Meow Wolf's "The House of Eternal Return" in Santa Fe, New Mexico

In 2016, no trip to Santa Fe is complete without a stop at Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf is an art collective based in Santa Fe. In March of this year, its permanent art complex opened in a former bowling alley, with help from George R. R. Martin (yes, that George R. R. Martin), the city of Santa Fe and a Kickstarter campaign.

A Dog-Friendly Trip to Santa Fe

Hi! It's me, Carson! I wanted to tell you about a trip that my mommy took me on last month to one of our favorite cities - Santa Fe, New Mexico.

My mommy likes Santa Fe for its arts, culture and food. I like it because everyone there loves doggies!

Weekend Adventures: Time to Play Tourist

Hello, friends! Raisin Bread and I had a fun and busy weekend. His friend/ex-co-worker from Virginia came for a visit so we spent the weekend seeing some of the sights of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

On Saturday, we drove the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe. We made stops in Sandia Park and Madrid.

I think I need to invest in a pair of cowboy boots. Thoughts?

After lunch, we went to Cerrillos to view Kevin Box's Origami in the Garden exhibition. I forgot to mention that this weekend was the hottest weekend we have had since moving to New Mexico. It was a high of 105 degrees! Being an outdoor sculpture exhibit, it was a toasty one. Carson had had it by the time we were half way through and we had to take turns carrying him.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

The artist working

We made it to Santa Fe in the afternoon and walked around The Plaza. There is so much to see in Santa Fe that we visit different shops each time we are in town.

In the late afternoon, we headed up to The Bell Tower Bar, which is located on the rooftop of La Fonda on the Plaza for some drinks and appetizers.

The pups love how dog-friendly New Mexico is!

On Sunday, we headed to an old favorite of mine: St. James Tearoom. This month's theme was "A Pirate's Life for Me."

In the afternoon, we visited The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. There was supposed to be an event going on, but we missed most of it. Instead, we decided to see the Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe exhibit, which is something I wanted to do anyway. 

Lady Gaga's shoes

Awesome men's boots

Neigh....

That evening we had dinner at Sandiago's at bottom of the Sandia Peak Tramway. I do not recommend, by the way. We barely made it on the tram for sunset because the service was so slow. 

This was my second time on the tram, but my first time during sunset. The mountains are so beautiful. I guess this is why they are called the Sandia (watermelon) Mountains! 

We stayed on the top until the sun fully set and waited to the city below us to light up.

Lights of the city

It took us an hour and a half of waiting to finally get down the mountain! We had to wait for three trams before we were able to make it on.

So that was the end to our weekend of playing tourist. It is always so great to have visitors!

Adventures in Santa Fe + the Tinkertown Museum

While my mom was in town last week, we took a little overnight trip to Santa Fe. All of my previous trips to Santa Fe have been day trips, so it was nice to go at a bit of a slower pace.

We left Albuquerque after lunch and made the one hour drive to Santa Fe. Our first stop was the very beautiful but very expensive Nedra Matteucci Galleries. 

The gallery is housed in a huge historic adobe with a beautiful sculpture garden in the back. The garden was so peaceful.

The galleries and sculpture garden of Nedra Matteucci turned out to be my mom's favorite part of our trip to Santa Fe!

After seeing some art, we took a break at Kakawa Chocolate House. They specialize in drinking chocolate "elixirs" and had eight on the menu this afternoon. I had the chili chocolate elixir which was made of unsweetened chocolate, agave nectar, ancho chili and Mexican vanilla. It was super rich and creamy, and the small size was just the right amount.

Kakawa also sells house-made truffles, caramels and other chocolates. We had to purchase a few pieces to enjoy later.

We spent part of the afternoon at Prairie Dog Glass, learning to work with fire and glass. This is something I have always wanted to do, and I was so happy to learn how to do it with my mom. The session takes place over one hour and you can make as many pieces during that time as you can finish.

The class is very hands-on and it sure gets warm in there! The instructor was so patient, gave great directions and kept a close eye on what we were doing.

 My first piece was also my hardest. I made a bowl and afterwards my mom made a paperweight.

We still had about 20 minutes left on the clock, so I made a few flowers. It was hard to tell what our pieces would look like because they were still hot, and we couldn't take them home with us until the next day. I was so curious to see how they turned out!

We checked into the Hotel Santa Fe and had some time to rest. But I decided, instead, to hit the treadmill for a 2.5 mile run before getting washed up for dinner.

 

We visited Mu Du Noodles that evening. I ordered a Thai iced tea, and we shared the Singapore and Pad Thai noodles. Our server surprised us with a complimentary appetizer of green beans. The green beans and pad thai were both yummy, but the Singapore noodles were super salty. 

Mu Du Noodles would not make it on my recommended list. Too pricey for what you get. 

The next morning, we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at our hotel before going to explore the Plaza. 

The first attraction on our list was Loretto Chapel.

The chapel is known for its "miraculous" staircase. The staircase has no visible supports and was built using only wooden pegs. Also, the identity of the builder was never discovered. I must admit that it is a lovely chapel!

We made our way around some of the Plaza and visited the native jewelry makers, galleries and souvenir shops.

