If you’re wondering where I’ve disappeared to for the past week…I’ve been in Santa Fe with my family enjoying my kids’ spring break!
While I’ve driven through Santa Fe many times on my way to Colorado, this is my first visit. We had a spectacular time, and I thought I’d share a bit with you.
From where we live in Austin, it’s approximately a 10-hour drive (not including stops), so we make it in one day which is great. This means we spend less on travel, but still have plenty of time at our destination. The house we rented was only a 20-minute drive from the slopes and only a 10-minute walk from the old-town plaza of shops and restaurants. Perfect location!
Our first day was spent settling in and grocery shopping. We also took the kids to MeowWolf–this really wacky, cool place that was like a jungle gym with each room a different weird world. The pic I’m including was like walking through a human-sized aquarium. There’s apparently a story you can also follow, but we just ran around. Sounds like one may be coming to Austin in the near future.
We spent three days there skiing at Ski Santa Fe. My kids skills have really developed and we spent a ton of time with them skiing (or snowboarding). I am a mediocre skier. By this I mean that I enjoy blues and greens. I am too afraid of heights to handle the steeper slopes on blacks and so forth. Plus, despite living only 1-2 hours from Tahoe ski resorts, the last time I skied was 10 years ago. I was happy to discover it’s like riding a bike and picked it back up.
Wednesday night, we hired a trusted babysitter to watch the kids and went for an adults-only night of dinner and drinks. Thursday we went to Bandelier National Monument and hiked to the old Pueblo settlements in the mountains. I grew up in a family that always incorporated historical sites in our travel, and so thought it was fascinating. Don’t be surprised if the culture shows up in one of my books!
Our last day was “lazy.” We took the kids to make pottery and then went to see the new “Beauty and the Beast” movie (which was fab). Somewhere in all of that we also managed to do a little shopping in the plaza, visit the gorgeous Loretto Chapel with the gorgeous “miracle staircase” described in Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop” and eat. A lot of eating.
We had such a great time, we hope to go again next year. Here’s hoping your spring break–whether it was a lovely stay-cation at home or a destination like ours–was just as terrific!
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