This morning we headed north on Hwy. 14, also known as the “Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway”. It was a beautiful drive to Santa Fe and we enjoyed seeing some old remains of buildings along the way.
Once in Santa Fe, we settled the car in a parking lot for a couple of hours and headed across the street to see the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
Oops! It’s closed till the 28th – bummer… Guess we should have checked the website first, but we’re accustomed to museums always being open – even if one portion is closed to change out an exhibit.
So, we got lucky. Next door was the Andrew Smith Gallery.
What an amazing gallery of photographs! There were all the old masters that I remembered from photography school: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Alfreds – Eisenstaedt & Stieglitz, and Yousuf Karsh. There was a beautiful study of Georgia O’Keeffe by Yousuf Karsh (priced at a mere $16,000) and, more recently, a nude of a very pregnant Demi Moore by Annie Leibovitz. Amazing gallery… Don’t miss it if you’re ever in Santa Fe.
You may find art galleries you like better, but we were very impressed with Manitou Galleries which is just around the corner from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. This gallery had some amazing art work, sculptures and more. Here’s an old and very valuable Spanish saddle – check out the silver on this thing! It was only $18,000… We’d have taken two if they had that many!
We really enjoy Southwestern architecture and this town is one of the best. Here’s a few views of the New Mexico Museum of Art.
The protruding support beam ends are called “vigas” and really add to the interesting look, don’t you think?
We also walked by the historical Plaza, but missed seeing the “miraculous staircase” at the 131 year old Loretto Chapel. Hmmm….guess we’ll have to come back here someday. Oh, darn.
Check out this little red wagon that we spotted cruising around the Plaza!
By the time we had exhausted our cultural capabilities, it was getting well into the afternoon. We headed up the road and stopped for a roadside snack in Pojoaque. This was our view while eating.
No restrooms at our lunch stop so a little further down the road we pulled into a casino. Hmmmm… Can’t resist dropping in a little dinero. No big wins, but at least I managed to make my dollar last about 15 minutes longer than John’s. Love those penny slots when you’re on a budget!
We managed to arrive at the condo in Taos right at check-in time: 4:00 p.m. I think we’re going to like this place…
This is the first time we’ve had a studio, but it works just fine. It was “hotel-style” so we didn’t have a stove or oven – just a small frig, microwave and a little dishwasher. No problem. We wanted to sample some of Taos’s restaurants anyway! After hauling all our stuff up to our room, we wandered down to the Plaza and scouted out a few stores for tomorrow. Late afternoon light is always nice for flower pictures:
Then it was time to eat. The guy at the condo front desk recommended Orlando’s, so off we went. Good New Mexican cuisine (although it always tends to be just a tad warm for me…). Then a stop at a grocery store for ice cream and home.
Another wonderful day.
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