Day 13 - Santa Fe, NM

Greg needed to work some more -- gotta pay for all these purchases!!!  So, we needed to get out of his hair and he had found out about a local living museum called Ranchos de los Golondrinos (Ranch of the Swallows).  They show what it was like to be a Spanish settler in the late 1800s in this part of New Mexico.  On this day, they were also having an exhibit of weaving and weavers from the area.  The kids and I headed out -- it was lovely!  I couldn’t believe how empty the parking lot was -- the kids got in free and it was so fascinating and entertaining!

We went to the museum and gift shop first.  The museum was really nice -- small but lovely things displayed really well.  The gift shop was fantastic.  I bought a silver burro Christmas tree ornament as a reminder of the trip.

Then we went out and visited the vendors and exhibits.  The kids got to experiment with dying using natural dyes.  They had a beautiful bronze colored dye made of onion skins and a lovely pink/red dye made of cactus bugs!  The kids died pieces of yarn and then braided them together to make a friendship bracelet.  The joy of being in the hot desert (it was 100F that day) is that the yarn dried before we finished braiding it!

We walked over to look at some of the living museum exhibits -- there were some women carding wool and they also helped the kids make friendship bracelets . . . After they worked by carding some of the wool for them.

We headed down to where they were having sheepdog demonstrations.  It was about 10 minutes before it was due to start so we popped into the blacksmith’s shop.  He was very happy to talk and told us a lot of history of what it would have been like to be a blacksmith during that time.  The sheepdogs were fantastic -- and the gentleman who was telling us about their work was a wonderful guy.



After it was over, we headed back to the vendors.  A woman, Mary Jonaitis of Onanoko Textiles, was just starting a felt-making demonstration that included wool roving and silk.  I wanted to participate so I told the kids to chill.  Ruth did just that but Gage decided he wanted to do the demo as well.  He ended up stealing the show -- the did all the work -- rolling, beating, fulling, -- that the lady needed and loved every minute of it.  We were making felted flowers so I was kind of surprised that he enjoyed it so much but he did.





When we were done, we went back to camp and brought Greg a late lunch.  We’d eaten at Los Golondrinos -- a wonderful New Mexican lunch -- I had the stuffed sopaipilla . . . YUM!

We napped and read and then went out to dinner at the Ore House.  We’d eaten there 20 years ago with Greg’s family and loved it . . . Especially the Green Chile Stew (recipe from Cook's Magazine).  We checked the web and confirmed the location and headed off.  Only, it wasn’t there.  There was a different restaurant in the same location.  We scratched our heads and finally Greg went and asked the hostess at the new restaurant. She gave us directions and we headed to the new location.  We found it -- they’d moved 2-1/2 years ago (never updated the web, I guess!).  The food was fantastic and they still had the Green Chile Stew (and it was still amazing!).

Our last evening in Santa Fe was wonderful.  We love this city!