Final Thoughts On Santa Fe

All in all, my sister Susan and I had a very pleasant weekend in Santa Fe. It is referred to as "The City Different" and it really truly is. I was able to do a lot of walking around the place, and so was able to take many photographs, which I really enjoy doing. I remember my old University of Denver photography professor, Roddy MacInnes, talking about a friend who really loved photography, took all kinds of photographs using a film camera, and when the rolls were finished, simply threw them in a drawer and never had them developed. And I actually really get that. However, with that said, and since this is now the digital age, I intend to show some of my photos, for better or worse, such as the one on the left of the entrance to The Shed, my favorite restaurant in Santa Fe. This restaurant has been in operation since 1953 (my birth year), and is located in Prince Patio, an adobe hacienda that dates back to 1692. The food is great, it is located just off the Santa Fe Plaza, and best of all, has very reasonable prices. We went early to make a reservation for 5:30, when the place opened, and when we arrived, the line to get a table was out the door. It is that good.

Santa Fe is probably best known for its art galleries, of which there are many. I never actually went into any of them on this trip, not wanting to give the owner false hope, although I was very tempted to go into a gallery featuring the work of R.C. Gorman. He was very popular when I first started visiting Santa Fe back in the early 1980s (I think), and I really like his work. Sadly, he passed away in 2005. I hadn't given him much thought in years, until I saw that gallery featuring his paintings. I suspect I might have to win Powerball to buy one his artworks these days, and so I just walked on. But I have to say that many of the art galleries are works of art themselves, such as the one just off the plaza in the photograph on the right.

I was walking a few blocks south of downtown to take photographs of the San Miguel Chapel (built in 1610), said to be the oldest church in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico), as well as one of the oldest houses in the country, located just across the street, and passed the courtyard of another art gallery, where I took the photograph on the left. There is a story about the statue of the woman holding the lantern that the owner was relating to a couple of female gallery hoppers, but I did not hear the details. Places to go, things to do. Maybe I'll find out all about it next time.

One of those things to do was walk the length of Canyon Road, which is an art district with more than a hundred galleries and studios. Some of the galleries are located in ancient adobe haciendas, such as the one in the photograph on the right, and some are located in newer structures, the very newest built to fit in with its neighbors. Parking is at a premium here, and so I usually find a spot in the residential neighborhood at the beginning of the district, and walk uphill from there.

The scenery on this road is wonderful, such as the view of what I believe is an art gallery in the photograph on the left. It could be a home, of course, and if it is, I will definitely make an offer for it when I win Powerball. After all, I will need to have somewhere to hang all those Gormans.

Speaking of houses, how about this little number located on a side street just off Canyon Road. Perhaps the Gormans would fit better here. Since it is located just off Canyon Road, I suspect it would sell at a more reasonable price. I was often tempted to go up and ring the doorbell of some of these places, and make them an offer (I could probably afford $300,000 if I sold my condo in Denver), but was afraid they would just take out a gun and shoot me, assuming they have a "Make My Day" law in New Mexico like they do in Colorado. New Mexico, after all, has the third highest number of gun-related deaths in the country. Of course, most of those gun-related deaths probably take place in Albuquerque, where the governor imposed a 30 day moratorium on carrying guns in public last week, due to all the recent shootings there, provoking outrage and threats of impeachment. But I digress.

As I headed back to my car, I was very much tempted to make an offer on the piece of art in the photograph on the left. I know it wouldn't fit on the balcony of my condo, but perhaps my HOA would be willing to buy it and put it out in front of the building. I could tie it to the roof of my car when we headed back to Denver Monday morning, after breakfast once again at Pantry Rio, which I also throughly recommend. Sadly, I am afraid I will have to wait until the next monthly homeowners meeting to broach the subject, and had to leave that wonderful rooster behind. Hopefully nobody will snap it up before I return with a check for the two or three hundred dollars they are probably asking for it. Keep your fingers crossed, everybody!

