My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Today was an easy day. We had a great breakfast at Tia Sophia in Santa Fe. It is so nice to stay someplace where you can walk to all the sites and nice restaurants.
Then we drove north from Santa Fe into Colorado where we are staying at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio, Colorado. It was a beautiful drive.
Today we spent the day walking around Santa Fe checking out the sites and the art galleries. We started at the New Mexico State Capital.
Then we visited several art galleries on Canyon Road
We stopped at a French bakery and had a very tasty green chili and cheese crepe. It was the best crepe I have had since Aix en Provence.
Next we toured the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. It was fabulous. More than anyone else O’Keeffe really captures the grandeur of the Southwest landscape.
For dinner we ate at Sazón, a gourmet Mexican restaurant that is rated the number one restaurant in Santa Fe on Trip Advisor. First they brought us mini tortillas to taste each of their molés.
Then the house salad.
For the main course I had beef heart in a wine and jalapeño sauce.
Duke has steak.
And we ended with a avocado, ginger ice cream with piñon nuts and a beet reduction. It sounds strange but it was delicious.
It was a wonderful dinner and we were able to walk to Sazón from our hotel.
This morning we left the ranch we were staying at near Gila and headed to Santa Fe. A bit down the road we saw a sign for a bakery and coffee shop. We couldn’t resist stopping for coffee and cinnamon roles.
Next we did a hike along the Continental Divide Trail.
The highlight of the day was seeing the Very Large Array (VLA). It is 27 giant radio telescopes spread out along three legs of a Y. They work together to ‘see’ and study object in space. They can be moved over a system of railway tracks to get different types of images.
We are staying at the Hotel Santa Fe. The meal we had in their restaurant was fabulous. We started out with the corn vichyssoise.
Then I had the salmon on a blackberry slaw and polenta and Duke had the beef tenderloin.
Today we didn’t get in the car. It was a nice change as we begin the second week of our road trip. We set out to do a hike from the front door of our cabin. First we walked down the creek for quite a ways.
Then we decided to bushwhack our way back around the other side of the big bluff which overlooks the ranch. It was tough going and each of us got scraped a bit by thorns but the challenge was worth it.
It was really good to get back to our cabin, shower and put our feet up!
Tuesday morning we hiked the Catwalk National Recreation Trail. Back in the 1890s miners installed a water pipe through Whitewater Canyon for the nearby mine. A catwalk through the canyon was needed to maintain the pipe. The mines went away but in the 1930s a trail was built on the old catwalk. A recent fire and a big flood seriously damaged the catwalk but it has been rebuilt. We hiked the catwalk and a bit further up the canyon.
After our hike we drove into Silver City. We stopped at the visitor center, had a snack at Dairy Queen, drove around the historic center and toured the museum.
From Silver City we went Back to our cabin on a ranch near Gila. About 4 pm we had a thunderstorm and the power went out. No power just made the evening more of an adventure. We had flashlights and candles. This cabin is a perfect spot to sit on the porch and read. We enjoyed dinner on the front porch too. The power came back on about 8 am this morning.
