Santa Fe: The Really Good Stuff

It was a short walk from my hotel to breakfast at Cafe Pascal’s, right on Santa Fe Plaza–the heart of downtown. This is a popular place so centrally located, dressed to the nines in New Mexican flair, and with awesome service.  I had to doorbust so as to not be waiting to get the official start of my day.  And wouldn’t you know that many others had the same idea. 

They have a spectacular vegan option: The Tofu Scramble. Yeah, yeah, you can get it many places these days, but not as delicious as Cafe Pascal’s.  Packed with flavor, their scramble features their “tofu chorizo” along with green chile, tomato and scallion.  It came with a side of potatoes, seeded bread and I asked for a side of fruit as well. 

After breakfast, I walked the downtown area. With check-out not till 11 and my next plan opening at 10am, I had time to take in the beautiful Pueblo Revival architecture. All of downtown is this pretty, but mostly contains pricey tourist shops and museums. Meh, not my cup of tea really.

After check-out I moved on to then doorbust Meow Wolf, an old bowling alley converted into an interactive art house that is all the rage round these parts. Since it is so popular, I wanted to get there when it opened so I may roam the “House of Eternal Return” in peace for as long as possible. Though I read a few Yelp reviews, I was going in kind of blind and a bit pessimistic.  I really didn’t have any idea what to expect.  

To my surprise I loved it! You get to explore, touch things, find secret passage ways and crawl spaces (the refrigerator and washer machine were my favorites). Art is everywhere as you step into a home and into the dreams of the family that lives there. There are clues and a storyline that builds if you want to go that route, which is difficult as the place begins to fill up. The art, music, light, opportunities to interact all create a whimsical experience that is visually stunning and pretty clever. I thought it was going to be pretentious b.s., but it was really great. I am just sharing a small quantity of the many pictures I took throughout the interactive exhibit, because I think you should go and see it all first hand. There are Meow Wolfs opening in both Denver and Las Vegas if that helps.

Ok now. It has happened. I’ve grown obsessed with petroglyphs. Within Santa Fe’s city limits is the La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Site.  And as you can see, I’m serious about seeing as many petroglyphs as possible! (Plus, my Mom likes to take pictures of pictures of me on my blog. [Hi Mom!] And yes, I have been wearing the same sweater since last week.)  Notice that arrow pointing upwards?  You’ll need to climb basalt cliffs to view the petroglyphs which are all at the top.  Though there is a semi-worn path up there to navigate, you need to be careful not to rub up on petroglyphs unknowingly as you traverse the cliff.  Also, wear hiking boots with ankle support.  I wished I had.

Once again, the petroglyphs blew my mind. This site had so many to see… and so many large clusters.  

At a certain point I just headed down the cliff because I had gone so far.  I am sure there were more to see, but I worried as there was no clear path down from the top of the cliff.  When it looked as though the terrain might be manageable in my Jack Purcells, I headed down satisfied.  Again, my hiking boots might have kept me on the cliff longer.  But what a show!

This guy didn’t like me walking on his turf.

For lunch I headed to the very close by and high-end Blue Heron Restaurant, part of the Sunrise Springs Spa Resort.  Though this is a gated resort, the restaurant is open to the public… and it’s got really good vegan options clearly denoted with a “V.”

Funny thing, I asked the waitress which of the two vegan lunch entrees she recommend over the other, the tacos or the tamale. She liked the tacos but I decided in the end to go with the tamale. So out comes the food… tacos. So I snapped a picture then let the waitress know of the error. She invited me to dig in and enjoy the tacos as I waited for the tamale! Score. Since this is fine dining, the portions are not huge. So one taco, the greens and the tamale that eventually came was perfect!

The delicious tamale that I am glad I spoke up for.

On the way south to Albuquerque I saw this abandoned strip mall and was intrigued. But n the end it wasn’t so intriguing.  Maybe because it was a very good condition. I wanted something a bit more creepy.

And finally, One Billboard Outside of Budaghers, New Mexico.