If you're ever in the Santa Fe area, be sure to visit Bishop's Lodge, which is a beautifull retreat/spa just outside the City. We had a lovely lunch there out on the patio and the peace and serenity of the place is marvelous. First we climbed up the winding mountain staircase to the Cross of the Martyrs (a Santa fe landmark). My apologies for the cell tower -- they seem to dot the skyline of every city:



Then we drove down to Bishop's Lodge after I paused to capture this image on the way:



The entry and gardens at Bishop's Lodge:




The private little chapel on the grounds which was built by a Bishop as his private place of worship:



and all this is only moments from this:

 

Val,

Looks beautiful and peaceful.


After a week in the craziness of Disney World I'm ready to plan our next trip, and it will most likely be to AZ late next spring.

 

Thanks for sharing those images. I'm now in the mood to go there.

 

My parents are there now for the balloon festival. I've never been--looks like a beautiful part of the world.

 

The balloon festival is in Albuquerque which is about 60 miles from Santa Fe. I tried to avoid the festival due to the crowds. I'm not not overly fond of Albuquerque, but glad I had a chance to visit. Santa Fe is absolutely gorgeous and is really a very small town (about 60,000 population). Albuquerque is much, much larger and is not quaint at all. As a matter of fact, I think I'll drive up to Santa Fe right now.

 

Val, is there still a mexican reastaurant in Santa Fe called Maria's kitchen (I think)? It was a long time ago, but we had a great dinner there.
I have a great uncle who was a trapper in the Taos area. There's a little museum there that had a display about him. Again, years ago, could have been rotated out.

 

Hmmm, Morris. I don't think I've seen Maria's Kitchen, but there is a Tia Sophia's that is quite popular. Its located near the plaza and is a very neat little place. Probably my favorite place is at the LaFonda, but I've enjoyed a lot of neat places here. We went to Taos weekend before last and enjoyed ourselves a great deal. It, too, is very lovely and is a lot like Santa Fe.

 

NM is one of the twelve states that I have never been too. When we bail out and retire (hopefully to the full time motor home lifestyle ) the Balloon festival in Albuquerque is one of the events that we would love to attend.

 

Maria's (on Cordova just SE of St. Francis) is one of Santa Fe's tourist-oriented Northern New Mexican restaurants, and they offer perhaps the worlds widest selection of tequilas (including "flights" for tastings -- make sure you bring a designated driver or plan a taxi back to the hotel). Another good one is La Choza, just NE of St. Francis and Cerrillos, by the tracks -- this is the locals version of and run by the same people as The Shed, the tourist place by the Plaza. Our favorite place was a sit-down-and-be-served version of a local cafeteria-type chain, but they closed because their location wasn't accessible enough.

Northern New Mexican food, for folks who've not been there, isn't the same as what most "Mexican" restaurants serve, which is generally Tex-Mex or Cali-Mex (i.e., Californicated). NNM dishes tend toward the traditional enchiladas, burritos, etc, but they're often swimming in a sauce, the chile I've talked about before -- made from either red or green NM chiles, onions (sometimes), garlic, and cumin (usually). NNM food tends to be spicier and, curiously, simpler than the other variants. Entrees often come with a sopapilla, a sort of quickly deep-fried pita bread, that the locals use as a dinner roll but we gringos almost always use, with honey, as dessert.

A gringo anecdote: One time, with friends from the east visiting, we went out to some local place that had watered its honey down to make it go farther. I was chattering away about all sorts of sophisticated Santa Fe things and putting honey into a sopapilla -- you bite off the corner and squirt it in while turning it around, to more or less coat the inside. But I didn't notice that the honey was thin and squirting relatively fast.

So when I finally bit into the thing, it was rather like a honey-filled water balloon. All the Santa Fe sophistication exploded along with the sopa, all over my front.

Honey, by the way, even watered down, is quite sticky. HPH

 

It has been difficult to get really good food here. We've been to many, many eateries and haven't particularly enjoyed any place. Of course, we do not eat red meat or seafood (except salmon), so that limits some choices. Everybody recommends Gabriel's and we've eaten there several times (the tres leches and guacamole is good), but imho, it is mediocre, but better than most of the other choices. I cook frequently and would prefer my own food to the chile-laden fare that is offered in most restaurants. On occasion we trek down to Olive Garden to escape the NM fare. LaFonda offers a nice free range chicken dish that is really good, but desserts are not wonderful. At the Santa Fe School of cooking, the chef who taught my classes explained that due to the poverty in the state, people were first and foremost concerned with filling their tummies. Dessert was a "last thought", hence the flan that is offered in most places to the exclusion of fancy rich desserts. When we really, really want dessert we go to the little french pastry shop on LaFonda row at the plaza.