Gosh, it’s been a really long time since I visited here and said hello to all of you. No real reason – summer is busy, my muse wasn’t spending time composing posts, laziness – any and all and more excuses could be offered, some with at least a portion of truth. This morning I was looking at photos – actually waiting for the photos I just took of my newest additions to my Etsy shop to load on the laptop – and had the urge to share some of them with you.
In July, Gep and Kat and I went on a road trip. Kat and I drove to Gep’s house in southern California, and the three of us went to Orange County to celebrate the 4th (on the 3rd – don’t ask) with Kat’s best friend and her large family. I’m sorry to say I didn’t get any photos of that day, and I’m not sure why. The following day, we headed out to Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit a very close friend. I’m going to share some images of that trip with you now.
The first day out, we had lunch somewhere in Arizona
The view from our hotel room in Flagstaff
And dinner in their restaurant
Delicious and relaxing.
The next morning we moved on and arrived at our friend’s home, spending the first afternoon and evening relaxing and enjoying her lovely yard and home. I’ve visited her before – in March of 2015 and again in October 2019, but this was the first time Gep and Kat had joined me. You can see more of Santa Fe in my archives for those months.
We visited the Georgia O’Keefe museum. I’ll share a couple of the photos I took of some of her work – photos are permitted only of certain paintings.
After touring the museum, we sat outside on the patio and had a nice cold bottle of water – it was a warm day, and the cold water tasted so good. It seems in Santa Fe, everywhere you look there’s a beautiful image.
Afterwards we headed to the La Fonda Hotel built in 1922 on the site of the first inn on the Santa Fe Trail 400 years ago. In 1925, the building was bought by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad and leased to Fred Harvey, renowned for his “Harvey House” hotel chain, noted for high standards and the “Harvey Girls”, who were very well trained waitresses. It features the influence of architects Mary Colter and John Gaw Meem, and still has many of the first elements including hand carved beams, stained glass skylights, and a 25 foot cathedral ceiling as well as many other design features. For more about this amazing place, I posted here after my first trip to Santa Fe – https://cjvl.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/santa-fe-the-la-fonda-hotel/
The main restaurant was closed, so we ate in the La Fiesta restaurant.
The following day, on our way to visit some earthhouses constructed by Michael Reynolds in La Prada, New Mexico, northwest of Taos, we stopped at the San Francisco de Asis Church
Unfortunately it seems I got my phone set to video and cannot figure out how to convert them into image files, so these are the only photos I can share from this stop.
I think it’s time now for me to move on, so we’ll continue on to the earthships another day. In the meantime, I’m wishing you enough.
Wanderings of an Elusive Mind 
I love NM. It’s a place I’d retire to…I think.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a little too desert for me, but I love visiting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
New Mexico…I have always wanted to go there. Gorgeous blue skies followed you everywhere.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We were really lucky with the weather.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m not over here on WordPress much these days but I saw you had linked this on Facebook. What a neat trip—how fun to be there in the southwest taking in so many interesting sights. My brother and his wife just visited Santa Fe and Sedona and Arizona last week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
For some reason, the church looks very inviting to me, Carol.
I can imagine leaving the heat of the day in New Mexico and entering a cool, thick-walled environment. I may, however, be completely wrong about the thick walls and the temperature change inside the building!
It looks like a delightful road trip, regardless.
LikeLike
A road trip with family visiting interesting places sounds great. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay, Mary Coulter! I have a book on her and a book on John Gaw Meem, too! (Have you been to/stayed at the La Posada in Winslow, AZ?)
LikeLiked by 1 person
No I haven’t. We were planning to stay in Winslow for a night or so, but changed our plans. We wanted to “stand on the corner”, of course. I think that was where we hit the rain storm, so we continued on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, yeah, the rains can be intense there…especially when they come with very large hail! It’s a rad place!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooooo, A Georgia O’Keefe museum would be amazing! And I’d love to see that church. We went to Santa Fe, NM a lifetime ago but I remember how pretty it was. We also went to Utah this summer and I was surprised how much I liked Utah!
LikeLike