Working, Eating and Relaxing

Spent most of the day on the old computer working. Joe on his job and Nikki on blog site. We took time off for linner at the Coyote Grill in the Plaza. Since it ws still the holiday weekend,we wereable to park free in governmental parking spaces. We basically went to this restaurant as we had ready about their meatloaf and Joe likes to try different ones. He is always looking for the perfect meatloaf. The restarant is actually two restaurants. Down stairs is the Coyote Cafe, which is more fine dining. the Grill upstairs is an open air restaurant with a large bar. It was very busy even in the middle of the afternoon. Joe had the New Mexican Meatloaf, which is made of veal, pork and beef tossed with fire roasted green chile. It came with creamy cheddar smashed potatoes and hot chorizo gravy. It had a good taste but the meatloaf did not hold together well. Joe still likes Harry Roadhouse's much better and that was turkey which he usually doesn't like as well as with beef. Nikki had baja stylye tempura fish tacos with crisp mahi, mahi, mango lime salsa, cotija cheese and celery thai slaw. guamole and sour cream as well. It was very tasty. Walked around the Plaza a little and that was about it for the day.

Fourth of July and Pancakes

We attended the 35th Annual Pancake Breakfast in the Plaza. The cost was a total of $7.00 each. The city had free parking for the event at all governmental parking lots and since Santa Fe is the capital, there were quite a few. They had set up 3 different cook tents, the red, white and blue. This made moving people through very efficent. I think almost everyone in town was there. There were constantly long lines but as mentioned, very efficent and you got through the line quickly. The pancakes were served with your choice of ham or vegetarian sausage and strawberries. There was also orange juice and coffee. All around the Plaza there were buckets of free ic cold bottled water. Yes, free. Most festivals we have been to would have charged 3 or 4 dollars for water. They also had entertainment such as dancers from local dance classes showing off what they had learned. They also had a Vintage Car Show and art work and jewelry. It was a nice sunny day and warm but not too hot.

Santa Fe Wine Festival

On Saturday we went to the Santa Fe Wine Festival at El Rancho De Las Golondrinas, a living museum. There were 19 wineries there. The price of admission included your tastings. We did buy one unique bottle of a Hatch Green Chile Wine. It's taste does have a light green chile taste to it, but not over powering. We also bought a jar of hickory almond smoked mustard. I am looking forward to using that in a sauce over salmon or chicken. The Festival had many specialty gourmet foods of southwestern jellies, sauces and spices. They also had a lot of art work and jewelry. They also had entertainment. We were entranced by Kumusha Marimba Ensemble, an all woman Santa Fe band which has been performing African "community dance" music on handmade wooden instruments for over a decade. They switched around so they all used the different instruments. Of course there was also a food selection. We had some tamales at Roque's Carnitas, the original downtown cart vendor. Roque was voted Best Food Cart/Truck 2008 by Santa Feans in SFR's annual Best of Santa Fe issue.

Museum Hill - Santa Fe

Friday nights have free entry for most museums in Santa Fe. We went to Museum Hill where there are four world class museums. One of the ones we went to was the International Folk Art Museum. One of the interesting collections was the Girald Collection. Alexander and Susan Girald started collectingon their honeymoon in 1939.
They have over 100,000 objects from more than 100 different countries. In 1953, the year that this museum opened, they gave their collection to the museum. It includes toys, dolls, masks,paintings. Also included were a number of minature village scesnes, such as an outdoor food market scene. We also went to the Contemporary Native Art Museum which was also very interesting.

Food adventures in Santa Fe

We went to lunch at Harry's Roadhouse. THis is on the way from our campground to the main area of Santa Fe. 2 years ago when we were here in Santa Fe staying at the same campground, we went by this restaurant a number of times and it always looked busy. We kept saying we should try it out but never did. Then when we were back home in Newport Beach, we were watching Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and guess what restaurant was on it. Yes Harry's Roadhouse. We were kicking ourselves for not going. Well, we finally got our chance and it was as good as it looked on the show.
We also had a celeb sighting of Gene Hackman. We had not noticed him until our dining neighbors pointed him out. They were locals and I guess he comes in quite a bit. This is a locals hangout and a must stop on your list if you are in this area.
Santa Fe also has a Traders Joes!! It is the first one we have seen since our trip began. THey don't have any at all in Texas and we just weren't in the areas where they are in AZ. Don't know if it is always as crowded as that day, but it was the most crowded I ever saw in a Trader Joes. We stocked up on all the goodies we normally buy there that you can't find at other stores.

Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch

Next day we went to Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu. THis was the area that Georgia O'Keefe sepnt her summers painting some of her world famous works. In 1949 she moved permanently to Ghost Ranch and stayed until 1984 when she moved to Santa Fe due to health issues. She died in 1986 at the age of 99. When we left Ghost Ranch we drove north to Abiquiu to check out the reservior there as a potential next stop on our way to South Fork, CO. We also went a bit further north to a Carson National Forest stop called Echo Amphitheater as another potential stopping point when traveling north.
Dinner was at Milagro 139 in the Santa Fe Plaza. We shared 2 different appetizers as a dinner. First their trio, scallop ceviche in a tequila-lime marinate, beef tartare with a serrano-soy glaze and tuna tartare with a sesame glaze. The second appetizer was a San Francisco sampler with a combination of braised short reibs, calamario frio, camerones con tocino and chile en nogada. We throughly enjoyed this meal. Definitely a winner. It started raining as we left. That night got another thunder, lightning show.

Santa Fe

Santa Fe, NM is one of our favorite places to stop. In fact we have added this area to our list of potential places to have a home base down the road sometime. We had reservations for the July 4th holiday so we would be assured a place at the inn so to speak during those periods when every camping site is taken. We arrived 5 days early though. Some of this was because we had been having zero connection at Conchas Lake and Palo Duro. Since Joe teleworks he can not be unconnected for very long. On Saturday we visted the Pecos National Historial Park. It is only about 20 minutes from where we are staying in Santa Fe, which is Rancheros de Santa Fe. We still are amazed at the history of our land, the good, the bad and the ugly. For linner, we went to the Plaza to Blue Corn Restaurant. Nikki had Green Chili Stew, a meal sized bowl of tender pork simmered wtih green chile, potatoes and posole served with a flour tortilla and sopaipilla. Joe had Ensalada Tostada, tortilla shell filled with pinto beans and beef, layered with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and guacamole and side of salsa. Nikki's was excellent and Joe's just so so.