We decided to take a little side trip to[1] Santa Fe, NM.  We were invited to a pool party in Albuquerque so we decided to combine the trips over a weekend.  The trip from southwest NM to the northwest corner was quite interesting.  Along Hwy 54 we came across massive lava flows.  It is part of the [2] Valley of Fires Recreation Area.

The land is pretty flat with some hilly interruptions.  Basically the high plains, about 5500 feet altitude.

The swim party was nice, about sixty new friends welcomed us.  After a Saturday night in a hotel in Albuquerque, it was off to one of our favorite cities. Santa Fe.  We visited Santa Fe a couple of years ago and made a journal entry that can be found at [3] http://tinka.net/2008/04/30/santa-fe-bandelier-and-taos/.

This was an extremely short visit to Santa Fe.  First stop was the historic La Fonda Hotel for their Fiesta Mexican Brunch.  We found the food to be a touch spicier than our typical Tex-Mex and our local South Texas tortillas to be  better for some reason, probably the frying method.

The La Fonda is a fantastic building.   This is the parking garage end of the building.

The front desk is an amazing bit of wood work.

Another wall in the lobby. The old lobby furniture is extremely comfortable.

After lunch it was off to the central square where the Indians gather to sell their jewelry.

It appears that the prices have increased by a huge margin over our short two year absence.

We found jewelry prices to be better in the stores.

Finally we walked past the fabulous C[4] athedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.   Click on the photo of the sign to enlarge.

[5]

Our visit came on a Sunday and the church was quite a busy place.

The other fantastic church in town is the Loretto Chapel that we wrote about in our earlier post.

We drove back to Ruidoso by a more direct route, abut 200 miles.  This was a very relaxing and entertaining weekend.