Santa Fe Interlude

We dropped Reba at the mechanic in Santa Fe late Monday afternoon, grabbed our bags and headed to a hotel for the night. After a Mexican meal with Margaritas in honor of the American Cinco de Mayo, we headed to Meow Wolf. This interactive art immersion did not disappoint.
Tuesday afternoon, the mechanic told us we needed a transmission cooler, and the part wouldn't arrive until Thursday. We rented a car, and headed to Canyon Road to explore the galleries. The art was amazing. I was especially impressed with the bronze statues including realistic clothing with occasional copper use for fringes.
Luckily, our friend's Mark and Sylvia, who moved from Seattle to Santa Fe recently offered us their guest room for our surprise stay in Santa Fe. Sylvia made us delicious fish tacos with poblano peppers for dinner.
The rain cleared Wednesday so we headed downtown with Sylvia to check out the sites. On the way, we stopped at the aptly named Camel Rock.
From there we proceeded to the famed Loretto Chapel boasting a circular staircase with a seemingly impossible structure built in 1878. It has two complete 360-degree turns, a height of about 20 feet, without any central column or support beams and no nails or glue. The staircase is believed to be made of sitka spruce, which is not native to the area. Miracle or engineering feat?
Santa Fe is the 3rd oldest city in the U.S., and is simply stunning.
Mark joined us for a delicious dinner of blue corn enchiladas at the Shed before we headed back to their home.
Thursday we returned the rental car and went on a short hike before learning Reba would not be ready until Friday. Thankfully, Sylvia and Mark were gracious enough to host us again.
This gorgeous view greeted us in the morning from their back deck.
We got Reba back at 1:30 and hopped in for the 3.5 hour drive to Great Sand Dune's National Park. The ViKing's musical selection for this portion of our trip: En Espanol, The Mavericks

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