Thursday, May 26, 2016

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!

Saturday, May 14, 2016

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!