On to Santa Fe

Before receiving some difficult news, we had promised photos from the penultimate stop on our great summer adventure: Santa Fe, New Mexico.  And so that's where we'll pick up our reporting!  Like Taos and Chimayo, Santa Fe had architecture and views unlike those we'd ever seen on the East Coast!

While we took plenty of time to soak in the sights that Santa Fe has to offer, we also soaked in some of the other things the city is known for, including culture!

After visiting the Georgia O'Keefe museum, which was fantastic, we took advantage of free admission (and tested out the city bus system) on a visit to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

We also experienced some fantastic New Mexican food at Casa Chimayo, which is a terrific (and not particularly touristy) restaurant not far from the main plaza.

Do we look red because of the umbrella above us, or because we're slowly combusting from the spicy food?  Hard to say, really.  What's easy to say is that chiles rellenos are AMAZING!  Wow.

We also uncovered many other interesting things during our time in Santa Fe, including an absolutely enormous Farmer's Market...

...and Jackalope, a quirky sort of multicultural flea market next to our hotel that offers everything from a petting zoo...

...to glass that is blown on site...

...and pretty much anything else you could possibly think of.

All in all, we had a pretty nice time in Santa Fe, but it was soon time to return to Colorado.  That's why our fourth (and final) installment in this vacation wrap-up series will bring you a whirlwind tour of Manitou Springs.  It's tiny, awesome, and the New York Times describes it as a "hippie Mayberry."  Intrigued?  Tune in next time!

Mormor

Today we received the very sad news from Denmark that Charlotte's Mormor passed away.  

Mormor was an exceptionally kind, talented, and intelligent woman.  While I only had the joy of knowing her for four years, she influenced Charlotte tremendously for twenty-five.

 Charlotte's love of science and nature; her talent in arts, crafts, and cooking; and her beautiful smile and incredibly caring personality were all nurtured and impacted by Mormor.

Please keep Charlotte and her family in your thoughts as we take a brief break from our blog.

A town built on dirt

You may be saying to yourself, "What a stupid blog post title!  All towns are built on dirt."  Very astute.  Bear with me, though, and you'll see what I'm getting at.

After visiting Taos, NM for a couple wonderful days, we headed south to Santa Fe, via the "High Road," which is a tremendously scenic drive.  On our way, we were treated to some incredible views as we passed through several small villages.

One of these villages is Chimayo.  Based on our cursory examination of the town, Chimayo is mostly famous for two things.

Numero uno: amazing chile peppers, which (according to what I've seen online...and on my plate at a restaurant in Chimayo), are particularly delicious, thanks to the soil (aka dirt) and climate of Chimayo.  Preparing and eating them is an almost religious experience among the locals, it seems, and the peppers appear to provide a major source of income.

Numero dos: a sanctuario where, on Good Friday in 1810, light emanated from the dirt.  Some bright fellow back then noted that this is an unusual occurrence, and alerted some of his buddies.  They found a cross at the spot, built a sanctuary, and the rest is history.  Since then, hundreds claim to have been healed of all types of ailments by touching the dirt.  Like the peppers, visiting the sanctuary to get some of the dirt is, in fact, a religious experience.  Also like the peppers, the dirt seems to provide a major source of income now (through countless tourist items, including $2 plastic bags for "holy dirt.").

So, what's the verdict?  Well, we're certainly not sure if the soil in Chimayo is actually sacred, since I stupidly forgot to rub some on my nose to see if it would get smaller and/or cure my allergies.  However, between the peppers it produces and the interest it creates at the sanctuary, I think the residents of Chimayo are probably pretty darn pleased with what the dirt their town is built on.

Next stop: Santa Fe!

A Taste of Taos

Despite a very busy (and currently difficult) summer for Charlotte, we were fortunate enough to spend several days last week exploring the stunningly beautiful northern portion of New Mexico.  We spent our first couple days exploring the artsy community of Taos, which we discovered is quite different from our home base of Laramie.  

For one thing, everyone in Taos has an adobe abode-even us, thanks to the delightful "Sun God Lodge" that we spent a couple nights at.

Anyway, we spent a couple days poking around Taos, and some of our very favorite stops included:

A fantastic pottery studio filled with extremely friendly resident artists!

The amazing Taos Pueblo, where people have been living continuously for over 1,000 years, and making some awesome pottery, as well!  Here we also saw tons of adobe ovens, which caused us to want one even more than we already did!

The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which looks like it's pretty high above the Rio Grande, both when you're looking at it from a distance...

...and when you're standing on it!

We also thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the nearby Greater World Earthship Community, where we were able to tour one of the approximately 60 super energy-efficient homes that have been built to date in the community.

We also did our best in our limited time to sample some of the many delicious New Mexican foods available in Taos.  Biscochitos, chimichangas, green chile stews, and more, oh my!  Our stomachs quickly became the limiting factor...there's only so much you can sample in one day!

All in all, we had a wonderful, if brief, stay in Taos.  While Charlotte is definitely back in the real world here in Laramie, we're grateful for the time we were able to spend exploring together.  After Taos, we headed on to Santa Fe via the "High Road," and we'll aim to share some highlights from that with you in our next post.

Blog posts upcoming!

After an exhausting summer of fieldwork for Charlotte (more on that later), we're taking a little "vacation" here in New Mexico currently.  It's beautiful!

We're getting to see many beautiful, amazing and unusual places.

However, amidst all the scenery, we're doing our best to take lots of photos to share with all of you!

So stay tuned, and when we get back to Laramie, we'll share some of our travel highlights with you!  And, in the meantime, we hope you're all doing great!