Have Pen and Camera, Will Travel: NEW MEXICO TRIP, PART ONE

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this post is very wordy. I’m going to take you on our recent tour of the Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos, New Mexico area through my photos, and, of course, their captions.

First, some general information about the trip. It was an eight day excursion to revisit the area and reconnect with some of our friends from Debate Camp days—I taught in a high powered debate summer camp for high school students in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Santa Fe (College of Santa Fe) and Albuquerque (University of New Mexico). We flew to Albuquerque where we stayed one night and then drove to Santa Fe and stayed in our Santa Fe WorldMark timeshare for a week. We explored both Petroglyph National Monument (near Albuquerque) and Bandelier National Monument (near Los Alamos). We visited Taos to connect with friends as well as to do some sightseeing. But enough with the generalities, let’s get right to the pictures.

The trip started with flights from Portland to Seattle then on to Albuquerque. Anne in 1st Class and me in economy.

I made up for it in Albuquerque by making our first stop at the Gruet Winery, which specializes in sparkling wines. Thanks for the recommendation Terry Joe.

We climbed the rocks at the Boca Negra Canyon site of Petroglyph National Monument outside of Albuquerque.

This petroglyph (rock art) from about 1000 years ago probably represents birth.

Twin Birds, among others, decorate this rock.

The climb down the hill was even more of an adventure for Anne than climbing up.

The next site was at Piers Marcadas Canyon and was about a two mile hike without as much climbing. The petroglyphs were just as impressive.

A typical Santa Fe-style house. The entire city of Santa Fe is adobe.

It's about 60 miles from Santa Fe to Taos and the scenery is spectacular.

In Taos we had a great lunch with our adopted niece, Jasmine, and her husband Zack. Jas is the daughter of the director of the debate camp I worked at for a dozen or so summers. Jas and Zach are creating an organic sustainable farm. We were wonderfully amazed with their enthusiasm and commitment.

Back in Santa Fe we visited a couple of great museums. First, we toured the Andrew Smith Gallery on Photography. What a treat to see original photographs by greats such as Ansel Adams, Elliot Porter, and Annie Leibowitz.

Next door to the photography gallery was the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. Only one room was open for touring--they were in the process of changing exhibits--but the visit was free.

One of the days we had lunch in the Santa Fe Cheesemonger's shop. A special hot Raclette for lunch and cheese to take home to have with our sparkling wine from Gruet. Oh, did I fail to mention we bought some at the winery?

As fascinating as the art, ancient and modern, were the people we saw in Santa Fe.

A cold native set up to sell her homemade jewelry on the Governor's Palace in the Santa Fe Plaza. Anne did some buying there.

We saw this interesting fellow several times in Santa Fe. He asked for money for food; so I traded him cash for a photo.

This lady is dressed for a walk along the art galleries of Canyon Road in Santa Fe.

A man and his parrot on the streets of Santa Fe.

This poor soul occupies a corner in the local Starbucks--a warm spot on a cold morning. Nobody bothered her.

We did play golf several times on the trip. The first was at Towa Golf Club about 12 miles north of Santa Fe toward Taos. The snow on the mountains was from the night before, but the course was dry.