New Mexico - Land of Enchantment (it says so on their license plate)

I made my way up from El Paso to Albuquerque on July 4th with a stop at River Bend Hotsprings in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Totally well worth the stop by the way. When I got to Albuquerque, it was a total ghost town. I stopped for lunch at The Frontier (one of those quintessential southwestern restaurants) and then drove to my hotel located downtown. I drove for a few minutes and saw only a handful of cars and downtown was completely empty. I then drove to Old Town to check out the shops and galleries. Half of them were closed and I saw only a handful of people. I get it, it's the 4th and I'm glad people are spending time with their families. I was just surprised. Not much to do so found a cute little bar to sample the local brews and had an early night.

Next day, I drove up to Santa Fe and loved every moment! The architecture alone is so impressive and different than anything I've seen before. 

The muted Pueblo style is just so vibrant and distinct. I took tons of pictures but won't subject you to all of that. It was such a great town to walk around to check out not only the history but the art and shops. The shopping part is a bit overdone for my taste since I'm not much of a shopper so going into one or two little places did it for me but everything else was so impressive.

After walking around a bit I made it to the first stop on my list, Loretto Chapel. It is this beautiful little former Catholic Church that is now a museum and wedding chapel. It is famous for the "miraculous staircase" see here in the photo. The church was built in the late 1800's and the architect died before he completed it so access to the choir loft was never built. They couldn't just put in a regular staircase because it would take up too much space in this little chapel.

So the sisters prayed a 9 day Novena to St. Joseph (the patron saint of carpenters) and on the 9th day a carpenter appeared with only a hammer and carpenter's square and he built this staircase with simple tools and wooden pegs. Even the wood is a mystery because it it not native to the area. Then the carpenter disappeared without payment. 

The staircase makes two 360º turns without any structural support. Initially there was no banister so the nuns had to climb up the steps like a ladder and scoot backwards the same way. They also would sit on their bottoms to make their way down (man, gotta say I love that visual). :-)

I then made my way down the street to another church because, although I'm a recovered Catholic, I still love visiting churches. I somehow feel closer to both of my parents when I'm inside a Catholic church since they were both so devout.

Although more traditional in design, what struck me was this statue that was standing outside the church.

This is a stature of Saint Kateri who is the first North American Indian to be beatified. She was an Algonquian-Mohawk woman who converted to Christianity.

I continued walking through beautiful downtown. It was the perfect weather, around 90 but dry heat. It wasn't too crowded and everyone was so friendly and welcoming.

Native artisans selling their wares on the sidewalk.

Ended my visit downtown by stopping at the Oldest House in the USA. Pretty cool right?

I tried to visit places like Meow Wolf (a really cool immersive art collective just outside of downtown Santa Fe). I spent about 45 minutes trying to find parking and the line was impossibly long so I'll save it for my next visit to Santa Fe. 

Overall, I could see myself spending much more time in New Mexico. Hmmmm, maybe I'll be one of those snow birds. 8 months in Maine and 4 months in New Mexico. It could happen.