Tamales, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Blue Bunny Ice Cream

After our day at the Petrified Forest National Park with Bob and Linda it was time to move on. Our next stop was Santa Fe. This is my third visit and Judy's second. Santa Fe sits in a valley with mountains to the north and east. It is the capital of New Mexico and a neat mixture of art and southwest.

Saturday morning we headed to the downtown plaza. After some window shopping and admiring the turquoise jewelry, it was time for lunch. On our last visit we had eaten at the Blue Corn Cafe and really enjoyed it, so we headed there again. Bad choice. So So food, loud loud music, and indifferent staff. Frankly we couldn't wait to leave. After a little more window shopping we stopped in at the Chili store. We bought a couple of things and then hit up one of the people who worked in the store for a few dining suggestions. When we told her where we had just eaten lunch she rolled her eyes. Same reaction for the famous Coyote Cafe across the street. She did however give us 3 or 4 recommendations.

Our last stop of the day found us at the Photo Eye Gallery and bookstore. This is a favorite place of mine. The gallery had a show by Nick Brandt on display. These are large pictures of African wild animals, but done as fine art. Hard to explain but incredible to see. Unfortunately the prices are a little out of our range. If you would like to see some of the images go to www.photoeye.com/nickbrandt. When we go out for lunch, we always eat in for supper. We had leftover white chicken chili and a piece of Bob's Red Mill Irish soda bread that Judy had made in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

After such a disappointing lunch on yesterday, today we decided to skip breakfast and go out for lunch at Maria's. This was one of the restaurants recommended by the lady at the Chili shop. It turns out we had eaten there a few years ago on our last visit to Santa Fe. We were not disappointed. Yes, we try to eat low fat, low carb most of the time, but now and then we indulge. As you can see from the picture, I indulged. One of my weaknesses is really good tamales. I wasn't disappointed. Maria's was as good as we remember it from our last visit. Of course what do you expect from a restaurant that has over 100 varieties of real margaritas on the menu. In their words. “No mix, sugar, or additives in our Margaritas. We use only REAL tequila, REAL triple-sec, REAL fresh squeezed lemon juice and ice made with filtered water”. There's even one called “The Randall Scandal”. No, Judy and I did not misbehave, it's named after a Santa Fe resident named Randy Randall. After we finished our lunch and waddled back to the car it was time for a little culture.

We drove over to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. O'Keeffe has been a major figure in American art since the 20's. She is chiefly known for abstraction and representation in paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, and landscapes. Her paintings have crisp contoured forms with subtle transitions of color and she often transformed her subject matter into powerful abstract forms. She was married to the internationally known photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Her work was first shown in 1916 at Stieglitz's avant-garde gallery, 291 in NYC. After Stieglitz died she move west permanently and lived north of Santa Fe at Ghost Ranch. That there is a museum in this town devoted solely to her work speaks volumes. After watching a great documentary on her life and viewing her work we wandered back down to the plaza.

What a beautiful day. Native Americans selling jewelry and people just hanging out enjoying the warm weather. We certainly have enjoyed our stay here. This is a beautiful area and with regret it's time to move on. We hope your day was a good one, and to our friends in Michigan. Spring is coming, Soon, Soon.

P.S. About the Blue Bunny ice cream. We have been on a quest to find some Sugar Free Blue Bunny ice cream. Finally, today we had success. So after a light dinner of scrambled eggs, dessert tonight was a sugar free cookie, and some bunny track ice cream.