Santa Fe

The Trip Home From New Mexico

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Today we had to get up early and make the drive from Santa Fe back to Albuquerque to fly home.  I will take this time to mention we rented a XM Satellite radio for the trip from the rental company since we knew we would be in the middle of nowhere.  Wow, those things suck.  There were times when we didn’t even have any obstruction and it had trouble playing music.  Next time i thin we will be ok with just using music on my iPhone.  The iPhone had a few moments but otherwise it worked pretty well as a GPS.  The problems we had were with the TomTom app having really bad data on POI’s.  Wow it had stuff in there with addresses that were flat out wrong.

Because Santa Fe was so far from the airport and we had to get the rental car back by noon and we didn’t have a flight till 2:30 we got to the airport way too early.  Our luck there was no airport club, wifi or much to do.  We got some more reading in and found a sports bar for lunch.

To yet again prove how small a world it is, when we were boarding the plane M saw her friend Cormac settling into his seat for the flight home.  After we were in the air he came over to talk and it turns out he was in New Mexico for a conference.  We had the same connecting flight in Dallas so we all grabbed lunch before taking off back to NY.  We got back to LGA so late that all we did was head home and crash.

This vacation turned out to be just what we needed.  It was restful, fun, and a great trip.  It is hard to compare to our last trip to Europe but it was awesome in its own way!

Sante Fe

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On our last full day of the vacation we spent it in downtown Santa Fe.  We had breakfast at a really good place Cafe Pasqual’s.  From there we walked around Santa Fe Plaza.  MC got some nice silver ear rings.  After that we got our culture on and went to two museum’s.  First up was the Palace of the Governors, and then the new Mexico Museum of Art.  I liked the Palace better since it was a history museum.  it was very interesting to read about the regions history.  MC liked the art museum.

After we got our history on we walked around some more and ended up at a French Pastry Shop for a snack/lunch.  We were going to walk to a chocolate shop but it started raining so we headed back to the car and then drove there.  M got some chocolate but I didn’t see anything i liked.

We spent the afternoon at the hotel pool reading and soaking in the pool.  Even though i think the other two hotels were better this pool was the best pool out of the 3 places we stayed at.

For dinner we had reservations at the Inn of the Anasazi.  For our last night of vacation this was another fantastic restaurant.  M knows how to pick really good places from guide books!

The High Road to/From Taos

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We only planned on spending one night in Taos so we were upset to check out of the awesome hotel we were staying at.  Before we left Taos we wanted to check out the Taos Pueblo.  It is a UNESCO site or something like that.  Any settlement that has been around for 1100 years is cool to me.  We got a tour and walked around a bit.  It was very interesting to see.

From the Pueblo we took off for Santa Fe.  We took what everyone calls the high road to Taos, yet the guide book suggested we do it going from Taos so that is what we did.  It was only about 30-45 minutes longer than the other direction.  We had more breathtaking views of the countryside.  We stopped at some carpet stores that do their own weaving.  It was interesting but M was more into than I was.

We also stopped for a snack at Sugar Nymphs that was recommended by the books and then we had a late lunch at Rancho De Chimayo before heading off to our hotel outside Santa Fe.

For the last leg of our stay we had reservations at the Hilton Buffalo Thunder Resort.  As hotels go it was by far the worst of the 3 hotels we stayed at.  it was OK, but the other two were fantastic.

After we checked in we went to the indoor pool for a while before going into Santa Fe for dinner.  MC got reservations at a Galisteo Bistro in downtown Santa Fe.  The food was ok.  Compared to the great places we had been to this was nothing spectacular.

The Next Vacation

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M and I have been putting off dealing with planning our next vacation since we have a lot going on planning a wedding, so we were glad to take some time today and figure out when and were we want to goto next.

After discussing Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Arizona, Grand Canyon, and a few other places we opted to go with Santa Fe. We wanted somewhere a bit warm, with some history and also were we could do outdoor stuff. M thought New Mexico and off we went to research. This winter Joe was giving me a hard time for never using American Express Travel even though I have had a card with them for years and my fee pays for some nice perks. We decided to give them another try since they really helped with our cruise planning we booked for January 2012.

We ended up booking 2 resorts. One is a Hyatt that was one of the best rated resorts. It has horse back riding and other cool outdoor activities we wanted. We are going to spend 3 nights there unwinding and then going to a Hilton resort nearer to downtown so we can sight see, but also relax since it is a resort.

We are both pretty excited for the vacation and with all the deadlines for me at work this trip can’t come fast enough.