Santa Fe

05/07 We wake up to a gorgeous day! H hopes that it’s not as nice at Monument Valley–he still laments that he could not get good photos because of the haze. We are off to Santa Fe. We have rented a nice house for 4 nights with a fenced yard. I’ve even booked a grooming appointment for the doggies that includes doggie day care for the whole day. It’s a long drive–about 5.5 hours. We stopped for lunch at a little place and got “chile cheese burger tacos.” They were crushed up cheese burgers in a fried taco shell and they were good! It’s nice to get take out on the road because we can eat with the dogs and the non driver can have a beer. We arrive at our lovely home–wow, the size of it is incredible after 14 days in Diana. And 2 BIG bathrooms are a luxury. We were lucky to find a nice big space in front of the house to park Diana. (I tell you: our luck is the result of clean liven’! NOT!) The dogs are loving the garden–sniffing (and peeing on) every tree, bush, and weed. I start the huge task of laundry. I am happy to see that the house has a huge container of laundry detergent. We enjoy leftovers for dinner. Oh, and we take nice long showers and look (and smell) a lot cleaner.

05/08 It’s bath day for the doggies. I do not want to drive Diana any more than I have to because the roads are very narrow in our neighborhood. We are in the Guadalupe District–a barrio in redevelopment. Our house is made of adobe and has beautiful wood floors–they are aged with many decades of feet and are more lovely than any new ones. The kitchen has perforated tin cabinets. There is a traditional “kiva” fireplace in the living room. There are 3 bedrooms so hurry and get here! We booked on short notice and this house was the only one available with a fully fenced garden. The usual price is $315/night but the rental manager is charging us $140/night. I told you: it’s clean liven’.

Anyway, I don’t want to drive Diana if I don’t have to so we walk 1 mile to the groomers. I forgot that a” Lucky mile” takes much longer than a “Lucien and Toby mile.” Since the neighborhood is in the beginnings of the redevelopment stage there are less desirable houses and areas. H is not happy to walk by graffiti with messages like: “F*****g bitches–no money.” Nice, huh? But there were really nice refurbished places along the way.

The ladies at the groomers are really nice. About 15 small dogs are running free in a very large room. I think there is also an outdoor area. There are ramps to climb and places to rest. It really looks like an inviting place for the dogs. Now we are free!

We walk to the Downtown area which also encompasses the historic Plaza area. It’s about a 1 mile walk, I think. We wander around. H wants to take some photos and is fiddling around with his equipment so I say I’m going into a nearby shop. And the “damages” are serious by the time we walk out! We have a nice collection of hand-made Mata-Ortiz pots from Mexico. I really wanted a hand-made pot from this region–and we found one! It’s called a “seed pot.” The only opening is the size of a seed on the top of the pot; seeds were put in one by one. The Pueblo people stored seeds long-term in these kinds of pots. When they were ready to use the seeds, they broke the pot.

The pot was made by Melissa Antonio. It was hand-coiled and only vegetable dyes were used. It looks perfect but if you look closely as you turn it you see that it is a hand-made pot because it’s not perfectly round. It’s gorgeous! The shop also had Mata-Ortiz pots and the nice young man that helped us understood that we needed to find a local-made pot that was very different than the ones we already have. He did well in steering us to Melissa’s work.

He then said: It’s Mother’s Day! Maybe you deserve a Mother’s Day gift! I said: I am the mother to 3 dogs. He said: That counts for Mother’s Day! And I could not have agreed with him more. He found me a beautiful silver cuff bracelet that was unique and beautiful. So put that in the shopping basket! And I happened to notice some neat charms for my Pandora bracelet–the lapis and opal charm completed our purchase. And we had not yet had a cocktail! Usually it’s alcohol and brings on such purchases. (The day is not over yet.)

We are hungry for lunch and had already decided on the “Coyote Cafe.” Good friends gave us the cookbook from this restaurant decades ago. We love the dishes and could not pass up a chance to savor the dishes first hand. The restaurant is only open for dinner but there is a roof terrace grill that serves lunch.

We start with drinks!! I have a Mojito and H had the “El Patron” margarita. We ordered BBQ Duck Quesadillas and Shrimp Seviche Tostados along with 3 of their salsas and chips. Of course we had already ordered our main courses when the appetizers arrived. We realized that we were in for an afternoon of full stomachs and massive heartburn. H’s main course was a nice innovative preparation of chicken enchiladas with green sauce. I had a luscious Cubaña (it’s a Cuban sandwich): Smoked ham and cheese with black bean sauce and chipotle mayo served with chile fries. Wow!

Needless to say our doggie bag was huge. So it was with 2 cocktails each and a shared beer under our belts that we visited the leather shop. I wanted H to get a nice casual leather belt. Maybe with a Southwestern flare. I thought maybe a beaded belt but the beading turned out to be too much (they were hand beaded but a little too colorful). Then I found an “appliqué” belt–a hand-made leather belt that had very handsome embellishments that were stitched over the leather belt base. The lady who was helping us said we were going about this the wrong way. (She said this in a very nice way.) We needed to pick out the belt buckle and that would determine which belts we should be looking at. OK…let’s see the belt buckles. I immediately focused on a buckle that had lovely hand work but was not too garish. There are buckles that you would not believe: HUGE silver buckles; inlaid opal and turquoise buckles; etc. But this buckle was a bit understated but obviously tenderly hand-created. It was all silver…including 2 belt loops…and a tip for the end of the buckle.

