us travel

2L J-Term – Santa Fe – “Things I Learned”

February 5, 2016 by Taco

This is the introspective conclusion of my New Mexico Mega Post. Please read Parts 1, 2, and 3 if you have not already done so.

Even though my voyage to New Mexico is over, as with any adventure, the “journey” continues long after you return home. So, in the spirit of Big Blue Bear here are are a list of things which I learned and/or were affirmed to me during my three week trip to the Land of Enchantment.

Things I “Learned” in Santa Fe:
aka, what I discovered while still peaking into the window of life, just like Big Blue Bear

1. I really, really, like Green Chile Cheeseburgers (and really anything with green chiles).

2. New Mexico isn’t a barren wasteland, in fact it has lush woodlands (though it most definitely has barren wastelands as well). It also has air so dry that your nose just sort of begins to break down, as do your lips. Also, Ravens and Crows are the lords of the sands and will happily consume your mortal soul if given the chance.

3. New Mexicans seemed to be a very humble people.

4. We really fucked over the Native Americans.

5. I mean we really fucked over the Native Americans.

6. New Mexico has a pretty good craft beer scene, not quite as big as Colorado’s but still impressive.

7. Santa Fe actually has an airport.

8. I think I enjoy state government more than federal government, because federal government feels much more separated from the “ground” than does state government. That said, I haven’t experienced enough of either to made any firm judgements. The running theme is that I am interested in government.

9. The Harvard connection extends everywhere.

10. The Harvard connection is still a double-edged sword, but I’ve found it to be mostly beneficial. Those who hate us, want to be us, that sort of thing. It may sound arrogant, but I think it’s largely true.

11. Purdue is a surprisingly well known school in the West (and as a jab to IU – it is not).

12. Los Alamos not only has security on the edge of town, the guards have machine guns.

13. Renting a car on Saturdays is much better than renting a car on Fridays or Sundays.

14. National Parks are free on MLK day.

15. I like living by myself more than I like living with strangers.

16. I am cursed with bad internet.

17. I haven’t forgotten how to drive.

18. Landing in a blizzard isn’t fun.

19. Having friends is never a bad thing.

20. Writing white papers is more fun than writing legal briefs.

21. New Mexico is actually pretty liberal, who in the hell would have thought that?

22. Sometimes the people with the least, do indeed give the most.

23. Lobbyists aren’t all evil, in fact at least one of them is genuinely nice.

24. While I can’t speak for his qualities as an AG, New Mexican AG Hector Balderas was pretty cool when I met him.

25. Adobe holds heat in. I mean it seriously holds heat in.

26. Also a bigger fire doesn’t necessarily mean a better fire.

27. Pig eats spiders in addition to grubs.

28. I need to learn more about the stock market.

29. I still want to learn how to ski or snowboard.

30. I also want to learn how to ride a horse.

31. I seem to really enjoy environmental law and policy issues, it doesn’t seem like a phase at this point.

32. Abert’s Squirrels are pretty awesome.

33. New Mexico actually gets snow, and a fair amount of it at that.

34. Learning Spanish is probably the best way to devote any future language-learning time.

35. While I can rock a suit, I do not want to wear one every day.

36. And on that note the Rocky West is pretty casual, I like that.

37. In fact I am going to go ahead and say that I am actively hoping and working towards starting a career in the Rocky West, it’s my favorite area of the country I’ve seen thus far.

