14-February-2024

Happy Valentines Day! I spent today "getting cultured" in Santa Fe - so much art and history here!

I took a shuttle from my hotel to historic Santa Fe where I was dropped off at the Plaza. It's a nice pedestrian zone surrounded by Adobe architecture shops and restaurants. I got there early (9:45 AM) before most shops, museums and galleries were open, so I headed over to St. Francis Cathedral. It's an " old church" but it has a unique feature – it has a Madonna that is nearly 400 years old and she has more than 350 outfits and a crown that was bestowed by the Pope. She is a small figure about 18 inches tall and people have donated clothing and jewels to her over the years. The docent at the church said that as part of renovations planned for next year they might try to display all of her outfits. She said every Sunday when she comes to church the first thing she (and many others) does is peek around the corner to see what the Madonna is wearing. 😆 Another crazy fact I learned is that often saints that are depicted in stained glass windows are shown with the instrument with which they were murdered. The poor dude in the pic below was cut in half and his window shows him holding a large saw. Yikes! There were others holding a cross if they were crucified, a knife if they were stabbed or had their throat slit ...... gruesome once you know it and look for it!

After my church visit the museums were open so I headed over to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum. Unfortunately due to renovations about half the collection is currently not displayed as they are changing up how they group and display the images. But it was interesting to find out the story of an artist whose life and work I was not very familiar with. I liked her flowers and trees the most ... some of her abstract work was a little too abstract for me!

I continued to wander around historic Santa Fe and went to yet another church because it also had a unique feature: a mysterious staircase. Legend has it that the small church was built without access to the choir loft and that a ladder was going to be used. The sisters wanted a better staircase and prayed for 9 days and on the final day of prayer a carpenter showed up and built a staircase and as soon as he was done he disappeared without ever receiving any compensation or without anyone ever knowing his name or where he was from. The stairway was made entirely without nails and to this day physicists wonder how someone could have created it .

I continued wandering through the railyard arts district, past the state capital and then stumbled upon both the oldest church and the oldest house in this country. Or so they claim....

Lastly I made my way over to the Canyon Road Arts District which is a collection of lots of galleries - they feature art in all forms and shapes including paintings, ceramics, metals ... you name it. You can't even begin to imagine the number of galleries and museums in this town .... you viiidvdoebd a couple weeks just checking out all of them.

Back in the town Square many Native Americans had laid out there wears for tourists to see and buy. It's a quiet (and chilly!) time of year here - I'm sure all the artisan look forward to the warmer weather and more customers.

I've received a phone call during the day informing me that the problem with my car is that the sensor on the left rear tire was bad. Because the sensor could not provide information to the cars computer it resulted in all the various error messages I was getting. They ordered the part and expedited shipping and hope to have it on Friday so I can be on my way on Saturday. On my way back from historic Santa Fe I stopped and rented a car so that I could continue exploring tomorrow and Friday until my car is repaired. Fingers crossed the park gets here and they have time to install it before the weekend !