September 29-30, 2015

God day everyone.

Yesterday 29th, we took a ride down the road to Sandia Park where Tom played a round of golf.  The Paa-Ko course is up in the hills of New Mexico where the thin air contributes to longer shots.  Alice caught Tom on 2 of the par 3 holes.  Thankfully downhill.

Today we decided to go back into the city, but wait, where's Grammie?  She was with Tom yesterday taking pictures.

The colors of the fabrics were very vibrant.

We thought we got out of there cheap but, once we got back to the room, there was an e-mail notifying that a purchase of $522.37 was made.  Yeah, we got back on the phone pronto?  No problem, just a repetitive keystroke.

On the way to the plaza center, we stopped at a business that featured a lot of local work, but a lot of it is imported from Mexico.

A lot of the items are made of recycled metal...repurposed and painted.

Tom was trying on a new golf hat.

Grammie posing on the Old Santa Fe Trail

In the Plaza area, we had a fajita for lunch from the local wagon.

The plaza is where musicians ply their talent for contributions to supplement their income.

Several were obviously college students, but not this one.

 There is a tremendous amount of jewelry, pottery and clay items made by local artisans.

Pottery faces

Tired of walking, the city has a great bus system that keeps 

circling the city as well as tour buses and other local rides.

Not a good idea to go to the local pastry shop in the afternoon.  

The shelves were bare. Oh wait, maybe that is a good thing.

We also went to the New Mexico Museum of Art to see more 

Georgia O'Keefe art that was borrowed from just down the street. 

Unfortunately, no pictures of the O'Keefe allowed.

We also inquired about a tour of the O'Keefe home 

but, tours have been booked for the next 2 weeks.

Another great day in Santa FE.  Two notes, purchases of Artwork are tax free.  Purchases of other items range in the 8.3% area.  

One other note, we were in a store that had T-shirts for sale for $9.95. When Tom was up at the counter to pay for the shirt, he noticed a credit card slip for $4500.  When Tom was leaving the store, he was happy with his purchase.

September 28, 2015

A wonderful day in a wonderful, exciting colorful city filled with lots of creative talent.  Artists from all over the world come to Santa Fe to showcase their talent from early Native American artistry, antiques, early american art, to abstract, folk art, both national and international...to contemporary.  An art lovers paradise.  Tina, if you are watching, this is a place for you.
We began the day at the State Capitol building.  It is known as the peoples house.  The walls display many, many pieces of art from people, both young and old, in all different art medium.
The building is known locally as the "Roundhouse"   The Rotunda

Woven paper

A Peace quilt from a 5th grade, completed the spring after nine-eleven

A poster seen in the media office located in the building.

 Low Rider Heaven!!

 The simplistic House Chamber.

Buffalo

If you look carefully, retail and handwoven woven magnetic tape, brushes, wire, quilting/applique 

 Oils

The "Roundhouse"

Since it is a walking city, we did but we also took a riding tour.

Following, the sights of the city. 

Nations oldest church structure.

Is this edible or just a decoration?

 Chiefs Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Red Cloud

Historic Route 66

 The Cathedral Bascilica of St Francis of Assisi

We visited the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. 

Petunia Number 2

 Lake George - Autumn 1922

The Plaza.

 If you want to be close to the action, and take a load out of your wallet...  The hotel La Fonda

Artwork displays

Bronze castings

 

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Canyon Alley will take you up the hill to many more galleries and studios.  The  higher you go, the more high end.

...and we haven't even touched on the pottery and Native American hand crafts. Right outside the Palace of the Governors POG (an area restricted to Native Americans and their work)  one can see their handiwork...all for sale.  Palace of the Governors

Thanks for keeping track of Grammie.  We hope you enjoyed last nights the eclipse.

September 27, 2015

Hi everyone.
We woke up to a sunny, cloudless day.

Tom took a shot of some people taking a balloon ride.  No wind, perfect conditions.

On the road to Santa Fe, we drove by the Rachael Carson National Forest.  There particular stop was an area of rock that made for a good echo.  The little kids in the center location had no idea they could be heard so well.

 Tom was experimenting with the panoramic setting.

Another half hour down the road we decided to visit the city of Los Alamos, instrumental in the development of the Atomic device that brought a quicker end to WWII. The Bradbury Science Museum has many displays.  Today the Los Alamos National Laboratory continues to work on national security as well as other ideas to make lives better and safer. Today, the National Lab employs almost 10,000 people and has a budget of over 2 billion.  For more information about the museum, visit this link  Bradbury Science Museum

The museum was informative however, there is another side of nuclear radiation that people from the area are still trying to put forth...as well as other problems.  New MexicoThreats

For those of you who went to sleep early...

 Good night everyone. Tomorrow, the rush of a big city.

September 26, 2015

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Today was a wind down day with repacking things we used during the week and getting ready to leave in the morning by 10.  We took a couple of walks to gather in some more daily sun.  Living in this climate requires one to drink more water to prevent dehydration.  Even with that, if you are not used to the altitude, one becomes tired sooner.  Siesta Time!

At the end of the day, Tom took a couple of pictures with 2 different settings, trying to get the best color effect.

 The sky was pretty, now if we could only move the mountains into the background.

Tomorrow, we head to Santa FE, New Mexico.  Our list of to do's has at least one thing on it.  Visit the State Capitol.

Overall a pleasant day!   Tomorrow, day 26.

September 25, 2015

Hi again everyone.
First of all, I have added an archive on the right side of the blog so viewers can check back on previous dates.  This blog goes back more than 3 years.  The 2nd picture of Treasure falls is what it looked like back on May 9, 2012.

Today we decided to take a little drive up to Wolf Creek Pass.  It was about 30 miles back east.  On the way we stopped at Treasure Falls. The drop in height of the falls is 105 feet.

Treasure Falls May 9, 2012

 Tom trying not to fall in.

 Before we left to head to Wolf Creek Pass, there was an obvious smell of overheated brakes. Noticing some women looking under the hood of a vehicle Tom asked if they needed any help. They were looking for a place to add brake fluid, although they didn't have any to put in.  Tom assured them the vehicle was not low on brake fluid however, he told them that riding the brake down the 7 mile long 7 percent downgrade was the cause of the problem.  Advising them to let the brakes cool down a bit was also mentioned.

After the falls, we continued up the long hill as we were heading in the direction from which they came.

Wolf Creek ski center.  A good place to get exercise however the elevation above 9000 feet would probably cause one to tire more easily.

With a tail like that I would say that it eats well.

Finally making it to the top of the continental divide. 

Tom has one foot on each side of the emblematic divide.

This partial map of the US shows where the Continental divide cuts across the west.

 

A biker on a months vacation offered to take a picture.

There was a dirt road that went even higher above the divide. We finally topped out at 11,745 feet.
The view was tremendous but you could tell the air was getting quite thin.

Once we started heading down the very long hill back to Pagosa Springs, there was a trailer with a very wide load heading up. With a police escort, the load was taking up 2 lanes....the travel lane and the passing lane.  There was quite a long line of vehicles wanting to pass this load probably doing on 30 mph. 

Enough excitement for one day.  Thanks for keeping a watch out for Grammie.