So before H knew what we were in for I had signed the credit card receipt and the belt would be shipped to us in 3 to 4 weeks. That’s the power of Margaritas.

We visited the St. Francis Cathedral. It was interesting but not particularly unique. The grounds and sculptures were much more interesting. We took a taxi home and arranged for a rental car so we could more easily get around. The dogs were beautiful–how do we keep them that way for the next 10 days?! Apparently Lucky was the only problem in doggie day care. He lately has more frequently been snapping at the other dogs if he does not like what they are doing. It started with him guarding food. Lately he has exhibited this behavior occasionally over me (no other dog can come near me if I’m petting him). It’s not extreme behavior by any means but the ladies said he had snapped at some of the dogs. That’s interesting and a little worrying…

We needed a trip to Whole Foods Market (for wine primarily) so off I went to fortify our provisions. No dinner tonight–we should be stuffed from our wonderful lunch.

Tomorrow our afternoon is taken up with the repair to our cracked windshield. The crack is growing fast so we need to take care of it right away.

I continue to put in loads of laundry. I’m in the bedroom when I hear a crash. The HUGE container of liquid laundry detergent has fallen off the dryer and is pouring all over the floor! OMG–what a mess. I pretty much get it cleaned up but the whole house smells like a laundry.

05/09 The windshield repair guy came early! That was good. H and I walked about 2 blocks to a restaurant that received good reviews, Ristras. It is a white tablecloth place in what we see as a very “non-white tablecloth” area. It was GREAT! The restaurant is located in an old house. Since we walked we entered the restaurant through the front door–which actually was their “back door.” HA! (The parking lot is in the back of the house so their front door is in the back.) We started with aperitifs. H had a Kir Royal and I had a “Can Can Martini.” Two parts vodka + 1.5 parts St Germaine liqueur + .25 parts dry vermouth/white wine/Lillet + a twist of lemon. Delicious! When I asked the server about the cocktail I thought he said “a little egg” instead of “Lillet.” It was a funny exchange.

We both started with gazpacho. It was good that we started with a cold soup because we asked the server to delay our food until we had finished our cocktails…but he didn’t. So we left the soup and sipped our aperitifs. Once we got around to our soup we were happy to discover that it was delicious. H’s main course was duck confit with lentils (with bacon) and salad with a nice vinaigrette.  I had wonderful mussels with an incredible chipotle cream sauce. The sauce was wonderful with the great chewy bread they served. H had a glass of Vovray and I had a nice French rose. Our server treated us to our after-meal espresso since we were new to the neighborhood. He thought we had rented the nearby house for long-term; I was reluctant to tell him we were leaving in 2 days. But he didn’t care.

We could hear the 3 dogs howling as we approached the house. Sometimes they are quiet and good but sometimes something sets them off.

Later that day I made a grocery run so I drove further up the road past Ristras. I was amazed to find many restaurants, wine bars and retail stores within a quick walk from our place. Our first impression was far from complete. I would lament that the dogs are keeping us from all the fun and night life but, truth be told, a lunch out is the most exciting daily  event for us.

05/10 Today we make a scenic drive to Taos. We debated about putting the dogs in day care but decided to take them with us. Maybe not such a good idea… Toby gets scared when we drive on windy roads. He whines and yips at each turn. Rain is threatening and we hope that will provide a nice photography backdrop. We take the “high road” scenic loop but frankly we do not get any exciting photography opportunities. In fact the trip is not exciting at all and there is lots of traffic. The historic Taos pueblo was closed. But I guess we needed to see Taos. Maybe without the dogs we would have had a nice lunch in historic Taos and then spent more money on New Mexico goods but maybe it’s best the way we did it. We had a tamale lunch at a food truck thinking it would be great but in fact it was less than good. We kept hoping on our way back, as we drove tiny backcountry roads, that we’d find neat things to photograph but, alas, it was not to be.

Back “home” we start to gather up for our departure tomorrow. I make a final run to Whole Foods and I do as I was afraid I would do: I miss the step at our gate and fall into the street landing on my right arm and hip. It makes me think of H’s poor dad falling and breaking his hip–his death sentence. Fortunately I do not seriously injure myself or my new bracelet on my left wrist.

Roasted rack of lamb tonight plus roasted asparagus and a quinoa salad from Whole Foods.  The smoke alarm goes off several times as we roast the lamb. That throws Toby into a trembling fit each time.  I try to use treats to distract him. (“You want a cookie???”) It actually works.

We surprise ourselves when we say that we are ready to get back on the road. H confesses that he is bored and ready to see more new things. We are even ready to trade a 1,000 square foot house with 2 nice bathrooms to be with our good friend, Diana. Although I think the dogs have really enjoyed the large garden and playing frisbee and ball.

We make plans for our next 4 nights. Some are primitive and some are full hookups.