Full day in Santa Fe

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Santa Fe Plaza

No shortage of art, pottery, silver and turquoise to buy. Everywhere.

Before long, sensory overload sets in.

 Our quiet patio at Los Palomas.

Our hotel burro.

John has his first Margarita. Really!

(He loved it.)

My first French 75.  (Ditto.)

Food on The Plaza before the opera.

The Santa Fe Opera open air venue.  You have to see it to believe it. We had good seats on the main floor and the performance started after a blinding sunset, lighting up the pink and gold clouds as a backdrop for the first act of La Boheme. Forget the old opera, I couldn't take my eyes off the spectacular high desert sky.

Soon it was dark, VERY dark, much darker than it EVER gets in Seattle. We were so happy we took the shuttle bus, and didn't have to navigate the DARK parking lot and DARK highway back to town at 11 pm.

It was a long, tiring but memorable day.  The birds woke us up early this morning, and soon we'll hit the high road to Taos.