More Highlights From Santa Fe

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, my sister Susan and I drove down to Santa Fe, New Mexico from Denver last weekend to attend the annual fiesta that has been held there since 1712. This past Friday night, after we arrived, I decided to walk from the luxury Downtown Motel 6 Resort Hotel and Spa, where we were staying, to the Santa Fe Plaza, to check out the action. I found that there was indeed a crowd dancing to the live band in front of the Palace of the Governors, but except for that, the city was pretty quiet. Although there were a few places along the way with live bands playing, most of the restaurants closed at 9:00, and there were not that many people on the street. However, despite this, Saint Francis Cathedral was all lit up, as seen in the photograph on the left, and as usual, looked pretty impressive. And no, the French Pastry Shop located in the La Fonda Hotel was not open, either.

The next morning it was much more lively. As usual. the Native American artisans were in their usual place under the Palace of the Governors portal, selling their wares to the tourists, as seen in the photograph on the right. They have been doing this since the 1930s, with only the Covid outbreak in 2020 and 2021 interrupting this tradition. And do Native Americans still believe that taking their photograph will steal their souls? As I understand it, this was a 19th and early 20th Century belief, and over the years, they have become more comfortable with the medium. After all, it is through photography that they have a permanent record of their culture. That is just my humble opinion, of course, which up to this point has never carried much - by which I mean any - weight.

And as I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the plaza is the center of fiesta events, and most of the locals congregate there with their friends and families to enjoy the fun. This year there was an entire street devoted to arts and craft booths, and many food vendors on the streets surrounding the plaza. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, in addition to booths serving traditional New Mexican cuisine, there was also a booth selling giant turkey legs, just like back in Denver. Of course, in Denver you would have a booth selling "Los Turkey Legs" at the Cinco de Mayo Festival, which I suspect are then frozen, to be taken out and sold at the Taste of Colorado on Labor Day weekend. The remainders to be frozen again, and sold at Oktoberfest as "Das Turkey Legs." A local sitting next to me, waiting to start his job as a security guard at the festival, remarked that the turkey legs at the nearby booth smelled pretty bad, confirming all my suspicions about that industry.

And during the fiesta parade, a highlight of the festival, I was happy to see that St. Francis of Assisi was participating, on horseback no less, waving to the crowd as he went past the Palace of the Governors, as seen in the photograph on the right. Francis is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and so it makes sense that he make an appearance. As the parade went on, it began to seem like everyone in the city was participating, too, which I assumed would take many hours. Therefore, my sister and I decided to leave the parade and head to Chimayo and Abiquiu for more sightseeing. When we returned to Santa Fe several hours later, the parade was still going strong. Surprise!

Fiesta!

My sister Susan and I attended Santa Fe, New Mexico's annual fiesta this past weekend, which took place in and around that city's famous plaza. This fiesta's origins go back to September of 1712, mandated by proclamation to take place every year to celebrate the reconquest by the Spanish of New Mexico from the Pueblo people, after the Pueblo Revolt of 1690. As you can imagine, there has been controversy surrounding the reasons for holding this fiesta over the years, but last weekend everyone just wanted to have fun and enjoy the festivities. Because Susan has had trouble walking as of late, Sunday morning, after breakfast at The Pantry Rio, we traversed the short distance to the Santa Fe Plaza, sat on a bench, did a lot of people-watching, and just enjoyed the pleasant weather while waiting for the annual parade to begin. And that is exactly what the locals were doing, too, many bringing their own chairs, visiting with friends and family members. The parade began around 1:00, led by mounted police and quickly followed by those conquistadors, who evidently still exist and hang out in Santa Fe these days, as seen in the photograph above. In the background, by the way, is the Palace of the Governors, which was built in 1610, no less. Now THAT is old, at least here in the U.S. I know there are a lot of places much older in Europe, of course. The UK even has pubs that old or older, many still populated by the original patrons, as far as I could tell when visiting there years ago. No doubt some sort of miracle.

The First Day Of Classes At DU

Today is the first day of classes at the University of Denver. It has been 11 years since I worked at the DU Bookstore as the Finance Manager, but I still pay attention to this date, since it was the busiest day of the year. No doubt due to some sort of PTSD. Virtually the entire staff, plus something like 15 temporary employees, were on the sales floor, ringing up customers on the cash registers, helping students find textbooks, and answering questions at the information desk, which back then was located in the center of the store, where the question mark is located in the photograph on the left. It was such a busy time, I did not take many photographs, but I did take some, although I have no idea what year they are from.