38. Wherever I end up living I need ample sleep and exercise to be happy.

39. And, lastly, I am an impressive person. I don’t give myself much credit for anything I do – in fact I’m normally quick to engage in a hearty round of self-bashing, but really, I deserve to pat myself on the back from time to time. Going to New Mexico wasn’t the “easy” choice, the “easy” choice was to stay safely at home with SB and my bed, to take some blow-off class, and to mostly do nothing for three weeks. But the “easy” method is not the “Taco” method. It hit me one early morning in Santa Fe while I was out running. It was still pretty dark, and the distant Sangre de Cristo Mountains were only silhouetted against the earliest traces of dawn. It was bitterly cold and there was snow and ice. As my feet pounded against the ground with each stride, sending that familiar jolt of pain up my legs, I realized that I was blazing trails. I was in a town where I knew one person, who wasn’t even there, and I was thousands of miles from home, dancing in the dark. Was it safe to run in the dark where I was at? I had no idea at the time, but I was fine. Was I going to do ok at work? I had had no idea at the time, but I did wonderfully. Was I even where I was supposed to be? I had no idea at the time, but yes, I was. See, it’s rarely the “easy” path that yields the greatest bounty. Could I have stayed home and did very little? Sure. Did I want to? Yes, I did. I can’t claim to be a person who always willingly jumps into the fray, but in the end, I always end up battling myself, pushing forward, prevailing. And as I ran down the dark streets, whose names I don’t remember, the icy air filling my lungs, I realized that I had earned every success I’d gained. I’m not the stuff of legends, but I am me, and while I don’t have much, I take much from little. I also take chances, and while I spend more time face down in the mud and the blood than many would care to admit, I always get right back up and progress forward. I don’t settle for safe, so I fly thousands of miles away to be a stranger in a strange land. I talk to stuffed pigs, dinosaurs, and bears and view them as my children. I make friends with squirrels, and I care more about the environment than would make some people comfortable. But at the end of the day, I am me, and just as I’ve pushed through years of intense pain in my legs, I’ve pushed through every hurdle these past couple of years has placed in my path. And, dear friend, that is something that makes running in the darkness of an icy cold New Mexican morning worth all the pain and suffering. Because in the end, easy is rarely worth it, so don’t let life pass you by.

I see what you mean.

Until next time,
-Taco

New Mexico Mega Post [Part 3 of 3]

February 3, 2016 by Taco

It’s now time to finish up my New Mexico Mega Post. If you haven’t read Part 1 or Part 2, do so first. Although this post post won’t be quite as gargantuan as the first two, there is still a lot to cover, and, between the two of us, these posts have been a lot of work so I’m ready to get things back into a normal flow. So, let’s get started!

When we last met Pig and I had just settled into work on Tuesday morning and SB was on her way home. Since my supervisor was out of the office and my fun weekend SB visit was over, the first day back was a bit melancholy and Pig and I weren’t quite as productive as I’d hoped we’d be.

In fact that first day was just kind of gray in general after SB left.

As a way of brightening our spirits Pig and I (and Pigsten) made a fire that evening and dedicated it to Tristen, who was quite pleased.

It was a much smaller fire than we’d built the night before, but we still had it going up until bedtime.

The next morning I decided that I was going to get some coffee to kick-start the day! I had heard tell on the interwebs of a little hole-in-the-wall placed called Holy Spirit Espresso, which had rave reviews. So I sat off in search of it while walking to work.

Before too long I found it, and I couldn’t help but laugh because I had passed it many times without ever noticing it.

The only problem was that it was closed until Friday, which gave me a one day window to try it. So, with my head a little lower I left for work, but I did find a “backup” coffee place on the way, which had decent iced coffee (but equally ice-cold service). I improved the coffee by adding some cinnamon bun creamer to it from work.

I later found out that the creamer was 1.5 years expired. But it still tasted fine, creamer is pretty much all chemicals anymore anyways.

Regardless of whether or not the creamer was toxic, the coffee put Pig and I on the right track, and I actually had a hugely productive day on Wednesday, so that was nice. On the way home that evening I was able to take in a gorgeous sunset.

This was kind of the first point when I started thinking about how much I was actually going to miss Santa Fe.

Even though Pig and I had planned on the fire from the night before being our last, we couldn’t help ourselves and decided to have a fire just one more night. So we stocked up with a crap-ton of firewood.

And then let’er roar.

It was a nice and chill evening.

I actually ended up doing some work from home that night because of my time crunch, but by and large Pig and I just relaxed and enjoyed our last fire. The reason we were stopping the fire here is because of dealing with the hot coals (after setting the trash on fire on Tuesday) and also because we needed to clean the fireplace, so cutting off the fire on Wednesday night made the most sense.

What we didn’t realize is that while we were having our relaxing evening in it was snowing outside, which is what greeted me on Thursday morning.

It wasn’t too much snow, but it was enough to add a nice new layer of ice to the sidewalks.

Of course the bright blue skies ensured that the new snow wouldn’t last too long, which was good in some ways, but bad in that it just meant the return of the mud.

Still, I really enjoy the western skies.

