Tues., March 23, 2010

Noel woke me up before 6:00 a.m. this morning so that we could catch the Rail Runner Express train to Santa Fe. He thought we had to catch the train at 7:23 but we didn't have to be there until 7:38 so we had a bit of a wait in the cold early morning!

The ride north to Santa Fe was exciting. We haven't been on a train since we did the Agawa Canyon ride at least 10 years ago. The train travelled through several Pueblos (Indian Reservations) and as we got closer to Santa Fe, it went between the south bound & north bound lanes of Interstate 25! The scenery was beautiful.

We arrived at the historic Santa Fe depot just before 9:00 a.m. and realized that we didn't know which way to go!! Both of us needed a bathroom & a hot coffee so we found a coffee shop to one side of the depot and filled our needs as we read the tour guide.

We discovered that there is a free shuttle to the Plaza but when we got the shuttle stop, found that we had missed it and had to wait about 3/4 of an hour for the next one! We did a bit of window shopping in the Sanbuco Market since none of the stores were open yet but at least it was warm inside.

We finally made it to the Plaza and started exploring. Only a few stores were open even though it was now almost 10:00 a.m. so we browsed in the ones that were open & window shopped the ones that weren't. The Plaza is a market place for Indian artisans and there were several there braving the cold & trying to sell their jewellery, etc.

We found the historic La Fonda hotel and warmed up there while we browsed through some of their shops. After that, we walked about 1 block over to the historic Loretto Chapel. Be sure to check it out at www.lorettochapel.com. It really is interesting. We did some more browsing through stores and then decided we had to warm up so went to the Plaza Cafe for lunch.

With our bellies full and our fingers warm, I dragged Noel across the road to the New Mexico History Museum. We both enjoyed it very much. One exhibit was of fashions through out the years in New Mexico. They had wedding dresses from as far back as the mid 1700's & 1800's. It really was interesting. The rest of the museum was about New Mexico's history starting with the Pueblo Indians, the Spanish and on up to modern times. We were also able to see the 400 year old Palace of the Governors, parts of which were built over an ancient indian pueblo. While we were inside, it was snowing outside!

We caught the shuttle back to the train depot and since we were about 3/4 of an hour early, we went back to the Sanbuco Market where Noel sat on a bench and I browsed through some of the shops. No one in Santa Fe got rich off of us! The merchandise was beautiful but very expensive.

We left Santa Fe on the 4:10 p.m. train and arrived back in Albuquerque around 5:30. We had to rush back home to the campground to be in time for a seminar on RV insurance that was put on by our friend's Jack & Doreen.

After the seminar, we all went to the Route 66 Casino for a delicious & cheap buffet dinner. By 10:00 when we got home, we fell into bed and slept well after our long day and all the walking.