Magnificant
Day 3 was our first day without real driving, and we started as anyone should with a healthy breakfast courtesy of Triple D (Diners Drive-ins and Dives.) Tecolote a breakfast and lunch joint with the soul of the city in it. There was a community table in the middle of the middle room where old timers were sitting chatting a bit but mainly reading the paper. Almost everyone who walked in was greeted by name and we saw our waitress give a hug or two to some of the patrons. I partook in a special I watched on the show. It was Huevos Yucatecos, which seemed to be a New Mexico take on Huevos Rancheros, and it was delicious.
The kids all ate a great breakfast and Cristina's green chili "fix" was met after leaving (she had the Huevos Rancheros.) I think this is a good time to breakdown something very special about New Mexico, and that is Green Chili. See Green Chili is almost a religion, it is to New Mexico what Lobster is to Maine, this isn't just a tasty food, this is part of the states identity, heck the state as a state question "Red or Green" meaning do you want Green Chili or Red Chili sauce. Since a Red Chili is a dried green chili this one plant effectivly is THE staple of New Mexico. Given that Cristina's family comes from New Mexico I have been spoiled with real chili, and Ortega just ain't cutting it anymore, so being in New Mexico is a treat for our pallets.
After leaving breakfast we went into downtown, and since I have never been there it is not hard in the least to see the charm of such a wonderful city. The downtown is remarkable and the plaza has all the charm of a city founded over 400 years ago. We stopped at the Cathedral and while the inside was beautiful it was not the most memorable part of the church for me. Sean surprised us with a spontaneous prayer by the baptismal font and I rushed to try and take a picture before he stopped. You can see him just finishing and getting up below.
The magic of this stop of the trip came when we walked through the newly renovated prayer gardens. The gardens are full of some remarkable bronze statues depicting the stations of the cross. As we walked outside the boys asked what the statues were. Since they did this more than a few times I decided why don't we just walk the stations and tell them about all the stations.
"What is that man doing to Jesus" - Sean
Station 10 - Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
Station 14 - Jesus is Put in the Tomb
I was almost brought to tears a few times getting to go through the stations with my boys, and to think of it, I don't think we have ever done the stations before with them. This was a special moment for me, and I am pretty sure Cristina loved it as much as I did. Every station had a statue as big as the one above. This was a particulary poignant moment in my entire life's faith, something I won't likely ever forget.
From here we walked across the street to Loretto Chapel where we saw the miraculous stair case. A picture inside showed it during renovation when the stair railings were off and the recently added brace to the column was removed. The kids did enjoy this, and I found the beauty of the stair case and legend to be something really unique to this city, a must for anyone of any faith visiting.
From there we perused the city by foot and couldn't help but be in awe of how many jewelry and art stores are in this city. Every where we went was a restaurant I'd love to try, an art gallery that would be nice to visit sans kids, or jewelry store after jewelry store. The hardest part of this was the time of year, it was just plain brisk outside, low 40s Fahrenheit, and eventually things were cold and we stopped in a small independent book store Collected Works which also had a small cafe. We bought hot cocoa for the kids and Cristina and I had a bit more caffeine.
This was all done before 10:30 in the morning. We still had a full day ahead, and had already seen and experienced some great times. From here we drove to Cerrillos.
The town had dirt roads and full of buildings just like this
Cerrillos had character, Cerrillos was dripping with character, so much so, wild looking turkeys (perhaps pheasants) were walking down the road. We decided to come to this town, south of Santa Fe for the Casa Grande Trading Company. Now had Sean not been a total rock hound this would have never come up, but Sean is the type of kid who comes in our house with arms full of rocks wanting to keep them and save them, decorate with them, the kid loves rocks. So when I heard about this place on the web I knew he needed to see a store and museum with all the coolest rocks in the world. And it was closed.
The website didn't say it was closed for the fall/winter season, but sure enough no one was there. We drove a block up and asked the antique shop owner if the store was closed, and she mentioned it was, and hasn't been open lately. Cristina and I were bummed to say the least, but mostly because we left Sante Fe Plaza just for this place, and it was nearly 30-40 miles from our hotel. She suggested we call them and even offered her phone, so we called but it didn't sound like I had the right guy. We drove back to the store front and I called the number on the door, they advised they were working on something and would open at noon, it was like 11:45 so we made the kids some sandwiches and waited. The kids ate and we made it inside to meet the owner a very nice woman, and Sean was in heaven. Each boy bought a special rock and we bought a big Geode, the boys are excited to get to Grandpa's to see the crystals inside. All this and I forgot to mention that there was a petting zoo to boot.
We drove back to the hotel and I picked up two sandwiches for Cristina and I. We ate, put Eva down for a nap, and I took the boys swimming. Cristina finished up some work, and had to work really hard to put Eva to sleep. The indoor pool was a blast and the boys and I had a fun time playing in the pool and hot tub. When we finished up we got set for dinner at "The Shed" which we luckily met Theodora the night before who arranged a reservation for us. I wish I had a way to contact her to say thank you.
The Shed was the epitome of New Mexican Cuisine. The doors don't open before 5:30, and there was a line already. You saw hotels sending their fancy cars there with guests, and people dressed to the nines, to families like us. This place was special and our dinner was too. From the blue corn enchiladas to the green chili stew to the unique and rich lemon souffle dinner was everything I could have hoped for.
By the time we got back to the hotel, everyone but Eva was asleep and I sat and typed a bit before I went to sleep. Days like this were what vacation was made for.
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