Food in Santa Fe (and Around)

Santa Fe, known for its green chile (apparently).  We ate a lot, mostly tried to do TexMex since we were in that area.  :-)

The one fancy place we went to was Gironimo.  Literally EVERYONE we knew who had been to Santa Fe recommended this place.  It was not in downtown Santa Fe, but on Canyon Road where all the art galleries were.  I got crabcakes and foie gras and Lingon got I think a seabass ramen.  Not super TexMex, not even Texas or Mexican like, but it was good fancy dining!  Prices were pretty high, comparable to SF, but for the one nice dinner this was doable!  :-)

For more casual dining, a few people recommended Cafe Pasquals.  I was not very hungry, so Lingon and I shared a green chile burger and some juice/shake thing.  We were recommended some fruit cobbler so I thought why not.  Overall the food was just OK, and I was a bit disappointed.  The restaurant itself was quite busy, took maybe 20-30 mins to get us seated for lunch, cute interior.  They take dinner reservations.

One night we had troubles finding a place to eat at, we walked into (actually up to, since this was a rooftop place) this place called Coyote Cafe.  Now I'm a little confused, because I think there is a difference between the downstairs restaurant, upstairs restaurant and upstairs outdoor rooftop bar.  We went to the super casual rooftop bar.  I got a salad and Lingon got tacos, and they were both very good!

One place that was recommended to us was Palacio Cafe.  I thought it was a vegetarian restaurant so I initially had no intention of eating there, but in the end just felt like I wanted something healthy, so there we went.  Lingon got tacos which were amazing, and I got the special salad which had salmon, and was amazing too!

We tried going to The Shed, not knowing how flipping happening it would be.  Please make reservations!!  It was recommended by friends too, but since our wait was quoted at 3 hours, we said forget it and left.  Haha!

We also had all our breakfasts at Julia, the restaurant at our hotel, La Posada de Santa Fe.  Post here!

Super random, and not quite in Santa Fe, but we passed a Sonic in Los Alamos, and I had never been, so we went and I got a milkshake.  Nothing too much to report here but the shake was good and after that I felt so bloated haha!  This was the first time I had ever been to a drive-in and it was funny looking.

Also in Los Alamos, we went to Viola's Restaurant for some TexMex.  We really enjoyed our meal!

Love TexMex, but it is a bit heavy.  Santa Fe is a great place to eat at, and we really enjoyed our culinary adventures here!

Hiking and Other Activities around Santa Fe, NM

I'm so slow at posting.  Sorry.  But here are things we did in or around Santa Fe.

1)  Hiking at Tent Rocks.  Pretty cool hoodoos (huge, bizarre rock formations) and tent looking formations.  Not a bad walk, there is a steep part at the end of the trail and you can choose to go up, or not, but I was glad we did because we were rewarded with really pretty views.  Even if you do not, the formations are still super cool when seen from a lower level.  About an hour plus outside of Santa Fe.

2)  Bandelier National Monument.  Interesting mountains and we could see where the ancient folks used to live and their way of life.  We went during free national park week so there was no entry fee!  Woot!  Lingon insisted on donating $5 though.  About an hour plus outside of Santa Fe.

3)  Los Alamos Science Museum.  I don't really have any pictures, but we went here on the way back from Bandelier National Monument, and you can go here to learn about the creation/discover of nukes.  It was very interesting, considering I knew nothing about that.  To me, more interesting than the nukes themselves was the excitement of the unknown and seeing how people lived.  We had to show photo ID to get into the area, since it was (I think) still somewhat of a military zone.

4)  Taos.  Entrance fee was pretty expensive, I want to say like $20 or so per person.  An area inhabited by Native Americans.  They had really cool adobe houses, and with the mountains in the background, was really cool.  Also seemed an hour plus away or so, aside from seeing the buildings (which were very cool), nothing much to see there, but it was something to do and I'm glad we went.

5)  Downtown Santa Fe.  A bunch of good restaurants.  Old church.  Very small.  Cute.  But don't expect to do too much there.

Apparently, though, George RR Martin (author of the blown up Game of Thrones) has this weird museum/art gallery/theme park thing called House of Eternal Return.  Maybe if you have a spare day?

6)  Art galleries in Santa Fe on Canyon Road.  We took a walk down the road, lots of really cool outdoors art and probably very cool indoor stuff too, but I'm not super into art so we never really went in or tried to buy anything haha!  Enjoyed the walk though!

We spend 3 nights in Santa Fe and thoroughly enjoyed it!  Hope you do too!

La Posada de Santa Fe, NM

It's been a while, but hello.

We were looking for a place close ish by to take a semi short trip and had recently heard pretty cool things about Santa Fe from a few different people.  A short direct flight to Albuquerque (took me a while to master this spelling and I'm sure I will forget in time) from SF (after a 2-hour delay), an $80 4-day car rental from Hertz (half of this was taxes and fees, believe it or not), and we arrived at La Posada de Santa Fe.  We chose the hotel because of the Starwood affiliation, and it served us well.

During check in, we had requested for a suite upgrade, but unfortunately this was not available for the first evening.  The reception lady told us to stop by the next day and they would help us with this.  The regular room was nice, comfy bed, worked out just great for us.  Lingon learned to build a fire (even though there was a sign telling us not to build a fire) and that kept us nice and warm!  The one thing that was annoying is that there were no bedroom slippers, apparently they had been on back order for a while!

The grounds of the hotel were really pretty.  Some of the buildings were old adobe structures, and others were newly build but in the same style.  The lobby was inviting with a wonderful fireplace and they served complimentary coffee and hot chocolate in the morning.  The hotel was a few blocks from the main square, so we had a nice walk everyday when we went to town.

On our second day, we upgraded to a suite.  It had a living room and was very big, and we enjoyed the extra space though it was not really necessary.  The bathroom had double sinks though, which we appreciated!

What I really liked about the hotel (I must be turning into an old person!) is the activities they arrange.  While we were there, we attended an art talk, smores evening, and we would have done the Saturday morning yoga except we decided to go hiking early instead.  Yummmmmm smoressssss.

For our Starwood Platinum amenity, we chose the breakfast.  You can get a continental breakfast which is coffee, a pastry and fruit parfait, but coffee was free so we decided to go with the $30-off-your-bill option at Julia restaurant.  Over the days, we got to try the huevos rancheros, lox and bagels (it really was just one bagel), French toast and Skinny Minnie Beni (poached eggs with a bunch of vegetables).  All very good and we were very pleased.  Portions were large and we often had leftovers.  Service was wonderful too.

Also, there is free coffee, tea and Mayan hot chocolate available in the lobby in the morning, and we just got that every morning instead of buying coffee for Lingon at breakfast, saved a few bucks!

We had a most lovely stay here.  I would highly recommend the hotel.  Thumbs up!