Thursday was going to be a busy day for me. Not only was my supervisor back, I had a lunch meeting over near the Roundhouse. I was meeting my local friend’s dad (and a couple other attorneys/lobbyists) for lunch. I reached out to him, and from there he picked the place – Rio Chama – and we were good to go. Now, what I didn’t realize about Rio Chama is that it is the place for New Mexico politickin’ when the legislature was in session (it had just started a new session on Tuesday). This probably has to do with the fact that its a fairly nice place to eat and more so because its about a 5 minute walk from the Roundhouse. So, when you enter Rio Chama, it’s like an explosion of New Mexico’s “Who’s Who?” and suits, with a mix of cowboy hats and boots for good measure.

It was kind of funny, when I spoke to my lunch person, he had told me that he (and the two attorneys/lobbyists with him) were in suits and sitting at a table for four next to the fireplace. Sounds good. Well, when I entered, that described about 90% of the restaurant because there were tons of kiva fireplaces and pretty much everyone was at a table for four and wearing suits. So, I used my detective skills, closely honed by absolutely no training, and narrowed it down to two tables – and of course picked the wrong one. It was only after I’d introduced myself to everyone at the wrong table, and shaken all their hands, that I realized – oh yeah, these are totally the wrong people. So that was kind of awkward, but soon after I found my table and from there had a really good lunch.

Since everyone at my table (other than me) was either a lawyer, a lobbyist, or both, I got quite the exposé of New Mexico’s current political and legal drama. Everything from personal stories about the Governor and the AG, to dirt on people who I still have no idea who they are. Because I have no vested interest in it, it was actually pretty enjoyable, which is saying something for me since I normally despise gossip dates. I also learned that we had a really good table (probably selected for the very purpose) because if you leaned back in your chair at the table we were in, you could hear the conversations in the three booths nearest us up against the exterior wall. As such, people like to get that table so they can eavesdrop on other conversations. Since the room was literally full of senators, congressmen and women, lawyers, lobbyists, businessmen, and rich people who no one really knows what they do, there was A LOT of “important” conversations going on. I for one could care less about it, because I had an amazing salmon and roasted vegetable salad. But really, while I probably don’t paint the best picture of my lunch, I really liked my friend’s dad and his friend and had fun. I also learned that I desperately need to learn more about the stock market in order to have high-brow conversations.

After lunch I made my way back over to the AG’s office, which sort of sits on the edge of the government complex.

This is not the AG’s office mind you, just some random Zia stuff I found in the complex.

Around this time Pig found that someone had left Peeps out – pink ones no less.

By the end of the day those things were harder than diamonds, yet someone (Pig?) kept eating them.

We worked hard for the rest of the afternoon, typing up around 19 pages of material and then headed home. Since my supervisor was back we got a ride home and didn’t have to walk, which was nice. Once home, Pig took advantage of the fact that the fireplace was no longer molten and returned to his throne with Pigsten.

That night we were pretty tuckered out from all that politickin’ and typing.

Of course it was probably good we were tired, as there was no internet, again. See, this is a running thing with me – I am cursed when it comes to the internet and law school travel. Last summer, I had HORRIBLE FREAKING INTERNET, and that curse followed me to Santa Fe, where I had stupidly designed internet. See, where I was staying was a complex of casitas, all owned by the same company. One of the casitas was where the internet “stemmed” from, and in my case, it meant that I was connected to the other building via an Ethernet cable hooked up to a wireless router in my unit. The problem? The idiots did not use a WEATHER PROOF cable, nope, they used your plain-Jane, Cat 5e cable from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart and ran that piece of shit up through the roof, OVER AN OUTDOOR ALLEY and down inside the other roof. The result? Every freaking time there was snow, the internet died, all because some jackass wanted to save 5$ on a freaking cord. Yes, once I realized that I was pissed. So anyways, while my internet, in fairness, was better than in Denver – which honestly isn’t saying much – it still was out for about 2.5 solid days while I was there.

Anyways.

The next day, Friday, was our last day at work and also our only real chance to try out the Holy Spirit Espresso place. So we set off, hoping that their sign saying they would open today was true.

You could barely even tell it had snowed the day before.

As we approached, lo’ and behold, they were open!

