Tag

Santa Fe

Browsing

Santa Fe

Downtown Santa Fe is a fun place to wander around with many little shops.  It’s not as fun with kids, at least the shopping part, but we still enjoyed bopping around.  Pop your head into St. Francis Cathedral, it is a beautiful space with spectacular designs.

Petroglyph National Monument

I’m taking over for Katie for this section as she was gone to Colorado for a super fun girls weekend. The kids and I decided to head out and see some Petroglyphs. These marking are 600-800 years old and were used as detailed signposts by the native people. The meaning is a bit more spiritual than that, but hopefully, you get the basic idea. There are numerous sites around Albuquerque where you can view the petroglyphs in the National Park. We just hit one that had a few different stops. The glyphs are awesome to see. We all felt the cool sensation of watching something that was written when the land was still desolate and the people were few. On the sadder side of things, I also used this as an opportunity to talk to the kids about vandalism. Many areas within the park have been vandalized and stupid people have cut their names or dumb sayings into the rocks. It really hit home with the kids how bad this practice is and I think it’s a lesson they will take with them in life. ( at least the older ones). It was great spending the day in the hot sun, doing school (Junior Ranger), hiking and having some laughs.

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

What a hike!  Tent Rocks is such a fun adventure and the geological formations you see blow your mind.  Looking from afar is impressive but when you make your way through the narrow passages of the slot canyon to the tent rocks the views are magical.  A climb at the end puts you above the rocks on a plateau looking out over vast land which seems to extend to the edge of the earth.  Spectacular views and well worth the travel.

Chimayo/Taos

I read about the weavers in Chimayo and really wanted to check out this art.  We ventured off on our way to Taos and what we found was amazing.  We happened to stop in the Trujillo Weaving Shop first and we probably didn’t need to go anywhere else.  The work was beautiful, we were able to see weaving in progress and the colors, yarns, patterns and finished products were all stunning.  As 7th generation weavers, their story, tradition, and preservation of an art form is truly amazing.

From Chimayo, we took the scenic road to Taos which equated to lots of winding around, by the time we arrived Colette didn’t feel great.  We didn’t stay long but the drive was beautiful and worth the curves to the top of the mountain.

Folk Art Museum

There are a group of museums on “Museum Hill” in Santa Fe which is a pretty neat place.  We choose to check out the Folk Art Museum and it was well worth the visit.  It is hard to describe all the amazing things here, art from around the world and a really great hands-on section for the kids.  One cool thing, we noticed a weaving created by the weavers in Chimayo we had just visited the day before.

 

Santa Fe

We made it to Santa Fe and were super exciting our Airbnb was an adobe house.  We had cactus in our yard and it’s really feeling like the west.  Our stay here was extra long because Matt was going on a ski trip with his friends and on his return I was heading off for a girls weekend to Denver.  Before Matt’s trip, we had a day to get acquainted with the town and it sure is cute!  It was also small enough that I was comfortable driving our huge vehicle around so that was good.

Rollin’ with the tumble weeds

 

Santa Fe Children’s Museum

The Santa Fe Children’s Museum was just a few blocks from our Airbnb and we had an afternoon of fun there.  Most Children’s Museums I’ve been to are amazing but pretty controlled, this one was wild and free.  There was an art center with fabric, paper, beads, glue, feathers etc. and you could make whatever you wanted.  There was also a water area, blocks, gardening section, and the highlight for our kid’s face painting! (Oh and making big messes is encouraged!) To be able to paint their own faces was such a treat and their individual personalities shined through perfectly with their paint choices!

 

Bandolier National Monument

We decided to venture out to Bandolier National Monument on our second day without Matt.  90% of the time he drives so I was in charge of driving which isn’t a problem and navigating which I will be the first to admit, I think I was born with a broken compass in my head.  The good thing is phone navigation makes things relatively easy nowadays, the bad thing is sometimes in the middle of nowhere navigation doesn’t work.  We made it there and back safely.  The drive was beautiful, I love this desolate land, all the blonds of nature, the miles you can see in front of you.  It is also amazing how you can be driving along in what seems to be flat land for miles, make a turn and there is a big canyon.  We popped up on Frijoles Canyon as we entered Bandelier National Park and then wound down switchbacks until we came to the visitor center.  A short hike from the visitor center with Junior Ranger books in hand brought us to cliffs in the distance where the Pueblo people made their homes.  We made our way past the Kiva, then to the ground dwellings and finally to the cavates (alcoves carved into the canyon walls).  Wooden ladders allowed you to climb inside and check out these small houses.  I will say it is pretty cool to perch inside these dwellings and imagine living with a family here 800 years ago.  This area once was covered with 1000 feet of volcanic ash which turned into tuff.   Over time, in areas with less density in the rocks, hollows formed, and then Native people used tools to carve out these holes for dwellings.  We also saw petroglyphs carved into the rock which is always astonishing to imagine the hands that carved these lines and the stories they were telling.  The kids loved our adventure, they all became Junior Rangers and we had a great day to tell dad about.

Super STEM Saturday

While watching the Olympics Colette saw a commercial for “Super STEM Saturday”  she declared we had to go.  To be honest I didn’t want to make the drive to Albuquerque but when your kids are that excited about science how can you not.  We got up and headed out early and it was more than worth the trip.  Super STEM Saturday, full of amazing science experiments, robots, math challenges, Bob the Science Guy, and Star Wars!   It was so much fun to see such excitement and so many kids enjoying the wonders of science.

 

 

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Santa Fe, the land of Georgia O’Keeffe.  I was so happy to visit this museum dedicated to her work.  I loved that they gave the kids sketchbooks to create art while in the gallery.  This kept them occupied while I enjoyed the paintings.  I cringe at Lennox with the phone in the gallery but I consider it insurance against us ending up with a multi-million dollar destruction of artwork and a front page news story. He wasn’t as thrilled about browsing O’Keeffe paintings as I was.

 

Kakawa

A shop dedicated to sipping chocolate, wow!  We stopped in for a treat and found an extraordinary gem.  From sipping chocolate to truffles and even ice cream this place serves the finest flavors and its atmosphere is amazing.  We all fell in love with this soul-warming experience.

Meow Wolf

Ok, where do we even start…  if you bottle up creativity and put it in a building and shook it vigorously you would have this amazing place.  It is so crazy and cool it is pretty much indescribable and all I can say is go!  If you ever have a chance get there and soak up the experience, I know I did.  From giant robots to playing music on the ribs of a wooly mammoth skeleton, glow rooms and eyeballs of all sorts staring at you from the walls, climb into a washing machine or walk through a refrigerator, places light up and sing, tight spaces, shrinking walls and dance party rooms, you will never want to leave.  Enjoy a taste of the magic.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.