Santa Fe, New Mexico

13 Aug 2013                         Santa Fe, New Mexico

            The summer in Santa Fe is more than beautiful.  Not only is the weather perfect, but it is peaceful, and full of culture.  The winters can be very cold and snowy, and the summers are warm and sunny.  After living in Las Vegas without much seasonal contrast, I miss Mother Nature showing off the splendor of the different seasons.  The summer is when the Santa Fe Opera season takes place.  The opera house is northwest of town 6 miles, nestled in the foothills of the Sange de Cristo Mountains.  Katherine and I have been going to the SF Opera on and off for 10 years,  and this summer was our second time seeing all 5 performances. 

           

            Previously, we enjoyed ourselves so much that I wanted to share the experience of the opera festival with my parents.  Thankfully, they were interested and we made it a week together in Santa Fe.  Katherine sent my parents little informative emails about the particular performances and notes about what to look out for.  Many people, not knowing about opera, get turned off by the different languages and are over stimulated with the music.  Plus, it is usually at least a 3 hour event, and can be overwhelming.  We wanted my parents to have a good time, so this little bit of “homework” made them more comfortable and gave us stuff to talk about.

            The Santa Fe Opera is a whole evening event.  To do it right, you must “tailgate” before the opera starts out in the parking lot.  This is taken quite seriously and all parties do it a little different.  While camping all summer out of the truck, we had most of the gear needed to host a tailgating party.  Cooler, table, chairs, cutlery, cutting board, and knife would get the job done, but Katherine wanted it to be really nice.  So, we went online and found fancy plastic/reusable glasses, cutlery, and even a white table cloth.  This really spiffed things up, and with the take away gourmet meals, made for a delightful pre opera dinner before the first opera my parents were attending.  I think we did it right!

            We spent the days traveling the streets of Santa Fe and even went up to the top of Santa Fe Mountain.  This is where the ski resort is located.  In the past summers, Katherine and I would mountain bike or trail run the trails, but this time we went on a brief hike with my parents.  I was searching for the elusive King Boletes mushrooms.  I ran farther up the trail and saw quite a few mushrooms, but was unsure of what was the King.  A chef, a few summers before, showed me how to identify, but I had since forgotten.  I just loaded some up in a bag to check them out later.  What I found out was, the one mushroom that I did not take, thinking it was poison, was the only King that I saw.  The others in the bag were not the poison ones, but not tasty enough to eat.  Oh well.  I think I was a little late for the season anyway.  Hopefully next time I can know what I am looking for and be there at the right time.  Or, just travel higher up into the mountains.

            Shopping in Santa Fe is outstanding.  This is even coming from a guy that hates shopping.  I just like to look at all the Native American art and crafts.  There is everything from extreme luxury to inexpensive postcards.  I found a few things, but was more interested in talking and mingling with the shop owners.  The lady that I bought some cuff links from mentioned when I left to wear them in “good spirits” and shook my hand.  Wow!  How different.  I can’t say anyone had ever said that to me before.  I guess I have to then.  She also talked about how her father was the creator of the jewelry and gave me a little info on him.  

Another interesting shopping moment was the guy at the Red River Mercantile shop.  This guy was on the phone ordering a product line and discussing it in detail.  I listened closely as I was trying on many hats.  When he finished he helped me with the hats and was more than knowledgeable.   Our conversation then moved to bicycles and he had me look at a web site selling hand made in the USA custom cycles. He wanted my opinion about what models he should carry and why I thought they would sell. Cool.  From there he showed me another site with watches made in a previously closed down Detroit factory.  There is this new watch company utilizing retrained factory workers skilled in the automotive field to make fine watches in hopes to bring money back to the city.  The site looked great and the watches will surely sell.  I just found it odd that this guys was so interested in my opinion.  

The last night of the opera was probably our best.  Our friends, Joe and Laura came up from Albuquerque and were our tailgating guests.  With my parents being there, this turned out to be a great party.  Joe showed up in his super awesome red suit!  I was wearing my bright yellow pants, so we “kind” of stood out in the crowd.  Katherine and Laura liked to just look from a distance.  I don’t blame them.  This was Joe and Laura’s first time to the opera, so we were all very excited for them.  While we were eating out in the parking lot, some people were pointing and talking about our clothes.  One guy even came up to tell us how crazy we looked, so I also complemented him on his attire (hot pink pants) and we posed for a picture.   

Santa Fe was the last stop on our HUGE summer trip.  I was looking forward to making it to the opera all summer knowing that it would be this much fun.  It was even more fun because my parents came out to visit and Joe and Laura as well.  That night we headed back to Albuquerque, crashed at Joe and Laura’s, slept for a few hours, got up, ate breakfast, and drove the 8.5 hours back to Las Vegas, stopping to have lunch with Emily and Jason Snelson in Flagstaff.   The last day of driving was our longest.  Ouch! 

I can’t believe how much of the USA we saw in 2 months.  It was expensive and put a lot of miles on the truck, but was the equivalent of many smaller vacations.  There is no way we could travel like this unless we were teachers, or trust funders!  It was spectacular!