Santa Fe, NM

We arrived early in Santa Fe due to the fires that cancelled our tour in Espanola at the Puye Cliff Dwellings. Looking back I am glad but not the damage the fire created. The hotel wasn't ready so we parked the car and headed out on foot to explore the city. My first impression was it was just TONS of tourist shops; I mean every where you turn it is just shops, shops, and more shops. It was a beautiful day so I did not mind being outside; Colin saw the hotel swimming pool and that is all he could think about. We walked to St. Francis Cathedral . . .

Colin enjoyed the maze (which I am certain that is not what it is called) outside . . .

It was time for lunch so I asked a local shop owner what he recommended. So off to The Shed we went. It was a neat courtyard place with inside and outside seating . . . we waited 5 minutes and got our table outside under the trees. I must say this . . . unknown to me when we got our table Colin put his money (why I don't know) under the sugar bowl. After we ordered, the wait staff was rearranging the table for our drinks and when the guy lifted the sugar bowl I said, "Wow someone left you a great tip!" So he took the money and we had our drinks. A few minutes later Colin told me his money was missing . . . I had no clue what he was talking about but then it clicked. I called someone over and explained what happened. The wait staff guy who took the money came over and asked Colin how much he had . . . $11 . . . no questions asked he went and got the money and returned it. It renewed my faith that there are still honesty young people in our world today! Of course I also knew they had just earned themselves at least a tip of $11 too which was earned because the service was great. Our food arrived and it was yummy . . . all around a great lunch with hopefully a lesson learned to my kiddo too.

We continued to walk around downtown but had had enough of the shops. Colin and I returned to the hotel to check in while my parents explored more. Colin and I visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. It was free thanks to the Blue Star Initiative. I was a little disappointed that it did not contain more of her artwork but was a nice museum. It was very crowded for a Thursday afternoon. I did like that they loaned Colin a book (at his age level) to read more about O'Keeffe and how she became interested in art. It was a nice touch and gave him more information than I could have about her. There was a short movie but it was so crowded when we arrived and left . . . no where to sit or stand . . . so we did not see it.
It was back to the hotel for a swim . . . the water was too cold for me but thankfully there was another young boy in the pool that Colin became friends with so I was off the hook. We were a little bored sitting in the hotel so drove to check out the New Mexico State Capitol Roundhouse . . .

. . . and walked around to find a place for dinner. We found a place but not kid friendly with food choices but did have a great bakery we stopped at after dinner . . . it was near this . . .

We were tired so headed in for the night . . . tomorrow we start our journey back to Texas. It has been a fun trip!