Santa Fe'ing (and loving it) - day 4

October 15, 2008 - Wednesday - Santa Fe, NM

Pounded away at email and Blogging, then headed out - this time asking Randy where a Post Office was: about a half-mile away - in a Mall behind the hotel. Oh. Not all the way out in Los Alamos. Sooo... we mailed our ballots for the General Election and happily sent them on their way. We're done. We can TOTALLY ignore all of the lies and garbage in the campaigning and ads and all. Woo Hoo!

We also noticed *snow* capping the mountains in the distance: Santa Fe had gotten *snow* overnite - but we STILL love Santa Fe since Randy said that Santa Fe sometimes does get snow overnite but that it usually melts by mid-morning - while leaving the beauty of it up on the Ski Slopes.

We decided that perhaps we should sample the actual *museum* art - rather than just look thru the art galleries. So we headed down to the "Plaza" area again and finally managed to find a parking space (parking is difficult in that area), then walked back to the New Mexico Museum of Art - and paid the $8 apiece (!!) for entry.

Ummm. Ummmmmm... we were done with the 2 floors of "art" in about 20 minutes. Sure, I'm sure it had "historical significance" in the development of New Mexican art, but it was just *awful*. Ugly, meaningless paintings - with a few exceptions. A *total* waste of $16, so we vowed to go back to browsing the *free* art galleries and shops.

Lunch time. We'd been told by people as far away as Sedona that we *had* to get to "Tia Sofia's" downtown in Santa Fe: *authentic* New Mexican cooking. So we went. We parked in a public parking lot and Kathy admired the Pueblo-style architecture of some of the buildings around the lot:




Then we found Tia Sofia's:

and waited about 10 minutes for the lunch crowd to give us a spot - and we did, indeed, enjoy the genuine-ness of the staff and the food. Nothing to knock you over with HOT - just good food. AND they finished off with Sopapilla's - with honey right there on the table. Very tasty and "comfort food". I really don't understand why most Mexican restaurants seem to have never heard of the sweet Sopapilla's. I do, indeed, think they "make the meal".

Now. Remember that hot green chili I had yesterday at Tecolote's? Welll.... today I was the "Energizer Bunny": I just kept going and going and going... :)

Actually, it isn't fair to blame it on Tecolote's - since it could have been just general "too many different cities in 3 weeks" - but I had rather some delicate moments during the day. That's why Kathy went clothes shopping without me - after Tia Sofia's - and I eventually found her in a rambling shop where she found a really-pretty long skirt - and a jeans jacket - both of which she looked *really* good in, so we acquired them and you'll see them in subsequent days.

We went back to browsing galleries and I happened upon a T-shirt shop which had a T-shirt in the window which says:

RETIRED! If you want to talk to me, you'll be charged a consulting fee!

I loved it and you'll also be seeing *that* shirt in coming posts. Actually, I found that people were afraid to talk to me - and I obviously love to talk, so I need to change it to:

RETIRED! If you want to talk *business*, you'll be charged a consulting fee!

Anyway, I've *already* gotten a lot of comments on the shirt.

Back to the Red Roof for an early nite since tomorrow we leave Santa Fe.

3965 miles.