After exploring the Plaza and grabbing some lunch, we headed back to Prairie Dog Glass to pick up our finished glass pieces. These are my works of art: a bowl and three flowers. I couldn't take a photo of my mom's piece because they wrapped it up really nicely for her flight home. But I can tell you that it also turned out very nicely!

We hit the road after that to get back to Albuquerque. 

On my mom's last full day in town, we, along with Raisin Bread and the two pups, visited the Tinkertown Museum in Sandia Park.

Tinkertown began as the hobby of Ross Ward, who carved, collected and painted his miniature town over many years. He was a born tinkerer.



Although Ross Ward has now passed, his wonderful collection is open for the public's enjoyment. There was so much to see that it was hard to notice every little detail that was lovingly created.

I hope my mom enjoyed her first visit to New Mexico and will see us again soon!

A Day Trip to Santa Fe

We reached our destination of Santa Fe a short time after finishing lunch in Madrid.

If you missed that post, be sure to read it here:
- Albuquerque: Settling In and Driving the Turquoise Trail

Santa Fe is a very creative city and heavily into the arts. Naturally, our first stop was to see some art at SITE Santa Fe.

Next up, we did our own walking tour of The Plaza area.

We started off at Burro Alley.

We walked up to The Plaza. Along the way, there were a ton of beautiful buildings, including this one that had gates that opened up into a courtyard. 

One of the main buildings in The Plaza is the Palace of the Governors, an adobe structure from 1610 that once served as the seat of government. Now, it is the site of the New Mexico History Museum. Along the outside of the building Native American vendors set up their wares, including jewelry and pottery, for sale.

Along the square, many different architectural styles are represented, including this Italianate-style building called Catron Block.

...while the Museum of Fine Arts is an example of pueblo revival.

The Delgado House is another example of the differing architectural influences that can be seen in Santa Fe. This house is in the Victorian style and now houses an art gallery, S.R. Brennan Fine Art.

The Santa Fe Historic District has many art galleries of all styles, and we took our time visiting the ones that piqued our interest before continuing on our way.

As we walked around, we passed by the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, a number of other historic homes and the First Presbyterian Church.

We also came across this outdoor sculpture called "Santa Fe Current" of fish heads coming out of the gravel.

Everywhere we went there were these hanging strands of dried red chile peppers called ristas. I found them to be so cheerful and brought a lot of color to wherever they were.

Of course, I had to capture all of the beautiful colors we saw...

and the giant iguana hiding under the table. 

One of my favorite places we visited was Sena Plaza. The courtyard is like a green wonderland. Don't mind the very strange giant avocado sculpture. 

Sena Plaza is occupied by a restaurant and some boutiques. I just love the wooden stairs and second floor.

As we didn't have a lot of time, we didn't stop into many of the landmarks of Santa Fe. We were there mostly to admire the architecture and pop into a few galleries and shops here and there. 

One place where we did stop was St. Francis Cathedral. 

The cathedral was built by Archbishop Lamy (or as Raisin Bread kept calling him "Father Larry" because he misread the name) and was completed in 1886.

Bronze doors of St Francis Cathedral

Rose Window and Altar

One of the features I liked the most were the Stations of the Cross. I found out that they are actually not original to the cathedral but were added in the 1990s in the historical style. I loved the simplicity of the artwork.

We ended our walking tour at Loretto Chapel. Since it no longer functions as a church, the company that operates it actually charge an entrance fee. 

Outside the chapel is a tree covered in rosaries. I found it to be quite pretty. 

But what makes the chapel special is its spiral staircase, the so-called "miraculous staircase." It is called this because there is no visible or central support. For the time it was built, it took some innovation to create a staircase like this, and the Sisters of Loretto believed that St. Joseph himself built the staircase. 

After ending our walking tour, we came across part of the Old Santa Fe Trail while we were walking back to our car. 

We left the Historic District and drove to Museum Hill to spend a few hours that afternoon at the Museum of International Folk Art. This was the first museum of international folk art in the world and also holds the largest collection of folk art in the world. 

The collection is so expansive that it was very cool to be able to see so many and such different pieces all together in one place. 

While we were there, the museum had a temporary exhibition of Japanese kites on view which I totally loved. The exhibit was called "Tako Kichi," which means kite crazy. We even got to make our own kites.

We headed back to the Plaza for dinner at, of all places, The Plaza Cafe. I needed to start getting my fill of green chiles, so I ordered carne asada enchiladas with green chile. So yummy.

Our meal came with a basket of sopaipillas, which I would have many more of during our trip. Who doesn't like fried dough with honey?

Coincidentally, there was an antique car show going on this evening all along the square. We took some time after dinner to admire all of the cool cars that were on display. My favorite was the blue car with a matching hitch. So funny. 

Santa Fe is my kind of town. Tons of art, great food and amazing weather. I wished we had more time to explore the city, but I am definitely glad we were able to fit even one day in during this trip. We headed back to our abode in Albuquerque for a good night's rest before another fun-filled day in New Mexico!

The Plaza Cafe
54 Lincoln Avenue
Santa Fe, NM 87501