Road Trip: Day 7

You gotta admire a town where, if you want to build something, they'll only let you do it as long as it complies with a style of architecture that dates back 4,000 years.


That's Santa Fe for you. Adobe everywhere you look, and I gotta say it makes for a very interesting city.


On Wednesday, Rhi and I walked around the Plaza of Santa Fe with France. It's basically just a bunch of touristy shops and countless art galleries and restaurants that charge 25 times more than they should for things, but the scenery is fantastic and there's a couple of neat places. The coolest part of the plaza is where Native Americans (Pueblo, Navajo and perhaps some Hopi) lay out blankets on the ground to showcase their own jewelry and other wares. We didn't take a picture because it can be perceived as disrespectful. You'll just have to go and see for yourself.






That's me standing in front of a donkey statue, located quite fittingly in a street called "Burro Alley."

So after that, France left Rhi and I to go visit El Castillo, the retirement home that Rhi's Nain (Welsh for grandmother) lived in for many years. Nain--who was a remarkably intelligent, loving and accomplished woman--passed away last year at the age of 92. (I cannot begin to describe how great she was in a simple blog post. I would need to write a book to even approach that task.) This was Rhi's first time back to El Castillo since Nain passed away, and it was a bit of an emotional time.

We also went to visit Mary and Chase, who live in El Castillo and knew Nain since she was a small child. They were very good friends their entire life, and moved from Colorado to El Castillo many years ago at the behest of Nain and Taid (Taid is Welsh for grandfather, and he passed away a little over a decade ago). It's really incredible to see 4 people who have been such good friends for almost 90 years.

Anyways, Chase is one hilarious guy, even at 94-years-old. He regaled us with long stories about his family, the army and, at one point, reiterated the entire plot of National Lampoon's Summer Vacation (his house in Colorado was used as a location). On the wall of their apartment hung a couple of paintings, one by Mary's mentor and another by Mary herself. I was quite impressed with Mary's skills, and thought she might have even surpassed her teacher.


We then went with France to the grocery store to gather ingredients for a special dinner we were cooking for the New Mexico posse (minus Rhi's uncle Tom-- Tio Thomas and his honey, Irene. Tom was out of the country.) Back at Barbara's, Rhi and I prepared a big dinner for everyone with a recipe taken out of a cookbook that Rachel and Jenn gave her before we left Philly. We made Caramelized Onion Chicken, which doesn't taste anything like it sounds (there's raspberries, soy sauce and ginger involved in the equation). It was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

Perhaps it was the company that enhanced the meal, though, as it was great fun with wonderful conversation.


That's Charlie, Wyn's boyfriend. He leads quite the interesting life, or about as interesting as it gets as a blues guitar playin', harmonica blowin', traveling pharmacist who serves needy reservations all across the state. Which is to say, very interesting.


So that was our night. We ate good food, drank good wine, had good conversation and even popped some good champagne over some good dessert. Everyone cleaned up together before saying goodnight, and we climbed back into the comfortable bed for one last night before we got back on the road for the worst day of driving yet.

Sigh.