Santa Fe - Days 3 & 4 - Art Musems & Coming Home

I have been really behind on my posts...the first 2 posts for Santa Fe were completed back in July & August, but I was waiting to post them until I could show them to MA & Andrea to get their approval. I was able to show them to Andrea and she approved....I've given up on waiting to show them to MA, so I just posted them! Now I've got to try and remember about our last two days in Santa Fe!




Of course, we started our day at our favorite French bakery! Andrea & I had strawberry & nutella crepes, while MA branched out and had Croque Monsieur. I had no clue what it was, but it sure looked good! During the trip we discovered that MA knows a lot about different foods and how to pronounce the "weird" names....(she even knew that "gnocchi" was pronounced "no-chee") During this breakfast when she not only knew how to pronounce "Croque Monsieur" but she knew what she was ordering! We learned about her foreign exchange experience while she was in high school. She got to go to France for about a month (I think 6 weeks) and live with a French family that had a daughter her age. That girl also got to come to the USA and live with MA's family. So MA was really familiar with the french pastries and foods. About a month after we got back home, MA even had us over and prepared crepes for us! We'll have to make strawberry/blueberry/nutella crepes a friendship tradition!




After our breakfast, we went to the Palace of the Governors and shopped. We were all able to find some goodies to bring home to remind us of our trip, as well as some gifts for our families. Andrea wanted to find a special piece of art, which she did! On her trip to Italy, she took several pictures of doors. She found an artist that digitally edits his grandfather's photography. Some of his work included doors of Santa Fe and the surrounding areas. When Andrea asked to take a picture with him and his art, he also invited his friend Robert to join them in the picture. I was successful in zooming in close enough to leave most of Robert out of the picture...but if you notice Andrea's arm is missing and there is a little bit someone's head showing....it's just Robert! :)

Here are a couple of pictures showing the Palace of the Governors during the day....it's a lot busier than the first time we saw it (on the evening of Day 1)!



MA & I made some purchases from the same artist. MA purchased a piece that now hangs in her kitchen. Andrea laughed when she saw my art because, according to her, it fit me perfectly....it was "practical art!" I really liked some of the prints that the artist had, but they didn't really fit my decor....I noticed some mousepads in a rubbermaid container behind her table and asked if they were for sale. They were! So now I have a mouse pad in my office that is pretty and functional!


After our shopping, we walked to the Georgia O'Keefe gallery. On our way, we passed an older house that had a sign in the window advertising their Ansel Adams exhibit. Andrea got really excited and started begging to go in. We went in and saw some famous pictures. MA knew who Ansel Adams was and knew some of his work....I recognized his pictures....but Andrea had studied him and his photography, so that was why she was so excited. The guy in the gallery said we could take pictures, so we all took pictures next to this famous photograph. I'm only posting Andrea's picture with it because she was the most excited!


Here's a picture of Ansel Adams and a picture he took of Georgia O'Keefe.


After we left the Ansel Adams exhibit, we went to the Georgia O'Keefe gallery. MA and I started talking to a couple of the security guards. They were so nice and helpful and knowledgable! They really made the gallery visit enjoyable! We asked them if they had an interest in Georgia O'Keefe before they started working there, and they said that they really didn't. They now compete with each other to learn the most interesting facts about O'Keefe and her works on display there. One of the guards showed us some damage on one of the canvases. Apparently a young child pointed to the picture and touched it. That pressure damaged the art and it cost about $200,000 to repair it! He had to shine his light at a certain angle for us to even be able to see the 1 inch line/tear in the canvas. It's hard to imagine that the repair cost that much!


From there, we headed to Canyon Road....a whole road of nothing but shops and galleries! On our way, we found a small garden of statues. Andrea and I decided to imitate art! I think we did a pretty good job!

We were getting pretty tired when we got to Canyon Road, so we stopped at the Tea House to rest our feet and get something to drink. Unfortunately, they didn't have sweet tea. Their tea of the day was honey bee tea, so we all tried it. It was pretty good....not quite sweet enough, but it was refreshing!

While walking down Canyon Road, we found some art for MA to imitate. I must say she did an excellent job! You can tell that she's been doing yoga!

By this time of the day (around 5pm), MA and I were getting pretty worn out, so Andrea started taking some "good sport" pictures.







Here's MA enjoying her last little bit of honey bee tea. This is the gallery that I enjoyed the most. Had I had an extra $1,500 with me, there was a painting of poppies that I would have purchased. Andrea found a painting there that she would have liked, too. I think the painting she liked was around $4,000 - $5,000.













Just waitin' on Andrea....







If we each had an extra $50,000 lying around, we could have purchased some bronze statues that we liked. The first one is of 2 girls and 3 boys, so we decided that it was Andrea's boys and my girls playing together.


































Here is Andrea leading her 3 boys off to a new adventure and MA sharing her love of reading with her daughter and son!







We ate dinner at the Pink Adobe on our last night. We assumed it would be Mexican food, but it wasn't. I had steak and MA & Andrea shared some seafood enchiladas. The food was just okay, and MA got sick, so that put a damper on things. We're glad we went to the famous "Pink Adobe," but we probably should have held out for authentic New Mexican food.













Since I'm the "numbers" person of the group, I was always in charge of calculating each person's bill when the bill arrived. The nerd in me enjoys it!

On our very last day we savored every bite of our delicious breakfast. I think MA & Andrea had crepes, and I tried the Croque Monsieur. It was delicious!














On our drive back to Albuquerque, we saw gorgeous clouds! The whole trip home had these white, puffy clouds. MA decided that Andrea should do photography of cloud formations....we aren't aware of any artists that have ever done that.






Picture taken from the car....













The next two pictures were taken from the plane...





The next picture needs some explanation. MA purchased some framed art that needed to be carried on the plane. It was wrapped in bubble wrap. Out of habit, she kept popping the bubbles....walking through the airport..*pop, pop*....eating lunch..*pop, pop*...reading a book...*pop, pop*...so, we decided she couldn't pop the bubbles unless she was "popping" a song. During our trip, we kept hearing the song "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis, so MA decided to "pop" that song. We decided to make it a duo. She instructed me when to "pop"as she sang. This is when Andrea decided she needed a picture of us singing and popping bubble wrap. Apparently just as Andrea took the picture, I didn't pop at the right time and MA called me on it. The look on MA's face is priceless!

Here we are on the plane getting ready to head back to our families....coming home rejuvenated and missing our families....but not really missing all of the work that we do as moms! We had such a good time and are so thankful that we have such wonderful husbands that allow us to get away for a while! We'll have to start planning our trip for 2010!