It was a much different business back then. Students still bought most of their textbooks at the bookstore, and months of planning went into making sure we had all the titles on the shelf before classes began. The year I worked at the bookstore after the University of Denver outsourced the store to Follett Higher Education Group, things were a lot different. To avoid having a lot of books to return at the end of the quarter, Follett would only order a limited number of copies, and then place special orders for students when those copies were gone. And the books that were special ordered came from other Follett stores first, instead of being ordered from the publisher. I remember one time a title was ordered from a Follett store in Alaska for a student who needed the book right away. You can guess how that turned out.

The thing I miss most about the DU Bookstore is the people, a wide variety of individuals, a lot of them with unique senses of humor. I still keep in touch with many of them, but others I have lost touch with, such as Dave, who was both the supply buyer and the advertising coordinator. He is pictured on the left holding up one of the signs Valarie, the Operations Manager for the store, made to keep cashiers from screaming at the next customer in line to come to their register. Of course, if the next customer in line was on his or her phone, waving a sign around does just not work, and so the screaming continued, although there was less of it. Happy First Day of Class DU Students!

Wicker Park Then And Now

The last time I visited Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood, I was taking a city planning course at the Illinois Institute of Technology back in April of 1972. This was the neighborhood that Chicago author Nelson Algren lived in and wrote about. I can't remember what the project was that I was working on, but still have the photographs, and remember walking around the area. As I recall, the neighborhood was divided by Milwaukee Avenue. One side of the street was filled with stores and restaurants catering to the Polish community, whom Algren wrote about in his novels, and the other side was filled with Hispanic shops and restaurants, representing the more recent members of the community. Whether that meant the area east of Milwaukee was Polish, and the area to the west Hispanic (or vice versa), I have no idea. What I do know is that it has been a long time since I have seen a car with fins, like the one in the photograph on the left. I say time to bring them back.

As you can see from the photograph on the right, many of the homes in this neighborhood were, and no doubt still are, very nice. I honestly don't know if the majority of them were occupied by predominantly Hispanic and Polish people, or if it was a mixture of all ethnic groups, rich and poor. I grew up in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, and the north side of the city, where Wicker Park is located, is for the most part unknown territory for me. I moved to Denver back in 1981, but have still kept up with what is happening back in Chicago via WGN television news, Chicago Magazine, and lately even the Chicago Tribune. And I know that Wicker Park has become pretty upscale. It is fairly close to downtown Chicago, and as I have already mentioned, has very nice homes and apartments. A quick check of the internet shows that condos there cost upwards of half a million dollars, and houses like in the photo now go for well over a million.  And poor Nelson Algren is long gone.

I took the photograph of the kid on the left near the corner of Paulina and Moorman Streets (And yes, I did indeed make notations on the back of some, but not all, of the photographs). And just to be upfront about things, I did indeed use these same photographs in a previous blog, but I can't remember when or what I said about them. And if any of you out there actually remember that post, you must have a photographic memory or are doing some serious research about this blog, which has me worried. After all, I was not even in Washington that day. Honest!

Tides Of Fire

I just finished reading Tides of Fire, the latest Sigma Force thriller by James Rollins. This time, Commander Gray Pierce and his team, a special U.S. intelligence unit, must find the reason behind a series of earthquakes in the Tonga Trench, in the South Pacific north of New Zealand. These earthquakes are setting off hundreds of volcanos throughout the region, threatening the very existence of the human race. All of this started after a Chinese submarine sank to the bottom of this trench, leaking dangerous radiation. As usual, this is an assignment fraught with peril, complicated by the Chinese military trying to thwart the Sigma Team at every turn. I enjoyed this adventure novel very much, as I have all of Rollins' other Sigma Force thrillers. Rollins, by the way, was a veterinarian who decided he wanted to write adventure novels, and soon became a bestselling author. And he still has time to be a vet, too. Be sure to pick up a copy at your local library today for an exciting late summer read.

The September Mutt Of The Month

I took the photograph above of the September Mutt of the Month at - Surprise! - the New Terrain Brewery up in Golden, Colorado, where virtually all my dog photos seem to come from lately. New Terrain is very dog and kid friendly, and there is no shortage of cute cannines to capture on film. Plus, they have great beer and great views of Table Mesa and North Table Mountain. Not to mention a large dog park right next door if your pet grows restless as you sit and drink your pint. And best of all, these dogs know how to pose for a portrait, as the dog above clearly demonstrates.