Back to Santa Fe. This time we are in the St. Francis Hotel. https://www.hotelstfrancis.com/ It is 1 block from the Plaza and the oldest hotel in the city. The lobby and stairs are exquisite. The rooms leave a little to be desired since they had to be modernized in slightly strange ways. For instance, you need to step up to get into the bathroom. This step could be incredibly dangerous. I made such a fuss about it that I always remembered and never fell. We had 3 rooms. Jef & Alec, Calder, and Branwen, Yoshi and I.
Because we were still filled from our enormous breakfast, we did take out from the hotel dining room. I just had spring pea soup. Tasty and just the right amount.
Thursday Alec and Calder went to the Albuquerque zoo. They both really like zoos and manage to see everything quite quickly. They had enough time to go to the Rattlesnake museum while they were there.
Jef, Branwen, Yoshi, and I walked to a Chocolate shop for hot chocolate. Branwen decided to go back to the hotel. The rest of us explored Canyon Road which has many art galleries. We split up because Jef was going to walk much farther than I wanted to. We met back at the Nambé shop and then walked to a Weaving/knitting shop on the way back to the hotel. Managed to stop at a bead shop that was on the way. I walked 4 miles!! The altitude here doesn't bother me, but the masks are a hindrance.
We went to Geronimo for dinner. https://www.geronimorestaurant.com/ This was our most upscale place and our second inside restaurant. When Jef asked about the seating, they said that we would be in a room by ourselves, so we felt safe.
The waiter asked how old the kids were and then brought Gruet champagne for the adults and mocktails for the kids.
Starters:
Mushroom soup for Calder. He didn't want anything but when they brought this to him, he slurped it right up.
Mains:
Desserts:
We also got a side of broccolini for Yoshi. The waiter thought we were kidding, but we explained that this was his very favorite and that it would make up for the fact that he had had to stay in the hotel alone.
On Friday we split up again. Alec and Branwen drove around and looked at houses. I went into stores and galleries around the Plaza. The really best one was by appointment only. Jef kept telling me that people were working inside and I should call. So when I walked by, and people were inside, I called from their front door and they let me in to commune with the lovely pots. It is interesting to see the style changes since Chuck and I were buying 30 years ago. I showed them some of my pots and they loved my display windows that Alec had designed.
A really nice feature of this hotel is the Gruet champagne tasting room. The family joke was that if they couldn't find me, this was the place to look. Because of Covid rules, reservations were necessary. We made a reservation for Alec, Jef and I on Friday afternoon.
There were 16 different sparkling wines and 14 stills. We tasted 14 sparklings. We started with a flight (4 half glasses of different kinds) of whites. Jef only took sips, Alec and I finished each glass. Then we had a flight of sparkling rosé. Moving on we did a custom flight where we chose those we hadn't tasted yet that looked interesting. Seeing that we were really interested, the waitress added a fifth that she thought we should try. By that time we had narrowed our choices to our very favorite and the others that we liked. We planned to buy a case. The waitress then told us about THE WINE CLUB. WHOO HOO. Joining is free. You have to buy 2 cases a year for 2 years. 1/2 off of Tasting room and 25% off of cases. I joined and when we asked about shipping, she said that at the moment there was a flat $20 rate. Sooo, we decided to buy 2 cases right then and there. At that point, the waitress brought one more kind that she thought we would like and should taste before our final choice. She was right. We ended up with a full case of our very favorite (the same one that we had tasted at Geronimo) and a split case of 4,4,2 and 2. They went back afterwards and bought a turquoise Gruet bandana for Yoshi.
Many of you are probably asking, "Who drinks 24 bottles of champagne in a year?" We do - without a problem. It comes out to less than 1 bottle every other week.
Take out from The Shed for dinner. I had chicken quesadillas with hatch green chilis.
Saturday we loaded up the car again and after a stop at the Farmers' Market for pastries and drinks for breakfast, we took the looooonnnnnnnggggg drive home. We arrived at about 9:30 (gained an hour with the time zones) and unloaded at their house. Calder drove me home and took all of my stuff to where it would be convenient for me.
After taking a shower and reading my mail, I went to my very own bed. (altitude 338')
The End
1 comment:
Love your Santa Fe trip - you really should publish these! I think the exercise group needs to have a little tasting of your amazing cases of the sparkly - quality control? C u soon. - Ellen
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