New Mexico Road Trip - Santa Fe Day 1

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Our first full day in Santa Fe.  We had nothing planned for the day, so we slept in and had a leisurely morning.  We stopped at a grocery store on our way into Santa Fe yesterday and stocked up supplies, so we actually had things to eat for breakfast today.  We finished unpacking and got fully settled in and talked about what we wanted to do today.

Here is a pictorial map of Old Santa Fe.  I marked where we are staying with a red dot that is just down from the "A" in Santa Fe.  We are very near the Plaza that is diagonally to the right from where we are staying.  A great location with a lot of things to do and places to eat within walking distance.

A view of our apartment in the Lincoln.  On the first floor to the right is the property management office and the entrance to the residences is to the left of that.  We are on the third floor above the office, you can see our windows peeking over the balcony.  You can see we also had balconies on the right side of the building, but they overlooked the parking area and weren't really as nice as the front balcony.

Another view of the Lincoln.

The view from our balcony looking towards the Plaza that is down a block to the right.  City Hall was right across the street and there was a nice little park in front of it.

That's city hall in the background and there was a nice little park in front of it.

One thing we didn’t want to do was get in the car and drive anywhere and since we were in the heart of Old Santa Fe and only a block from the Santa Fe Plaza, we decided to walk around and explore the area.  We started walking towards the plaza, exploring some of the side streets and visiting some of the shops.  One of the shops we visited was the gift shop for the New Mexico History Museum that had some very nice things and Val bought herself a very nice shawl. There were also many interesting restaurants that piqued our interest for future meals

On one side of the plaza is the Palace of the Governors and in front of it there were many Native Americans selling their wares.  This was just the same as it had been when we were in Santa Fe many years ago.  We walked around the square stopping in some of the shops enjoying the bright sunny, cool morning.  Just off the Plaza is the iconic La Fonda Hotel so we stopped there.  A friend of ours had highly recommended the restaurant there so we made reservations for Friday night, our last night in Santa Fe.

These Native American vendors selling their crafts have been here as long as we have been visiting Santa Fe.

There were some shops inside La Fonda, and we visited one called Detours at La Fonda where we found an unexpected treasure.  Back in the early 90’s on a visit to the train museum in Sacramento, Val had discovered Mimbreno China in the museum gift shop. These were copies of the iconic tableware used on the passenger trains back in the heyday of train travel into the west and the national parks.  They were originally designed by Mary Colter for use on the Santa Fe Super Chief and used from 1937 all the way up to 1971 when the Super Chief service was discontinued.  The designs are based on the pottery of the Mimbres River Valley People from back in 1130 AD.

This is a picture of some of the pieces that are the same pattern that Val chose.

Val and I both really liked the designs and bought several different pieces of the set, and for quite a few years after that at Christmas and her birthday, Val would submit a list of additional dishes she wanted until she had a full set.  We still use them every day and still have the full set as they are very sturdy and hard to break.  We didn’t even know if they were still made, but there in the shop was a full display of them including the exact ones that we had.  One of the clerks came over and started talking to us about them and it turns out she was really interested in them and actually had collected some of the originals.

We talked with her for a bit, but Val already had everything she needed so we started to leave when I suddenly remembered that I had broken the lid of the sugar bowl, but I didn’t see it in the display.  I asked the clerk about it, and she took us downstairs where they had some additional pieces and there it was, the exact sugar bowl that we had so of course we bought it.  Val found one additional piece that she liked so we also purchased that.  This probably doesn’t sound very exciting to read, but this was the highlight of the day for us as we really like the dishes and the story behind them.

By now it was early afternoon, and we were getting hungry, so we walked back to the plaza and decided to eat at the Plaza Café.  It was a very nice day, and they had outside seating, so it was a perfect spot for lunch.  We both had a Frito Pie that seemed to be popular around here and it was very good, but it was too much for us to finish so there was enough left to take back for our dinner tonight. 

The Santa Fe Plaza

Val didn’t have any tea bags for her morning tea, so we made several unsuccessful visits to some shops looking for them, but there were none to be found.  By now it was mid-afternoon and time to return to our apartment as we had one more important task to take care of today.

After being on the road for ten days, we were running out of clean clothes and since there was a washer and dryer in the apartment, it was time to do laundry.  We spent the rest of the afternoon doing that and relaxing.  Dinner came and Val finished up the Frito Pie and since I wasn’t very hungry, I just had some vegetables and fruit and a few cookies for dessert.  The rest of the evening was spent watching a movie until it was time to call it a night.

Tomorrow we are getting back in the car again a taking a couple of the scenic byways in the area.

Scenic Drives Completed: 9 of 35

Scenic Drives Missed: 1