The Band at Tomasita's

We spent our last night in Santa Fe at a place called Tomasita's -- where we also got to hear an all-female mariachi band.

The Streets of Santa Fe

Saw this picture this morning, and it made me sentimental. Saw lots of silhouettes like this on my trip. :)

Sunset in Santa Fe

After Taos, we made our way back to Santa Fe, and spent the night out (another) really fun Mexican restaurant. While Betsy called her mother, I took a few shots of the city in the glow of the setting sun.

At the Market

So, I was really excited by the idea of Santa Fe's native arts market. Unfortunately, it all seemed to be the same stuff -- dashing my dreams of becoming some sort of guy-who-haggles-for-unique-things-in-a-market.

San Miguel Mission

San Miguel Mission claims to be the oldest remaining church in the United States, and is built like a pueblo on the outside. Of the 'famous' churches in Santa Fe, it was my favorite -- probably because it was a fusion of pueblo architecture and Catholic architecture.

The Loretto Staircase

One of the Things to See in Santa Fe is the Loretto Chapel, which houses a 'miraculous' staircase built by an itinerant carpenter who showed up in town on a mule.

It turns out, Betsy and I had both heard of this staircase, and (perhaps tellingly) had both seen it on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries as a kid.

Unfortunately, the staircase isn't as cool now as it used to be -- when it was built, it didn't have a banister, owing to its novel design. They added one later for 'stability and safety', and now it seems more like a normal spiral staircase.

The actually disturbing thing is that B remembers the theme to 'Unsolved Mysteries', and could actually whistle it on command. That, of course, is why I love her. :)

B Hooded

If Betsy seems a little browmpy here, it's not just from excess photography (a definite possibility even in the best of times), it's that we just saw the Georgia O'Keefe museum, which was a little underwhelming. I'm a big fan, and I was expecting rooms of Georgia O'Keefe -- what we got was one room, and then an exhibition of American painters and their use of photography. Which, given my monomania about photography, you'd think I would love. It was interesting, but.. I could see that sort of thing at SF Moma. I wanted more O'Keefe!

Later in the day, we complained to our concierge about this ("needed more O'Keefe!"), and she commiserated. "That's a frequent complaint from guests", she said.

The other reason Betsy was wearing her hoodie: It was actually cold in Santa Fe. Not only was it cold, we were actually briefly hailed on while there -- we had expected desert conditions, but apparently the weather was wonky everywhere we went.

St. Francis Cathedral

Most of the churches in Santa Fe (and surrounding environs) are built pueblo style. St. Francis was instead built by French architects in the Gothic-Revival style, and it really shows inside. They had a huge font for holy water -- not sure what the deal was, but out came the wide lens when I saw it. :)

Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor Snow, Nor Imperial Storm Troopers

As I said, evidence of Santa Fe's creativity was everywhere, including, apparently, the mailboxes.

The Man in the Window

Same premise as below; gender inverted.

The Woman in the Window

When we woke up in Santa Fe, we went to a breakfast place recommended by our concierge and our guidebook called Cafe Pasqual's. Very good breakfast, and my first indication of how ubiquitous the art community was in Santa Fe -- even the menus there were festooned with art. I would go so far as to say, on average, that the art hanging on the walls of a bathroom at a bar were likely to be better than most of the fancy art installations in some other cities I'd been to.

Our table was by a window, outside of which was a USA Today (yech) news stand. People would come, pause, stare at the news, and it would be like they were peering in at us. I shot a series of strangers doing this, trying to turn the tables on the photographic problem.