Now, rather than just saying what coffee I got and move on (spoiler: it was the best coffee I’ve ever had), I feel like I owe a duty to the world to describe this place just a little bit further. First, it’s obviously a small locally owned coffee shop. Second, it’s not even owned by some local conglomerate, it’s owned by a husband and wife. From what I can tell, the husband, Bill, is the one who normally runs the place. If you haven’t clicked through to their website either of the times I’ve linked it yet, then this is Bill:

And I feel like that picture is incredibly true to life. First, the place is SMALL, I mean, I’ve had closets larger than this place and I’m not exactly swimming in mansions. When you walk in, there is room for at most 2 people and even then you are making sweet love with each other’s personal space. Bill’s counter and space takes up about 2/3 of the area, so Bill has about 1/3 of the floor space to move around in, the counter takes up a 1/3, and then that last 1/3 is left for the general public – meaning that you have about as much room to move around here as you do in an economy airline seat with morbidly obese people on both sides of you. On the plus side, it smells much better in here.

Now, Bill. Bill was genuinely the most interesting coffee shop person I’ve ever met, and while I’m not coffee world traveler, I’ve been in coffee shops across this land and even in a few other lands – yet Bill takes the cake. As I told SB and Meem after my encounter, Bill seems like someone who left all his worries, and a good chunk of his brain, at a long string of Grateful Dead concerts and Burning Man festivals. Yes, Bill wasn’t all there, but Bill was amazingly nice, and Bill made a fucking good cup of coffee. This is one of those few occasion where I feel like an unedited f-bomb is required to fully describe how amazing this coffee was.

I had been told a few other places in town were the “best” – but they didn’t come close to Holy Spirit. In fact, based on the name, I can’t help but wonder if Bill was actually Jesus Christ returned to spread coffee salvation to the masses of New Mexico. Truth be told, I could see it.

I had a mocha, which is, you know, the normal stuff like espresso and milk and mocha powder – but there was also more too it, like vanilla and some unknown spice (my guess is cocaine) which, which coupled with Bill’s coffee-skills made for the best damn coffee I have ever had, ever. With tip, and I felt like I had to tip since he might be Jesus, it was 5$ for one drink. But I didn’t even care. It’s a really good thing I only was able to go to Holy Spirit on the last day, because I’d be absolutely broke otherwise. I even felt kind of bad, because Bill recognized me as a new person, and we briefly chatted, and he told me a story about having a “GOOD TIME!” in Boston back in the 70s, and then I left – yet I felt like I sort of needed to come back the next day. If you read reviews online, he tends to remember people’s names en masse, to the point that someone returned years later and he instantly greeted them by first name. Heck, Bill even knew the person in front of me by first name and was asking them about how their work was going.

All in all, I have a feeling that the reason not many people mention Holy Spirit on the “touristy” sites, is precisely because no one wants anyone to know about it.

But seriously, coffee shop Jesus, mana from the heavens. My cheap ass paid 5$ for coffee and would do it again. That is all you need to know.

Oh and they have animals on their cups.

Fo’ realzies. A cardinal no less.

Anyways, now that I’ve fulfilled my fan-girl quota for the next decade, let’s return to my narrative.

Supercharged by the power of Christ, Pig and I furiously dove into our projects and finished them like.. hours early.

To be honest by the time lunch rolled around we were kind of twiddling our thumbs (or hooves).

We had a great lunch, my supervisor took me out for a “parting ways” lunch and a few other people came along. Aside from being my last hurrah with glorious New Mexican food, it was also a chance to do some MAJOR networking, which I did. Holy balls I’ve made some New Mexico connections. Of course that was kind of the entire point of this, but I impressed even my asspie self with how well I did. I gained a shiny new reference and now have a few “ins” both legally and politically. Score for Taco and Pig.

After lunch, which ran long, I really only had about an hour left of some final edits then I was done. So I turned that in and my boss took me home two hours early. It was actually kind of sad to leave and turn in my badge. I was instantly taken back to that final “Green Mile” at the DOJ in Denver. It’s weird how lucky I’ve been with my placements. While a lot of people I know haven’t enjoyed their placements, I’ve truly connected with them. I like to think that that is a sign that I’m on the right path, which sadly is one leading to like the second lowest income job category in the entire legal profession, but that ship sailed long ago. It made me really excited for next summer, and I was really glad I’d worked over J-Term, rather than taking the safe route of writing a paper or taking a class in Cambridge.

That evening I went into full on packing mode, while Pig explained to Pigsten the plans for the next day.

In addition to packing and tidying up, I also found time to try to be artsy with the fake bird outside.

I figured I’d try to placate the ravens and crows as good luck for the coming voyage. When I got back inside I found Pig and Pigsten all packed and ready to go.

