The next morning we drove an easy 45 minutes or so to Santa Fe. We pulled right into town and parked in front of the cathedral square. Surrounded by very cute, all adobe buildings. We booked a swanky-ish hotel right in the middle of the oldest part of town - Hotel St. Francis. It was recently renovated and is now contemporary, all whites and grays, very relaxing palate. Our room was one of the nicest/cleanest we stayed in so far on the trip (but we still liked the quirky Austin Motel best).
First had breakfast at Cafe Pasquale – Pat had the most interesting cheese grits in a skillet. They were scrumptuous. I had a hot breakfast with lots of healthy grains, served with butter and syrup. It was also great. We then strolled through town, visited the churches (paintings of christ on the cross at the main church were neat, sort of folksy and spiral stairs at the smaller church off the square) and also the New Mexico history museum. Bought a necklace made of corn from a Native American outside the museum.
Popped into some shops (they’re all selling the same 5 things), had lunch from the food carts (hibiscus juice) in the square and listened to some live music from a small stage (felt like a weekend festival but it was a Wednesday). We walked through the newer art warehouse neighborhood near the train station and tried to get into the farmer’s market, but it wasn’t open. We also drove outside of town to see the outdoor opera house and drive through some residential neighborhoods. Had a beer on the rooftop of the Coyote Cafe. Unfortunately, we got bored of this town pretty fast. It was very quaint, but seemed geared toward a slightly older crowd.
We took a short siesta after checking in to our hotel in the afternoon and then went to an early dinner at The Shed, thinking we’d beat the crowd. No chance, the hostess already had a long list before they were opening at 5:30. We didn’t wait long however, and sat at a nice table in the corner (good for people watching, ask me about the trio in the corner next to us). More ‘New Mexican’ food - “christmas red and green sauce”. Tried an interesting raspberry soup.
After dinner we stopped back in the square for some more music and people watching, then crashed at our hotel. Tried to blog that night but too tired. Nice sheets.