Santa Fe

June 24, 2018 and June 25, 2018 

Sunday, June 24, 2018

As much as I wanted to spend the day with my cousins, I also wanted to see two Albuquerque friends.  I met Molly Bell and Denise Cabrera about 25 years ago.  Rio Grande Display and Packaging was Beachwood Packaging’s largest account with us selling them truckloads of boxes throughout the year.    Molly Bell’s family owned Rio Grande until they sold the business to Berkshire Hathaway a few years ago and Molly is still a key player at the Company.  Denise Cabrera is one of their key buyers and someone I had worked with for many years.  Being so close to their home turf, I wanted to see them both if at all possible.

Molly, Denise and Molly’s husband Charles picked Dan and I up at our hotel.  We had transferred out of the condo into a Best Western Plus hotel since we were unable to extend our stay at the condo.  With Charles at the wheel, we headed out to Bandelier National Monument located 48 miles from Santa Fe near Los Alamos.   Molly had picked up a delicious picnic lunch which we all enjoyed upon reaching the park.  You have to take a shuttle offered by Atomic City Transit into the Park. We thought that the buses must have been fueled by nuclear power since the drivers drove way too fast along a twisting narrow road.

Bandelier is an archeological site and the ancestral home of the Cochiti, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Sal Ildefonso, Santa Clara and Zuni.  The Park itself is large consisting of 50 square miles of rugged canyon and mesa country.  Remnants of Pueblo and cliff dwellings are all that remains of a community that was home to about 2,000 people, 7 to 8 hundred years ago.    We followed a 1.2-mile path that took us past ruins of a huge kiva and the town center.  We were also able to climb ladders into some of the cave rooms the residents had carved out of the soft rock face of a mesa wall.  The valley was very fertile and numerous crops were grown, i.e. varieties of corn, squash, beans, and tobacco.  Ultimately the soil could no longer support their farming and the people moved on.  It is interesting to note that the Pueblo people are some of the very few Native Americans that did not lose their homes to the Spanish or the U.S. government.

Note:  We had always known about the terrible treatment Native Americans have received from the white man.  This trip only reinforced that understanding in the many places that we have recently visited and as I’m sure you all know; the problems for Native Americans have not gone away.    The only positive note is that the museums we visited don’t hide how poorly Native Americans have been treated in this country.

After spending several hours exploring the Park and taking part in a ranger tour, we headed back to Santa Fe.  We made a stop at a charming little restaurant along the way and enjoyed some delicious guacamole and very powerful margaritas.  Luckily Charles had ice tea and was our designated driver.

Dan and I had a wonderful day and really appreciated Molly, Denise and Charles spending their Sunday with us.  Staying in touch with old friends is one of life’s pleasures.

Monday, June 25, 2018

We got to spend today on our own.  We tried reconnecting with my cousins, but it just wasn’t meant to happen.  After breakfast we headed into Santa Fe with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum being our first stop.  It isn’t a large museum, but it basically follows O’Keeffe’s artistic development throughout her life.  There was also a short film which featured an interview with O’Keeffe when she was in her 90’s.  Her strength of character was clear and it wasn’t hard to see that it would take someone like her to become a groundbreaker in the use of “abstraction” in her art.  To me her paintings were able to communicate the beauty of the natural world to the viewer whether she was depicting scenes from her apartment window in New York City or from her home in New Mexico.  Her use of color and the magnification of nature makes her work not only come alive; but creates a feeling of a greater reality.

One of the many people we met along the way had said he had really enjoyed an exhibit about the development of the atomic bomb at the New Mexico History Museum.  The regular exhibits themselves were interesting because the history of New Mexico was rife with conflict i.e. Spanish conquistadors, Spanish American War, the Civil War, Indian Wars, etc.  We hurried through that part of the museum, because with only one day to spend in Santa Fe we didn’t want to spend it all in museums.  The exhibit regarding the development of the atomic bomb , the Manhattan Project, was interesting because it incorporated personal stories of people who were part of the program from the scientists themselves to the locals who provided them with housing and entertainment.

It was time to head to Canyon Road, the heart of Santa Fe’s art galleries.  Dan wasn’t too interested at first, but he learned it was a fun place to wander around.  Flowers and sculptures are everywhere, and the doors to all of the galleries are open and inviting.  We saw some beautiful things, and some not so beautiful things, but it was an enjoyable experience.  One exhibit in particular caught Dan’s attention.  Wiford Gallery sold the kinetic works of Lyman Whitaker. Witaker is a renowned sculpture credited for “capturing the spirit of the wind through his kinetic art.”  If you have seen those sculptures that turn in the wind at craft fairs, they are based on Whitaker’s designs.  Tucked behind other buildings we were WOWED by the large number of beautiful sculptures turning in the wind, along with some lovely water sculptures.  It was if the air all around us was alive.

We stopped for a cold drink at a cute little place and relaxed a bit before moving on. Santa Fe is full of shops that specialize in Native American art including pottery, weaving, and jewelry.    I noticed a little pottery shop right next door, “Pottery of the Southwest” which had some absolutely beautiful pieces.  I have a small collection of Native American pottery and ended up buying a small piece along with some turquoise earrings.   It’s hard not to buy something when in Santa Fe.

Buying those earrings started a bad precedent, I wanted more.  Molly had told me of a fine jeweler called “Ortega’s on the Plaza”.  They are one of countless places selling jewelry, but I felt comfortable purchasing there with Molly’s recommendation.  The selection of jewelry was amazing, but I managed to find an interesting bracelet that I purchased under the guise that our anniversary is coming up next month.

Our last stop for the evening was dinner at the Coyote Café.  It was on a rooftop and offered Southwestern style food.  I would have been happy splitting 3 fish tacos with Dan, but for some reason he ordered fancy nachos.  I don’t remember the last time we ordered that “healthy” dish, but it was huge.  We made it through the tacos, but the nachos looked about the same when they took the plate away as they did when they arrived at our table.  Good thing we had to walk back to the car before heading back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we are off to Roswell and Carlsbad.