The town with the really long name...

Click on the photo for a slide show of Santa Fe.

In case you were wondering, I took a day off from blogging yesterday. It was a travel day, which means there is always lots to do. The weather has been cool (upper 60's to lower 70's for highs), ever since we got to Arizona and New Mexico. It has been gusty, rainy, and today we had hail.

Nevertheless, we have been having a wonderful time. The drive from Gallup to Santa Fe was pretty uneventful, except that it did involve some altitude changes again. Gallup is at 6,400 feet; Holbrook is at 5,000; Albuquerque is at 5,200; and then in the 55 miles from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, we had to rise to 7,000 feet. In fact that rise occured mostly in the last 1/3 of the drive from Albuquerque.

The drive was pretty easy, if you factor out the road construction and the downpours, but Sadie is not really fond of climbing steep grades when she starts above 5,000 feet. In spite of that, she did fine. It was the people behind us that suffered. (Yes, Charlie, I do remember when you chided me for buying an RV and being the guy you always get behind on a hill with no passing lane.) Fortunately, I25 from Albuquerque to Santa Fe is 4-6 lanes all the way. Jill got some nice landscape photos that begin our slide show for today.

Our sightseeing outing for today included going to the Rodeo Road Baptist Church. Unfortunately, they had published the wrong time for their worship service on their website, so we missed that. We found the Grace Community Church and went in, but they were in the middle of the sermon. So, we went to Tortilla Flats and had New Mexican food for breakfast. It was pretty wonderful, and Jill thinks she can duplicate it.

After breakfast we went back to the Trailer Ranch RV park where we are staying, changed our clothes and caught the bus for downtown Santa Fe. What a treat. (No, not the bus, although that was not bad.)

Santa Fe is a charming town that has remained true to its Spanish/Mexican heritage. It was founded in 1608 by Don Pedro de Peralta, on orders from his superiors in the Catholic Church in Mexico. The official name given to the town by Peralta was "La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís", or "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi." Santa Fe (I'll just use the short-hand name; I think you can follow which town we are talking about) became the capital of Neuvo Mexico in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in the U. S.

The Spanish, Indian and Catholic influences are all readily apparent in the architecture of many of the buildings in Santa Fe. As you look at the slide show, you will see the Basilica of St. Francis, the Loretto Chapel (more about that in a moment) and the Church of San Miguel. There are photos of a number of other buildings as well, but you will notice the architectural themes in everything from government buldings to hotels to shops and churches.

Loretto Chapel has an interesting history. It seems the chapel was built two stories tall, but the architect somehow forgot to include a stairway from the ground floor to the second floor. The nuns who were connected to the chapel prayed for a solution. Shortly thereafter, there came an itinerant carpenter, who made a spiral staircase which uses no center post and no nails. It is called the "Miracle Staircase."

San Miguel church, as you will see in one of the photos, was built in 1610 and is the oldest church building in the U. S. We were unable to go inside, because a wedding was in progress. The same was true at Loretto chapel. So, in spite of their age, and in contrast to the Mission church in Zuni, these churches are alive and being used.

Across the street in front of San Miguel church is an area called the Barrio Amolca (I think). It is said to be the oldest neighborhood in the U. S. Across the street beside the church is a house, made of adobe, which is said to be the oldest house in the U. S. I don't know if this means that it is the first house built or the oldest house that is still standing. At any rate it is a tribute to the durability of adobe construction, as are a number of other buildings made of adobe, including the Barrio and San Miguel church itself.

In the center of the town is a square, called "The Plaza" by the locals. It is very similar to the town square, called "Zocolo" in Oaxaca, Mexico, which I visited many years ago. Given the history of Santa Fe, I was not surprised to see this feature.

Today happened to be the opening day for the Museum of New Mexico History, a couple of blocks from the Plaza. That fact, coupled with the fact that this is a holiday weekend, probably account for the crush of people we found in the downtown area. There was a line about two blocks long of people waiting to get into the museum, which definitely accounts for the fact that Jill and I did NOT go in. As much as we love history and museums, we hate standing in lines.

We also walked by the State Capitol. It's the one in the pictures that shows part of the Seal of the Great State of New Mexico. The front of the building is hidden behind some beautiful trees. In spite of their beauty, I was not happy that they blocked my view of the capitol.

Having finished our self-guided walking tour, complete with rain squalls and hail storm, we headed back toward the bus stop. Along the way, we encountered a fun art show in an alley, and then we came back to the Plaza (which just seems like it ought to be the Zocolo).

We smelled a wonderful aroma wafting across the street, so we crossed over to the Plaza, and there we found a street vendor selling fajitas and such. It was too much for our resistance. Jill had a chicken fajita, and I had a chile relleno burrito. It was the perfect end to our day of exploring this beautiful city.