The City Different

First, the tree. You know, the one I was 20 feet from (inside my house) when it was struck by lightening ... well I will be sure to post some pics, but don't get too excited, there's not a lot to see. There are two spots where the bark was stripped off, but the most visible one is really just a narrow vertical gash on the side facing the house. There was a huge fire ball when the lightening hit, but I can't see exactly where that was. I imagine it was high up and we won't find it until the leaves drop. At this point, I have no idea if the tree will die, but I suspect at least part of it will. It's a very nice tree - and must be at least 100 years old. I'd guess it's somewhere around 60 feet tall. We lost about 20 feet off the top of it when Hurricane Fran came through in 1996. Honestly, there are a couple of oaks in our yard that I really wouldn't mind losing - but this one is probably my favorite. :(

Back to vacation! Santa Fe ... I have always wanted to visit this city, and it did not disappoint. We only had one full day here, and everything seemed to close down at 5 pm, so there was plenty left unexplored. I would have enjoyed spending more time along Canyon Road - poking my head into all the art galleries, but when you are traipsing around with a camera on your shoulder and a 10 and 12 year old on your heels, the gallery owners don't pay you much mind (other than the convulsive eye rolls that they were trying to stifle). Too bad - we had some money (a gift) to spend. Still probably too rich for our blood, though. Most of the galleries were paintings, and I'd like to do some of my own soon. I did poke into one gallery that had these whimsical stylized human figures all made out of found objects. I should have written down the artist's name to look up on the web, but I didn't. Here are a few photos of Santa Fe ...

San Miguel Mission - Oldest church in the US (early 1600s). The Saint Francis Mission in Taos is the oldest dedicated to Saint Francis (early 1800s - see I did my research). Santa Fe seems to bost the oldest of a lot of things - church, house, government building. They call Santa Fe, "The City Different" and it's aptly named. It certainly doesn't feel like a city - nonetheless the Capital of New Mexico.

I loved the entrance to this house. Don't you just want to go peek on the side and see what's back there? If I lived in Santa Fe, I would want an entrance like this one!

The ubiquitous strings of chili peppers hang all around town. They are pretty cool, but one of those things that would not look right removed from its element (ie: I didn't buy any).

I loved the name of this store. I looked for it online, but didn't find a website. It is just off the town square. What a great name!

And here's one of my favorite stories from our time in Santa Fe - we were in the Saint Francis Basilica, an imposing church when compared to all the humble stucco structures that make up Santa Fe (which was named for Saint Francis, BTW). We were signing the guest book, and two entries above us were honeymooners from Venice, Italy - and I'm thinking, you live in Venice? Why don't you just stay home! Geez. I would love to go to Venice. Obviously Venice is home and "no big deal" to them, but it did strike me as rather ironic and I guess I am easily amused!