I've been going through Santa Fe on each trip through New Mexico. It has a lot of spots I like.
The Plaza Cafe is high on the list - it's an art deco diner with stainless steel interior, built when Route 66 ran that way. The food and service has always been excellent - highly recommended.
But this time it's closed for remodeling! Found an OK place, but not the food I was planning on, and certainly not the decor. Nice sign though.
Went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum next. I'd been there a year ago, but wanted to see the paintings of landscapes I was looking at yesterday. Her work has been resonating with me. I'd like to make my landscapes and still lifes simpler, verging on abstraction. I also tend to emulate her choice of subject matter.
Andrew Smith Gallery is now right next door - by far the best photographic gallery I've seen. I spent a rewarding hour or two there looking at original prints by Ansel Adams, Herman Leonard, Elliot Erwitt, Cartier-Bresson and many others.
On my way out, I stopped at Pecos Pueblo National Historic Park. This was a huge trading point, the only year round pass in the area between the plains and the mountain valleys further west. It eventually had 700 rooms and housed up to 2000 people.
There's not much left, basically foundations, but it's interesting to see the scale of it and imagine what it was like.
The only building standing is the ruins of the mission - I guess it's fitting that after a thriving 1000 year settlement, only the church of the exterminators remains.
I like traveling via old Route 66. There's a lot of history, from a time when traveling across the country by car was a new possibility. I like the architecture, the art deco and roadside modern, all the neon...
I've driven the stretch from Santa Fe east before, but the weather had been gray and blustery, not conducive to photography. Today it was beautiful, bright and warm.
I stopped at some places I'd photographed before, and redid them, and explored some new sites.
A grocery store in Tucumcari has a good selection, I got a big bag of green chiles for 99 cents a pound - my kind of souvenir.
With all the stops, I only made it as far as Amarillo, but that's an easy two day drive home.
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