Santa Fe Opera Trip, August 2008
Day One - 8/11/2008 - Anne Berre Reporting
Day Two - 8/12/2008 - Bob Holloway Reporting
Day Three - 8/13/2008 - Anne Berre Reporting
Santa Fe's central Plaza offers some of the finest people watching in the world, and some fine shopping and food. After sampling, we recommend the fajitas vender on the southwest corner, whose grill is the tempting smell you experience from blocks away. Generous portions of grilled chicken or beef are piled on a homemade tortilla and then topped with your choice of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, fresh guacamole or sour cream, or all of the above. At $4.00 it's one of Santa Fe's real deals. A variety of entertainment takes place on the Plaza, much of it spontaneous. On our afternoon stroll, we experienced a trio of jugglers, a street jazz musician, and a professional story teller.
Our next stop was one of Santa Fe's three signature attractions, The Governor's Palace. This historical landmark is now a museum, and its portico houses Native American crafts vendors. On our visit this Wednesday, it was also housing an exhibit of period-costumed "Mountain Men" demonstrating mountain related skills and selling a variety of Southwestern clothing and crafts. A blacksmith working over charcoal crafted fireplace tools and a large display of knives shaped specifically to be tucked in the back of one's belt or the top of a boot was particularly intriguing.
Santa Fe offers a fine array of shopping, with jewelry and fine art topping the list. Its reputation as the second largest fine art market in the U.S. (second only to New York) is well deserved, and on our short visit we could only hit the highlights. We highly recommend setting aside a full day for the gallery district on Canyon Road and another full day for the museums.
Our day was a short one, as we departed for a personal tour of the Santa Fe Opera house and its inner workings and an evening of Mozart. We will fill you in on both when we log in next.