Of course then I had to explain that we didn’t need to leave for another twelve hours, but I appreciated their enthusiasm.

To celebrate a night of getting ready we had our last beer in New Mexico, which interestingly (and fittingly) was the same kind of beer that we’d had our first night there.

We got to bed a little later than we had hoped, but it probably had something to do with everything we had to get done. Either way, we fortunately fell asleep really quickly, which isn’t always easy for me.

The next morning I got up and got in a round of exercise, even though I didn’t have time for a full exercise regimen I always like to get in 20 or 30 minutes of exercise on days when I’m going to be flying all day. Doing nothing but waiting and sitting all day really isn’t too healthy, so even a little bit of movement helps offset that, if only a little bit. What’s funny is that I actually did the wrong routine (I had brought along a bunch of routines on a USB drive) and did one requiring weights – except it was movements where I couldn’t use my bands. So I improvised by using a ceramic statute in the casita, whatever works I suppose.

After that Pig and I got ready, had breakfast, and then were on our way.

I was a little sad to say goodbye to my casita, but overall I was ready to be back in my own bed. Fortunately for us my shuttle pickup was only about 2.5 blocks away, so it wasn’t much of an issue to get there. Even more fortunately, our shuttle was right on time!

Unlike the fancy shuttle that had picked up SB, I got an old van with lots of rattling and a cowboy for a driver. He had a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and listened to old-school country music, not that I minded the old county. Pig didn’t seem to mind either.

We went and picked up the one other person, which explained the van, and then were on our way! Well, we had to set and wait for 15 minutes on some random street, which I didn’t really understand, but after that we were on our way.

Cowboy was cruising along at about 70mph for most of the trip, which definitely made for good time, but the van didn’t seem to like it so much.

New Mexico continued to offer up scenery, almost as if chiding me for leaving.

While not as scenic as many of the areas I’d been it, it was just enough to remind me of how much I like the landscape out here.

I guess I find beauty in all sorts of areas.

Albuquerque is about 70 miles south of Santa Fe, but as mentioned, we were making good time.

And don’t worry, Pig was buckled up for safety.

After awhile we started getting closer to the mountain range east of us.

While these mountains weren’t too big, they still provided for a good New Mexican horizon.

Before too long we were in the outskirts of Albuquerque, land of Breaking Bad, and avoiding right turns.

We didn’t get too close to downtown, but we got close enough that I recognized things from Breaking Bad.

I especially recognized the Sunport (ABQ airport), which is featured in a few episodes of the show. I was a little fan-girlish about being at one of the exact filming locations.

It’s one of the few times, if not the only time, I’ve ever taken a photo of an airport door.

And then across the way was the parking area, also seen the in show.

Had my schedule allowed it, I would have loved to take one of the Breaking Bad RV Tours in ABQ, but sadly I just didn’t get the chance. Gives me an excuse to go back – plus I’d like to see ABQ in general.

The Sunport definitely had a southwest feel to it.

It was unlike any other airport I’d been in, that’s for sure.

Half-Life 3 Confirmed.

Security was pretty much a breeze, and Pig and I ended up making it our gate like 1.5 hours early. The good news is that our plane was already there.

So we ate our packed lunch (we made it from Santa Fe to home without spending a dollar, yay packing food!) and chilled out.

Since the weather was fine and the plane was fine, we boarded right on time.

I took this next picture thinking of Tristen.

Manries.

It was kind of interesting, one side of the airport was just… well.. nothing as far as the eye could see.

Somewhere out there is the missing fortune that died with Jack – not that I shed any tears over him getting turned into pasty bits.

Then on the other side are some mountains, though I didn’t capture most of them in this photo.

It was a smooth takeoff – here are some more of those mountains:

And again:

And here they are, with ABQ in the picture, for reference:

ABQ just kind of “stops” at a certain point, it was cool.

Here is a great (in my opinion) photo of the mountains just outside of ABQ:

You can see some of the salt (or rather, snow) flats in the great beyond in this next picture.

We actually stayed at a fairly static altitude for awhile, not sure why but it made for great views of New Mexico.

Here is the road (I-25) that I’d just been on while coming down from Santa Fe, seemed bitties from up in the sky.

After that we started gaining altitude at a decent clip.

And then we were in the clouds!

