the Grand Canyon!) so there may or may not be posts over the next several days, but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and save my stories for later!