I decided to visit a former officemate who is from Albuquerque, New Mexico for a weekend back in July of 2007. When she quit her job here she went back to Albuquerque. My friend Gracie Lee decide to tag along. My friend from ABQ told me that she and another friend were heading to Santa Fe the weekend of our planned visit to watch the opera. I said okay, we’ll head to Santa Fe too since we’ve heard that it’s really nice up there. The opera tickets were already sold out so we agreed that Gracie Lee and I will just hang around the old town while she and her friend Terri went to the opera.
We arrived in ABQ early Saturaday morning. Annie picked us up at the airport and gave us a little tour of the University of New Mexico. That’s where she works and is also an alumna. After that, we dropped by her parents house to pick up her luggage and drove to Santa Fe.
Our room wasn’t ready yet when we got there so we went in search of lunch. We found this southwestern food restaurant which seemed to be really popular – the wait was long – so we decided to try it. The food was great although I don’t remember what I had anymore. Not the name anyway. I think I had some kind of green chile soup.
After lunch, we meandered around town and went into this small jewelry shop called the Crown Jewels. They had some real interesting pieces and though I’m not much into costume jewelry, I ended up buying this ring with a really large rough cut stone which is yellow-orange in color. Citrine maybe? We had great fun in that store. We even kept the staff amused too.
With our goodies paid for, we headed back to the hotel and checked in. We went back out again and went to the town square. It must have been market day since there were plenty of stalls with things for sale – from food, jewelry to paintings.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Cafe Paris. My friend likes all things “Parisien” so I wasn’t surprise that she booked us there.
Back at the hotel, while waiting for my friends to finish changing for dinner, I was browsing through a Santa Fe magazine and on the cover was Ali MacGraw. Apparently, she is a resident. Well, when we were seated – we had patio seating – a group of women came in. One of the women looked really familiar to me and I thought I’ve just seen her very recently. Then, I realized I was looking at Ali MacGraw. I would probably not have recognized her had I not browse through that magazine in the hotel. People were not staring either so we wouldn’t have any indication that there was a celebrity dining there also. Didn’t feel like going to a bar after dinner so Gracie and I just went for a walk while Annie and Terri went to the opera.
The next day, we checked out after breakfast and then explored the town some more. We went to the Georgia O’Keefe museum, did a little bit of shopping and then drove back to ABQ. I wanted my rice fix so we went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. Got some coldstone ice cream for dessert and then Annie dropped us off at the airport to catch our flight home.
Travels, musings, and such......... 