Saturday, October 31, 2009

La Posada & Haunted Santa Fe

A few weeks ago K and I went to one of our favorite bars in Santa Fe, La PosadaLa Posada is also a hotel and spa but the bar is really nice, quiet, and comfortable.  The bar is located in the old Staab House.  The Staab House is named after its original owners, Julia and Abraham Staab, and was built in the 1880s.  The legend is, Julia Staab committed suicide in her bedroom and the Staab House has been haunted ever since.  Her bedroom is actually the largest suite in the hotel and the haunted room demands a premium.  Here's a link to the whole story. 

Here we are, sans ghost, finishing up a glass of wine in the bar.  It was chilly so we sat by a fireplace.


I actually had one of their delicious cocktails- a Lemondrop.  mmm.  Also, I am no photographer so I caught the flash in the mirror above the fireplace.  Oh well!
Here's a photo of the hallway leading to the bar.  The story is that the ghost of Julia Staab is frequently seen to be walking down the stair (which are behind me in this photo) and into the hallway below.



I learned about this story last year when I went on a Santa Fe Hearse Tour.  This is an awesome nighttime activity where you tour around in a modified open-air hearse. 

On the way back to the car, we passed another haunted area.  Here's a creepy photo:


This is an abandoned mental hospital.  No joke.  Well, it was once a mental hospital, then at some point became a nursing home, but now it is mostly abandoned.  The rooms are rented out to film production companies and other short-term enterprises.  It's really the strangest thing because it's a large plot really close to downtown.  One would think that it'd be a prime candidate for either remodel or tear down.  It's probably the fact that it's incredibly haunted that detracts potential developers. 

Happy Halloween everyone!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Early Snow!

The past week has been cold.  Very cold.  Winter has arrived! 

I generally like the winter months.  The beautiful white powder blankets, the cozy down blankets, and the freshly baked goods are a-ok by me.  So I was not terribly upset to wake up and see this in my back yard:

SNOW!
It ended up snowing most of the day.  Not a whole lot has stuck around, though, because the ground is still too warm.  Nevertheless, I'm happy.
So, reminder to those coming to visit this winter- bring warm clothes! 

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Santa Fe Farmers Market

This morning I went to the Santa Fe Farmers Market .  It's a fantastic market and this is the prime time of year for it.  It is a year-round market.  During the winter, though, it shrinks significantly and features mostly meats (including super delicious Pollo Real chicken, Pecos Valley Grassfed Beef, buffalo meat vendors such as LaMont, lamb meat and yarn, and yak), long-storing, winter vegetables, preserved foods, cosmetics and baked goods.

The Farmers Market has, within the past year or so, relocated to its permanent home at the fancy new Santa Fe Railyard.  The Railyard is the shiny new happenin' place around here.  When it's cold outside, the market moves indoors.  But on a gorgeous day like today, it was mainly outside, like so:

Each farmer has a booth underneath the wooden awning.
The railyard is also the last stop of the Rail Runner train, which connects Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Belen.  I have never been on the Rail Runner.  A predicament I hope to remedy tomorrow.

The above photo is the Rail Runner rolling into the Farmers Market.  You can see the permanent Farmers Market building on the right, partially obscured by a tree.
The tourist train also leaves from the Railyard:

You may remember that K and I rode the tourist train for his birthday a few years ago.  Here's a link to my old post on that adventure.

Anyway, I ended up with quite a bounty, including a gorgeous bouquet of flowers:


And 1000 pounds of fruit and vegetables:


(Starting from the carrots and moving clockwise --> bosc pears, loaf of wheat bread, 2 eggplants, 2 small watermelons, a couple of turnips, a head of green cabbage and some red beets).

Now, to start cooking it all up!  Mmm.



Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Richest Deadman Alive


<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:2;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:swiss;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:10.0pt;
margin-left:0in;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoPapDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-bottom:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->

Last night, I had the pleasure of going to see The Richest Deadman Alive, an original play presented by a local company here called Theater Grottesco.  It was also “pay as you wish” night, which was nice because I’m a cheapskate.  :)

The comic play is actually quite funny; I even laughed out loud at several points.  I rarely laugh out loud when watching  TV shows or movies, so take it from me that it was funny.  What happens is a hapless man, plagued by severe allergies, is accidentally locked outside of his home by a well-meaning but dim delivery man.  Because the outside world is full of asthma-inducing things, the hapless man dies from exposure to pollen.  His wife and friends mourn his passing and lay flowers on his casket.  Enter the twist.  Apparently, the hapless husband had been paying on a life insurance policy for many years unbeknownst to his wife.  The insurance agent comes to the wake, cuts the wife a giant check, and leaves.  Enter the second twist:   the flowers laid on the casket muster up some crazy-strong allergic reaction that sneezes the husband back to life.  There is rejoicing… and scheming.

