Last day in Santa Fe

 

We're spending our last day here doing domestic chores and getting ready to move along.    Well, I'm doing domestics, Dave is watching the US National Drag Races on TV.       We're treating ourselves to another special dinner tonight at Geronimo.

Here are some random pictures of Santa Fe, places and things that made me smile as we wandered the streets.

finally, a dog larger than Taos!

See the tree man?  He jumped out at passers by!

much better in stone, right Janna?

only in Santa Fe....

We made several trips to the Saturday and Tuesday Farmer's Markets in the Railroad District.    Sometimes with Taos, sometimes by ourselves.

We compared different types of tomatoes in huge BLT's for dinner 

oh Dave.....

I may have tried their offerings

We packed a lunch and drove west to check out the other side of the Cochiti Lake reservoir.   One side has a huge earthen dam, a Corps of Engineers campground and the little town of Cochiti Lake, but our aim was to go off road along the opposite shore, the undeveloped side.     We kept our eyes to the skies; they were threatening, and we didn't want to get caught in a downpour.

We were surprised to see so many dead and/or uprooted trees and bushes.   We realized that this area had been underwater at one point.    High in the branches of these tall, dead trees we saw trunks and large branches that must have floated there during a flooding episode.   It was an eerie drive with no one else around.

In many places wildflowers (sunflower relatives?) grew thickly under the dead canopy and alongside the "road".

The water in some of the finger coves was green with algae.   Altogether an interesting and thought-provoking exploration.   

On our way home we passed a small herd of horses walking purposefully single file, one of each color, buckskin, white, chestnut (sorrel), bay and palomino.   

   Another day we took a pretty loop drive along the Rio Grande River north to introduce Taos to Taos.

 We had lunch and walked around a bit.   Of course, we found a chocolate stop and had to make a few purchases.

He wasn't particularly impressed, but did notice that his name was everywhere - were they expecting him?

even on the menus!

We managed to tire the big guy out regularly.   He's still a baby.

pay no attention to the dog hair, we like the 
salt and pepper look.....

he'd like to help Dave, but he's too tired

Speaking of the big guy.....He managed to break our table.   He can't help he's so big, he doesn't even realize it.

As per restaurant protocol, he lies at our feet while we eat.   That carries over to meals in Beluga, and one day when he stretched, the table leg cracked right off the table!     Luckily Mr. David's A-1 Woodworking Solutions was available.    Taos tried to supervise, but he fell asleep.   All is well now.

Yesterday we went to Harry's Roadhouse for linner.    We love to sit outside on their grape vine and umbrella shaded patio.    The food and Spanish Rose are pretty good too!

Best laid plans.    As we were enjoying our meal, the sky darkened, and tiny drops started to fall on us.    We just adjusted our chairs under the red umbrella and kept on eating.    This seems to be the pattern here this time of year - brilliant blue skies til mid-day, then cauliflower clouds form, some darken, leak and then move silently away.   A few raindrops never hurt anyone, right?     This day we were under the "leaking" part of those clouds.  We finally noticed how hard it was raining outside of the umbrella covered area when Taos quietly jammed himself under Dave's chair - he was soaked.  

We moved inside to have our dessert, but the poor guy wasn't a happy camper. He gave us the silent "side eye" til we left.

Speaking of eating.... here's our little chef in action.

We're off to Grants, New Mexico in the morning.