Breakfast in Santa Fe
It’s been years since I first disabused myself of the idea that retirement is one long vacation. Within weeks of my last day of teaching back in 2001, I joined most of my contemporaries in their mantra, “I’ve never been so busy.” I never dreamed that I would actually need to leave idyllic Oysterville to “go on vacation.” But it’s true.
And so here we are. Staying in Santa Fe with our good friends Susan and Bob, visiting museums and art galleries, bookstores and restaurants, soaking up sunshine and, best of all, having naps! It’s all the more fun because our hosts have been living here just a year so they are eager to share their new ‘discoveries’ with us as well as to venture into new territory.
Napping Sydney
Yesterday was full to overflowing with art. After a leisurely breakfast on the patio of the Tea House Restaurant we wandered from one art gallery to another along Canyon Road – a half mile stretch of over 100 galleries, boutiques and restaurants. We were especially intrigued with the abstract sculptures and free standing 3d art by local artist Pascal Pierme.
And also the horses! Everywhere there were horses – huge, vibrant oils and delicate water color horses; wooden, metal, glass horses; life-size, miniature, and gigantic horses; galloping, rampant, nuzzling horses!
Santa Fe Dinner
Later we spent a few hours at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum which was featuring an exhibition of her ‘Texas Period’ paintings – done in the years before her marriage to Alfred Stieglitz and long, long before she found her ‘spiritual home’ here in New Mexico. Part of the exhibition may have been life-changing for me – if you can have such a revelation at my advanced age. It was seeing O’Keeffe’s “Travel Boxes” that I think will change my scrapbooking obsession forever…
And, then, an afternoon siesta followed by a dinner featuring molé sauce appetizers and exquisite entrees using chili peppers in unimaginable ways – all in a restaurant in which we were surrounded by more spectacular art. And… in a dining experience first, Susan and I were brought short, decorative wooden stools on which to set our purses! OMG! Even my purse is being cossetted on this vacation odyssey!
Jo’s daughter lived for a time in Santa Fe and she and Jon enjoyed visiting her there. I believe that is one place I would not mind seeing, although I might be more of the springtime visitor. I am so happy you are enjoying yourselves!