The husband and wife blow all of their money on a vacation.  They return home, wondering what to do now that they are broke.  Unwilling to get a job, they decide that insurance fraud is the way to go and they start cooking up plans to fake the hapless husband’s death again.  Hilarity ensues. 

The end is a little strange and contains some social commentary that is uncharacteristically poignant (and a little jarring) for this slapstick comedy.  It was rushed and abrupt.  Also, there was a some over-acting that caught me in an eye roll or two, but for the most part it was appropriate for the play which contained a good bit of physical comedy and puns.  On the whole, The Richest Deadman Alive gets 2 thumbs up. Oh, the stage and set design is simple but genius.

The Richest Deadman Alive was great.  It was entertaining and an all-around good time.  I recommend going.  It’s playing at the Armory of the Arts (on Old Pecos Trail) and is running until October 18th.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

La Cieneguilla Petroglyph Adventure

This afternoon K and I decided to go on an adventure.  We originally were thinking about heading to El Rito, which is a town near Abiquiu.  El Rito was having a gallery crawl this weekend that sounded like fun.  We opted not to, though, because El Rito is a several hours drive from us.

Instead, K heard of some petroglyphs that are practically in our backyard.  They are on BLM land in La Cieneguilla, which is right off of Airport Road in Santa Fe.  Neither K nor I had ever been there before and, I gotta say, it was pretty awesome.

To get there, continue on Airport Road past the intersection with 599.  Pass the horse stable place and Calle Debra.  You will see a nice fenced-in parking area on the right hand side of the road.  Park there and the trail head and trail is very well-marked.  Like so:



The trial moseys along a barbed wire fence for a while, but eventually cuts toward the escarpment.  There were A TON of petroglyphs up there.  I took some choice pics.  Here's one of a cool looking bird and some deer/horses:



Here's a close up of a turtle/lizard/horny toad:


Here's K with a whole bunch of awesome ones (and some electric green moss):


And another one of K with the glyphs:


And me and some additional petroglyphs:


The trial climbs up the cliff side and then you scramble over rocks to walk the length of the cliff.  It's a beautiful view up there.  Those are the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the distance:



We ended up scurrying up some rocks to the top of the mesa and taking an alternate route back to the car.  It was a lovely, short, easy to moderate hike around. 

When we got back to the car, we picked up a bunch of cans which we collect and take to the scrap yard for cash-money.  What is it with people throwing their garbage all over the place here? 



Check out that sky!^ 


Edited to Add:  I forgot to post this petroglyph of a dog/coyote:

I liked this one because I thought it looked like Lucy (she's the one on the right):



Fall Foliage

Yes, it is that time of year when everyone scurries up to the mountains to look at leaves.  We are no different.

On Friday evening, K and I drove up to Aspen Vista which is in the Santa Fe National Forest. It takes about 20 minutes or so to get there from downtown Santa Fe.  We went up to catch the sunset and hike around in the moonlight. 

This is what we saw:


The story is this large aspen stand was created by a fire many years ago.  The fire cleared out all of the pine trees which made room for the aspens.  Over time, the aspen stand is getting smaller and smaller as the pine trees encroach.  It's perfectly natural; the pine forest is the older stage of the forest.

We watched the sun go down, which was very beautiful.  Unfortunately, I don't have mad camera skills.  But I did the best I could:


We took the girls with us and a bottle of wine.

The girls hiking-



We crossed Big Tesuque creek:


We luxuriated:


We walked back to the car with the full moon:


It was beautiful and the girls liked it, too.

The following day K and I returned for the Big Tesuque Trail Run.  A race, unfortunately, I was not able to participate in this year.  K ran, though and beat his previous time.  I took some photos with K's camera that I haven't downloaded yet.  It will accompany a separate post hopefully later tonight.