We left about 9:30, after getting organized and getting the kids off to school, though Hayden did not go as she said she was not feeling well. It did not go over too well with her parents, but she prevailed, as kids do, and when we left, she seemed much better and was watching tv.
The drive to Santa Fe was about five hours, as I expected, through interesting scenery for the most parts, some mountains to the West initially, which then disappeared and we had vast farm lands or grazing lands on either side of the road, which seemed to stretch forever. There were usually a few mountains off in the distance to the West, though not as apparent as in Colorado Springs. It must be a desolate life out here, as the towns as well as ranches or houses are few and far between, perhaps five to ten miles apart. We saw little if any agriculture, a few cows grazing, a few desolate towns, for almost a hundred miles or more. The town of Pueblo and then Trinidad, the last town in Colorado. When we got to within thrity miles of Santa Fe, to the town of Las Vegas, the landscape changed, and became much greener, more interesting, though hilly.
Santa Fe is a beautiful area, bigger than I thought, though the hills outside the city are green, with adobe homes of the wealthy, set back in them, mostly hidden. There are no housing tracks, like in Colorado Springs, perhaps a result of zoning, or the fact that Santa Fe is more an artistic community, less a military or retiree center, unless you are wealthy. We left Route 25, drove into the center of the city, and parked on a side street for a couple of hours. We were tired after the drive, hungry, so it was not as much fun as it could have been. We found a little restaurant, had a sandwich, felt a bit renewed, and then walked and window shopped, seeing almost nothing we liked. It was mostly Indian stuff, pottery, jrewlery, and art galleries, all high end, if they were really nice. Lots of native Americans had their wares for sail, on blankets, at one side of the square. It obviously was given over to them to keep them in one area. It was probably in the 50’s and we sat in the square for a bit, after getting tired of shopping and walking. I think we just didn’t want to shop or buy, so doing the window shopping was boring and ultimately, tiring. We did stop at a cool bookstore, coffee shop towards the end, which we enjoyed and should have gone in earlier. We did pass Café Pasqual but ti was closed, which was a good thing as we might have tried to spend more money.
At 5:45, we met Matt, Ligia, and Cyrus at Harry’s Roadhouse, on Old Pecos Rd, about a mile from their house. It’s clearly popular with the locals, a bit run down, but with character, and seemsto be run by Hispanics, perhaps some Native Americans. They had a menu of mosltly Mexican foods, with some other items thrown in. I had blackened catfish, with grits and collars. Evie had a great salad with chicken breasts. We had beers, margaritas. There son is a cute kid, well mannered, happy, and very talkative. He also seems to enjoy people and was not shy. Evie gave him his gifts, Jenka and a Lego truck, which he loved, and wanted to put together at the restaurant.
We headed back to their home abourt 7:30. About a mile from Harry’s, set back in the hills of pine and juniper, on a dirt road. There are lots of similar houses set up back on the mountain sides, with great views. There house is set on two acres, an adobe home, with two bedrooms downstairs, a lovely outdoor terrace overlooking the hills. We stayed in an upstairs room, built on top of their garage, basically a large room with a bed set in the center, used mostly by Matt as an office. Since Sunday was Ligia’s birthday, we had some left over cake that Matt had made. We looked at their photos of their trip to Turkey, which they had put in a bound album. It was really an amazing re-creation of their trip. The most fun was listening to them talk about how much they loved Turkey, how they had only great experiences with Turks, and how they loved Cyrus. It was good to hear as I worried about them venturing out to Cappadocia as well as Ephesus with a young child. We started talking about Ligia’s art project, so she took us into her studio, which they had built, a square room, about 50 by 30, with a 25 foot ceiling. She had been commissioned by the Philadephia Museum of Art to create an Victoria drawing room, along with three other artists. She had been working on it for over a year and it’s an gargantuan task, as she not only had to design it but also make all the pieces, whether sewing, cutting out fabric, painting, photographing, sawing, whatever. It was fun to hear her get excited about it, talk about its inspiration, the séances of this period, and how the project reflects her understanding of the relationship between the viewer and the art object. We all went to bed around 10:00 as they had also had a long day. It was a fun evening.
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