Santa Fe Day 2

Today is the real day 2. We finally slept in a little. All the way to 7 am. woooo. We had breakfast at The Burrito Company. Breakfast burritos. Eggs, potatoes, sausage for Deb, bacon for me. Green chilis on the side for Deb. Red chili for me. Big deal, huh. hee hee. They were really good. Same place where we ate lunch yesterday. The guy that took our order remembered that Debbie wanted green chili on the side. Kinda cool. Guess they don't have too many redheaded Okies ordering food. After breakfast, we bought a few souvenirs and headed north to a little town called Dixon. Dixon is home to several artists. Every November, the artists open their "studios" to the public. Well, studio is a relative term. Garage. Shed. Extra room in the house. "Town" is also a relative term. We didn't really see a town. But I guess a bunch of houses grouped together is a town. The road was kind of a free-for-all parking and pedestrian cluster fudge. We drove through slowly and decided we didn't want to join the throng of old poops trying to become a hood ornament. We headed back toward Santa Fe. The drive was scenic for sure. The Rio Grande runs along the highway between Dixon and Espnanola. Debbie took a ton of photos. As we headed back toward Santa Fe, we decided to head into the mountains to the Santa Fe Ski Basin. Those mountains were the only ones in the area where we could see snow. Took about thirty minutes or so to get from Santa Fe to the ski area. Temperature dropped from 73 in Santa Fe to 50 near the top of the mountain. Beautiful scenery up there too. We found a spot to look out toward Santa Fe. Amazing amount of smog in the valley. wow. We stopped a couple of times heading back down the mountain. Took a few photos of me and Deb with the mountains in the background. Funny that some of them look like the background is fake. Wierd. We really did go up and mill around some trees. We found a spot where someone put a wreath against a tree. "In Memory of Lisa". Debbie wondered what happened. I told her maybe a bear ate the gal. Debbie deadpanned, "There are bears up here?" LOL. Probably, but doubtful. Made it back to Santa Fe around 3 pm. Hung around the hotel for about an hour before deciding to go ahead and have dinner. We found a restaurant called Tortilla Flats. We are pretty sure it's the same restaurant we ate some great breakfast burritos several years ago when we stayed in Santa Fe on our way to the Grand Canyon. It's near the hotel where we stayed at that time, but the name and decor is different. Anyway, we had a great dinner. Fajitas for Deb and Chili rellenos for me. We went back to the hotel and are now vegging out. Deb is already asleep. LOL. It's not even 7 pm yet. hee hee. We are some wild and crazy party vacation people. woohoo!

The following photos were taken along the highway between Santa Fe and Dixon.


Camel Rock north of Santa Fe.





Looking from the highway toward the ski area. That's where we went later.





Photo of the Rio Grande.


An old gas station.


Another photo of the Rio Grande.


The following photos were taken on our way from Santa Fe to the ski area.


Photo of the ski area from the highway between Santa Fe and the ski area.


Debbie at the lookout point near the ski area. Those stargazing binoculars worked pretty good up there to check out the valley and Santa Fe.


View looking toward the valley and Santa Fe. That's Deb in the lower left corner looking through the binoculars. Notice the haze? That is smog. Click on the photo to enlarge it (can do the same for all photos, by the way). Dunno if Megan and Kelsey will remember the mountain we went up with Aunt Carol on our trip to Albuquerque and the Balloon Fiesta? The big mountain way in the distance is that same mountain, Sandia Peak.