to santa fe and beyond

Almost 2 months later, I’m finally writing about my trip to Santa Fe. Why so late? It’s summer!! I love summer because there’s always a million things to do. Plus I have a new job. And birthdays, out of town visitors, parties… You get the point. On to the chow!

So here’s how it all went down. My brother graduated from Pomona College. Yay!

I love how I’m in this random picture with my brother and his friends. And there’s always a million parents taking the picture at the same time so only Michaela is looking at the camera on this one.

Then he and my parents were off on a tour of the Southwest starting with the Grand Canyon and southern Colorado.

Miguel and I landed in Albuquerque, NM, met up with my family and headed to the Frontier Restaurant. Here’s the back of the building, painted to look like the front.

Two bowls of green chile stew, a bowl of red chile posole and an enchilada. New Mexicans are fanatical about their chiles. For good reason, too.

Then we hung out in the plaza listening to mariachis and checking out the adobe church. I saw a lot of churches on this trip. All adobe. Like every single other structure in New Mexico. Even the McDonalds! Which we did not visit.

And here we are at the best meal of the trip: Cafe Pasqual’s in downtown Santa Fe.

We sat at the communal table with a local who eats there every week. So pish posh to those chowhounders who say it’s too touristy.

Smoked trouth on hashbrowns with poached eggs and tomatillo sauce. An excellent choice, but it didn’t even touch Miguel’s HUEVOS MOTULEÑOS.

“Eggs over easy on corn tortillas with black beans topped with sauteed bananas, feta cheese, green peas, salsa fresca and served with green chile” It may look like mush, but I assure you it was unbelievably delicious.

My lovely mother treated me and my brother’s girlfriend, Katie (who had met us in Albuquerque after the plaza), to the most amazing massages at Ten Thousand Waves Spa.

Unbelievably calm and relaxing. Plus they had cucumber water. Yum.

Time for more churches. This one was El Santuario de Chimayo and has dirt that is said to have healing powers.

I’m sure this one has an equally interesting history, but I can’t remember what church it is.

Another one. Hey, this is boring, back to the food.

We hit up La Choza in Santa Fe for some authentic New Mexican food. Here’s Miguel’s chile relleno.

This is a sopaipilla stuffed with ground beef and topped with green chile.

It was a lovely day to sit in their patio, but I felt like playing with my camera settings.

That was a big meal, we’d better work it off with a hike to Bandelier National Monument.

The ancestors of modern Pueblo people built thriving communities in the area called Bandelier about 600 years ago. Several thousand Ancestral Pueblo dwellings are found among the pink mesas and sheer-walled canyons. The best-known archeological sites, in Frijoles Canyon near the Visitor Center, were inhabited from the 1100s into the mid-1500s. (National Park Service website)

You can see the remains of the cliff dwellings. Count the lines of holes in the wall to determine how many stories were built.

Then climb up lots of scary ladders to reach the highest cliff dwelling and reconstructed kiva, an underground room used for religious rituals and government rulings.

We made it to the top!

I don’t have any pictures of my favorite excursion to the Taos Pueblo. They charge entrance and camera fees so we only took my parents’ camera inside. I liked going into the ancient adobe buildings.

On our last day we returned to Albuquerque to visit the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center where my brother ate a delicious blue corn crusted chile relleno. Major food envy at that meal!

My mom treated me to the cutest little squash blossom earrings in their gift shop (which is chock full of gorgeous jewelery.

And for our last surprise of the trip, we headed out to a path running along the freeway where there was a prairie dog colony! It was so funny and they were very friendly, coming as close as my shoe.

Look how cute they were!

Phew that was a long post. But at least I know how to spell Albuquerque now!