Santa Fe!!

We thought we'd play "tourist" this weekend and visit Santa Fe. It's actually very close to Albuquerque for those of you who need a brush-up on geography :) It took us about 45 minutes to get from our door to "The Plaza," which is the main spot to check out if you're just visiting Santa Fe. The 75 mph speed limit through the desert certainly helps quite a bit! Anyways, we left about 1:30 on Saturday. The drive was fairly fast and the scenery was pretty nice...a few mesa areas, some random bushes, mountain ranges, etc.

We got to the plaza and found a pretty cheap parking garage about a block from the main center. The area is full of culture, including lots of jewelry shops, clothing stores, restaurants, etc. Unfortunately, everything is WAY overpriced since it's the main touristy spot (similar to "Old Town" in ABQ). We went into a jewelry shop with some beautiful merchandise and was offered a "deal" on a bracelet Cari liked of $350...um...no thanks! After window-shopping a little more, we made our way to the New Mexico History Museum, which was free this weekend...how convenient! Outside of the museum were many Native American vendors, selling hand-made merchandise. Very cool and authentic.

The museum is in the renovated "Palace of the Governors," which is the oldest continuously occupied public building in the United States. This site has a lot of info on the actual building itself, so if you want a history lesson, feel free to read through it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_the_Governors). The museum was pretty nice...there was a "Through the Lens" exhibit on one side which displayed the history of New Mexico through photography. The other side was the "permanent" half, which included all sorts of artifacts and timelines about New Mexico's history. There were also various sections of the building itself that were preserved and displayed. It was crazy to see the things they had on display (old revolvers, Rough Riders badges, etc)...I think my appreciation for history (especially living in this culture) has grown a great deal since I've been here.

Aaaanyways, we took some pictures of the plaza, a big cathedral close by, and the monument located in the center of the plaza. Then we walked down to a restuarant called Tomasita's which was in an old train station. The walk was further than we thought, especially with open parking spots close by. However, the food was incredible...traditional New Mexican. Also, the margaritas were one of the best I've had. Cari is getting a little tired of Mexican/New Mexican food, but I don't think I could ever get sick of it. After our dinner, we waddled back to the car and headed home. There was rain all around us, but we never drove through any of it. It's incredible to see the clouds and the rain out here. Since everything is so wide-open, you can see the streaks of rain and the area to where it's isolated.

Hope everyone reading this is on Facebook. If so, you can check out pictures of our trip on my profile. We are ready for some visitors (in case you hadn't picked up on that yet), so if anyone is ready to come out, let us know!! Love you guys!!