So we fled the scene over the Presidents Day weekend, visiting Santa Fe and Taos.

We took the interstate down, and came back up through Taos.

Saturday morning our first stop was at the Farmer's Market, where we had a really good cinnamon roll and a bowl of atole served as a soup.

We visited one of our fave churches - more than a 'church,' actually - the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. 

San Miguel chapel was just down the street from our digs. It's the oldest Catholic church built in the United States. Its history goes back at least as far as 1628.

We visited Museum Hill, another of our faves, this time taking in the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Our last visit saw us in the Museum of International Folk Art, arguably The Squeeze's fave so far. The Spanish Colonial Art museum was closed for a special event, so we missed that one this trip.

No visit to Santa Fe is complete without a bit of face-stuffing. We hit Tomasita's for a late lunch on Saturday, snuffling their most excellent chicken tacos and a veggie burrito. The Squeeze thought the veggie burrito was exceptionally well done, with grilled onion, peppers, squash, and refried beans. A lot of these highly touted eateries are overblown in reputation; Tomasita's always lives up to their billing. They also have a range of excellent margaritas. The building provides a great ambience as well.

Speaking of overblown ... Cafe Pasqual's falls into that category, despite one of the best moles we have ever tasted. Perhaps the best. However ... their carne asada was really bland, though it came with a very good guac. Add to that, that diners are packed in like sardines, and the 'Pasqual experience' comes out lacking a good deal.

The Shed's another hot spot. With a 2.5 hour wait for dinner we passed on that, going instead for a margarita, a rather decent El Cumbre Amber draft, and a bowl of chips and salsa. Excellent ambience with a boistrous dinner crowd, good service, and a fun time ... though the 'Sweet Heat' margarita was a bit on the weak side it was nonetheless quite good, with a jalapeno-salted rim that added a bit of a kick.

Given that The Squeeze is a shameless chocoholic and more than a bit of a chocolate snob, no visit to Santa Fe is complete without a stop at Kakawa Chocolates, where we slurped and snuffled our way through a couple of Jeffersonians. 

And then we stopped by Miriam's Well School of Weaving, where The Squeeze lost her mind completely, albeit understandably given the range of fine yarns in stock.

On the way back, we stopped in Taos for a mid-morning breakfast. We tried Michael's despite it being low on our list of eateries. I've always found their Mexican dishes entirely too bland and lacking in imagination. With a 40 minute wait time, we opted for elseplace, with The Squeeze pointing out a little hole-in-the-wall outfit just south of the square on the main drag. Jalapeno's turned out to be a gem, with a chorizo breakfast burrito that far surpassed anything Michael's ever dreamed of turning out. The Squeeze went for a carne asada, which was also quite good. The green chile sauce on these dishes is perhaps one of the best we have ever snuffled.

With that, we hied for home, up through San Luis and Fort Garland and over La Veta Pass, pushed along by a gale-force tail wind that did wonders for gas mileage.

A good time was had by all.

 Back in October we were at John Martin for a simple overnighter. It was most pleasant. When we were here the first time, back in the early eighties, we had a popup camper and spent quite a few weekends at the Hasty campground. Despite lacking the drama of the mountains, it is really quite a nice little campground.

November 2022

 So we hied off to John Martin for an overnighter, the idea being to lurk in the far corner of the campground and watch the Taurids. Even with a nearly full moon, the Taurids promised to be spectacular. They are known for a high rate of fireballs and bolides. Despite the nearly full moon, we were hoping for a bit of astronomical excitement.

Alas, it was cloudy.

The Taurids kind of drag out for a few weeks so maybe one night this week ...

OTOH, we had a leisurely dinner of grilled Angus burgers, Leece's beans and rice from the Backpacker Chef's recipe, a good selection of fresh veggies, all to the backdrop of geese and ducks having a merry old time over on Hasty Lake. We saw several large flocks of Canada geese and snow geese, but could not get close enough to the ducks for ID.

This morning was brisk but not cold; it was OK for shorts, in fact, at least out in the sun. And there was plenty of sun, for the morning dawned bright and blue.

After an equally leisurely breakfast of iron skillet bacon and  very gently over easy eggs with crunchy edges - very hot bacon fat gives the very best dippy eggs - and iron skillet-baked biscuits, we also very leisurely packed up for home.

There were only eight other campers in the entire Hasty campground. It was most pleasant.