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| Gang at Petroglyph National Monument |
For JoAnna and Keith Artin's 50th birthdays, we went to
Santa Fe for a week with the Keith/Kate, Kim/Jonathan, and John/JoAnna. We had originally planned on Norway but we could not get a week that worked for all in the Summer. So the trip formally known as Norway was instead a fantastic week in sunny Santa Fe where we explored parks, museums and lots of yummy restaurants!
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| Bandolier National Monument |
Accommodations:
We rented an
AirBnB that was about a 20 minute walk from downtown. The place was great - the main house had two bedrooms, 1.5 baths, living room and kitchen/dining room and the casita had two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Activities:
We all arrived into Santa Fe on Saturday with the two of us arriving in Albuquerque on the same flight as Kim and Jonathan so we shared a ride into Santa Fe together. The four of us grabbed lunch and groceries before picking up the rest of the gang at the Santa Fe airport. Each morning we ate breakfast at the house and then ventured out for the day. While there, we did the following activities:
- Basketball - we watched a few Duke, UNC and UVA games.
- Escape Room - we had an hour to solve multiple puzzles and ended up getting on of the highest scores (3400) according to the person working at the front desk!
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| Escape Room |
- International Folk Art Museum - lots of interesting displays of folk art from around the world. There was also an exhibit on Japanese horror characters.
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| International Folk Art Museum |
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| Georgia O'Keefe Museum |
- Santa Fe Downtown - Walked around and went into some of the shops around the square.
- Bandolier National Monument - Located about an hour outside of Santa Fe. Great park with dwellings representing native life. We hiked about two miles to see the different dwellings. One area required climbing up ladders which was a bit difficult for those of us who do not like heights but also well worth doing!
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| Bandolier National Monument |
- Los Alamos - Walked around the town to see some of the sights. Town is not very cute. A few stayed behind to go to the Science Museum which has a great exhibit of the Manhattan Project but since Keith and Shawna had done it already, we headed back to the house.
- Petroglyph National Monument - located near Albuquerque. Each of the sites require driving in order to get to them. We hiked Rinconada and Piedras Marcadas Canyons - each had quite a lot of interesting petroglyphs which we decided were older versions of graffiti!
- Meow Wolf - an immersive, colorful art display that tells a story of a family that disappeared due to paranormal activity. You walk through multiple rooms to solve puzzles to figure out what happened to the family.
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| Meow Wolf |
- Street Eats Food Walking Tour - had a great time tasting yummy food at the following places:
- El Molero - street cart on the square. Had the tasty green chile tamales.
- Santarepa Cafe - cute cafe with Venezuelan food. Tried the arepas and cachapa (sweet corn pancake with cheese).
- Fiesta Oaxaca - tried the mole and mushroom quesadilla - food was OK.
- Dumpling Tea - took a break from Mexican and had multiple kinds of dumplings - all very good.
- La Lecheria - very good ice cream - tried the sea salt chocolate and green chile.
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| Yummy food on food tour |
- Ten Thousand Waves - very cool Japanese style spa located about 15 minutes outside of town. Did a three hour treatment which included an hour in a private hot tub, massage, neck and head massage and salt scrub. We both really enjoyed the treatments.
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| Ten Thousand Waves |
- Historic Walking Tour - learned about the history and local tribes and went inside a few of the churches, including the Loredo Chapel. Very informative tour.
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| Palace of the Governors |
Restaurants/Bars:
Coyote Cafe Cantina - had lunch here with Kim and Jonathan. We split some tacos which were pretty good.
Tomasitas - large Mexican restaurant located near the rail yards. We had some yummy steak and sopapillas.
Tune Up Cafe - had lunch here. Shared the lamb tacos, chile relenos and papusas - very tasty!
Secreto Bar - located in the St Francis Hotel. Had yummy drinks here before dinner.
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| Secreto Bar |
Market Street Steakhouse - located in the St Francis Hotel. Had dinner here. Shared the bacon butter salad and duck with fried rice - very good.
Cafe Pasqual's - located downtown. Went here twice for lunch (it was that good). Both times, we shared the chile relenos and gruyere potato cakes for the table. The first time, Shawna shared the bacon BLT with JoAnna and the second time she shared the enchiladas with Keith. Great food!
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| Cafe Pasqual's |
Noisy Water Winery - tasting room located downtown. We stopped to do a wine tasting. They have a lot of different types of wine - none of them great. Although Kate liked some of their reds and some of the crew liked their green chile wine.
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| Noisy Water Winery |
Sazon - fancy Mexican restaurant. Had dinner here. We shared the soup and the peppered steak - dishes were very good!
Blue Window - had lunch here in Los Alamos. We shared a salad - food was just OK.
Second Street Brewery - located at the rail yards. We stopped here for a beer before dinner.
Paloma - cute Mexican restaurant. The table shared chips, salsa and guacamole. For our entree, we shared the lamb barbacoa with black beans - we really enjoyed our dish but most of the crew did not think it was the best food.
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| Paloma |
Toltec Brewery - located in Albuquerque. We had lunch here. We shared the green chili and cheese and charcuterie board. Others in the crew really enjoyed the burgers.
Chili Line Brewery - located on the edge of downtown Santa Fe. We had a few beers here and then ordered pizza from the place next door (
Pizzeria da Lino) and brought the pizzas home for dinner. Pizza was decent.
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| Chili Line Brewery |
El Callejon - located downtown - had lunch here. Shared tacos which were tasty.
Izanami - Located at Ten Thousand Waves. Had dinner here. We shared a lot of plates for the table which were all very good - pot stickers, mushrooms, grilled avocado, fried chicken, brussel sprouts, pork belly tacos, and 32 oz wagyu steak with potatoes and mushrooms. We also shared the bread pudding and chocolate cake for dessert.
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| Izanami |
