This is part three of a three-part story about our 28th anniversary trip to New Mexico. Start with Taos, then continue with Bandelier and Los Alamos.
Saturday, August 8, was our 28th wedding anniversary. We spent some time thinking about how we wanted to spend the day. We decided to just spend the day walking around downtown Santa Fe. We had already explored some of it on previous nights. We saw a band wearing wrestling masks playing rockabilly in the square. We saw some young Native Americans on a street corner performing what I would call powwow singing. There were artists painting on canvases on the street. What we noticed pretty quickly was that there were a lot of old people, even older than us. When the band played, they were swaying around like they were still high from something they smoked in the 1970s. That was all interesting, but there was still a lot to see.
One of these older couples we met on the street one night suggested that we check out the farmers' market in the Railyard district. It was a good walk over there, but it was nice outside. On our way there, we saw the New Mexico State Capitol, so we checked that out. There was a group of older people out there singing and playing guitar while protesting something. I guess Santa Fe is the place to be if you were a hippie earlier in life.
Once at the farmers' market, Linda was on a quest to find homemade bottled jam. Preferably, she wanted something spicy. I don't remember exactly when, but at one point on a previous adventure, she came across some kind of fruit-and-jalapeño jam, and she wanted some more. The farmers' market was quite large, with a lot of booths. They were selling everything from vegetables and spices to honey, but no jam. We did see some impressive street performers, including one with a boy who looked about ten years old playing some mean-sounding bluegrass. Just as we were leaving, feeling defeated by the lack of jam, we found some. It wasn't spicy, but it was some tasty raspberry rhubarb. We accepted the win and bought a jar for ten dollars.
After that, we went on a new mission. Linda wanted to see every cathedral, church, or shrine in the city. There were several of them. We saw the oldest church in the United States, San Miguel Chapel. We had a lovely conversation with the people who took care of the place. We took pictures of the miraculous staircase at the Loretto Chapel. We also visited the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. All of them were amazing to see, but this last one was probably the most impressive. They had a statue of the Madonna that was first brought to Santa Fe in 1625.
We capped the day off by visiting Canyon Road, which is an art district of sorts. We walked through several galleries that displayed some very unique Southwestern art, as well as many statues depicting Indigenous people in traditional dress and some very lifelike animals.
To keep with our own traditions, we got dressed up, well at least compared to the shorts and t-shirts we had been wearing. We went out to eat at a nice restaurant and spent our anniversary together reminiscing about the past, just feeling blessed that, after all this time, we were still happy being together.