5/13/2014 – For the first time in now six visits to Albuquerque I was bored. I think I would rather be outside. So I headed for Santa Fe. I had one stop to make along the way. The first time I came here for nuclear emergency training, I discovered The Alibi, a free weekly, and its recommendations. My schedule was full, so on the way out of town I stopped for lunch at the recommended Range Café in the old town center of Bernalillo. Ever since that first visit sixteen years ago, the restaurant has gotten busy, opened two more locations, Bernalillo has grown into a busy crossroads town, but the Range has stayed consistently good and became my last meal in the area. So today I honored that tradition with the same meal I have ordered there for every one of my six visits in sixteen years-blue corn chicken enchiladas with green chiles.
Since it was so early, I drove to the center of Santa Fe before the motel. I made a quick stop here during my first visit to the area and wasn’t impressed. I decided to spend a day and a night and see what there was to see. When I looked past the endless shops I discovered an old city steeped in history with deeply religious influences and some great museums. La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís was the site of an Ancestral Puebloan village around 900 AD. The Spanish governor established a city here in 1607 and it was named the capital of Nuevo Mexico, which included present day New Mexico and parts of Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. To manage such a large territory, The Palace of the Governors was built at the head of the plaza in the 1620’s. San Miguel Mission Church also was built in the early 1600’s to manage religious needs. Today I walked around the old capital in showers of snow and soft hail, and really enjoyed all of these sites. The “palace”, a simple one story adobe building covering one entire block, is part of the state’s history museum. Renovated and repaired over the years, the thick adobe walls are still the originals from nearly 400 years ago. Better yet, the military “discount” was a free pass not only for the history museum, but three others. Before moving on, I had to spend some time at one special place I only caught a glimpse of sixteen years ago. Four Sisters of Loretto arrived in Santa Fe in 1872 to establish a Catholic girls’ academy. The Bishop approved and ordered a chapel be built for the nuns and their school. Items were brought from France to create a beautiful place of worship. The space was missing one thing-a reasonable (and ladylike) way to reach the choir loft in the back of the chapel. The Sisters prayed for a solution, and a carpenter showed up. All he had were hand tools. With those tools and water to bend the wood, he created a double turn (two 360’s) unsupported spiral staircase held together with wooden pegs. The carpenter then disappeared without payment, leaving behind a mystery of miraculous engineering made of a wood unknown to anyone in the area-some will say unknown anywhere. The volunteer told me it had been tested and turned up as a species of spruce that only comes from cold climates at high elevations-none like it in the country. Apparently the miracle wasn’t enough for the Roman Catholic Church to keep the chapel when the school closed. Thankfully it was purchased by a group committed to preserving the beautiful space and its “miracle stairs”. They rent the space out and charge a mere three dollars per visitor. After digging my way out of the old town, I decided to use my free pass for one more museum. I picked the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. It’s a great museum with a little of everything about New Mexico Natives from ancient times through modern times, including baskets, pottery, trade goods, photography, music, jewelry, and dance. I didn’t have enough time to do it justice, but it was a good choice. When I came out it had stopped snowing. Tomorrow after the frost clears from my windows I head for another long time dream destination, the ruins at Chaco Canyon.