I always enjoy the ascent through the clouds, especially when there’s no turbulence or excess noise. This was my first time flying in front of the wings in.. possibly ever and it was a lot more quiet. I was stepping in high cotton on this flight. But anyways, I like the clouds. It’s calm, silent, and you have no way of gauging anything. It’s almost like sensory deprivation. You don’t really even know that you are moving, you just kind of exist in this static state, aimlessly gazing out into a gray abyss. Time could be standing still, the world could have ceased to exist, there’s no way of knowing. I realize this is sort of metaphysical, but it’s interesting to me how in those brief moments there is no reference, just nothing but the interior of that plane, and the void beyond. I like it.

But, surely enough, we broke through and after a little bit I knew we weren’t in New Mexico anymore because I saw the tell-tale signs of ~~agriculture~~ ancient-aliens.

Then we went into space.

While in space I enjoyed some bloody mary mix, which was actually really good.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to drink less pop – which I was drinking FAR too much of last semester, so I opted for this instead. Turns out the second ingredient in it was High Fructose Corn Syrup, I got a laugh out of that.

After a good bit of sky-sailing I notice the world turning white beneath us, the war trail of Winter Storm Jonas.

Then the clouds moved in.

In fact, all the snow made it hard to tell apart cloud and earth.

As we approached Chicago (my first stop) the clouds cleared up a bit.

And then proceeded to come right back, but the moon looked awesome with them.

The sunset over Chicago was quite amazing actually.

As we waited around in a holding pattern for a bit I got some really good sunset views.

The sun itself was the most amazing red I think I’ve seen in years, my crappy photos do it no justice.

It was just a deep, fiery crimson – it was incredible.

We landed at O’Hare with no issue.

Inside the airport was a Cubs bar and grill, I immediately though of Valentino.

It’d been a little bit (not long enough) since I’d been to O’Hare, and Pig was excited to see things.

Of course we had plenty of time to get to know the place, it was at this point that all my travel luck started to break down a bit. See, I had timed my travel at the worst possible time, for as I sat in Chicago the blizzard was pummeling the east coast, and while Boston was on the northern edge of the blizzard, it was still snowing heavily and the winds were gusting up to 50mph. Despite our flight still being “On Time” I started noticing that all flights currently in the air to Boston were being diverted, not a good sign. Sure enough, 3 minutes before our schedule boarding time, they announced that their was a ground stop at Logan (Boston) and that it was going to be 45 minutes before we got updated. Sigh. So we waited 45 minutes, and then amazingly were able to board. All things considered, the 45 minute delay was much better than what I lot of people were dealing with that night. Once on the plane I noticed that this was a new, or newly refurbished plane. Whether new or refurbished I remember seeing somewhere that it had only been in service 11 months (since construction or refurbishing, either or). Each seat had a nice touch screen monitor – but the default screen had a creepy as shit dude peering into your soul.

Dear God.

In fact I think the creepy dude caused some mental deterioration, because there was an actual fight on the plane – which caused us to further be delayed. I don’t know if it was the bad state of travel, the haunted screens, or an unknown issue – but two dudes decided they hated each other, and before it was over one of them was escorted off the plane with security. That added about 15 minutes to the wait time, but after that things calmed down. A plane full of angry Bostonians is a recipe for a fight I suppose.

Pig and I passed the time by playing with our haunted screen.

Pig liked all the photos.

And then after the delay and fight, we started backing away.

We were then up and away! Chicago looked really pretty, I liked the contrast between the city and the sheer blackness of Lake Michigan.

Due to the weather our flight was pretty bumpy, but Pig didn’t mind. It helped that we got super lucky and had no one in the middle seat (we were in the window) despite the flight being sold out.

We shared at Tomato Juice, this time with no HFCS.

We also watched a couple of episodes of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, that was a nice way to pass the time.

Overall, despite being bumpy the takeoff and flight weren’t bad, I was just happy to be making it home when so many other people were severely delayed, diverted, or cancelled. However, the ride got crazy right about landing time. Logan Airport tends to be a bit rough on a good day, largely because it’s practically out in the ocean, and so the winds can get pretty choppy. That was the case tonight, according the pilot the winds were around 40pm and it was also snowing extremely heavily. As such, the approach was really bouncy and you couldn’t really see anything – but the landing itself was the “fun” part.

Here is a picture of what I could see, just seconds prior to landing. Notice that you can’t see the ground, or really anything but the wing.

And then here is what it looked like the instant we landed.

Slight difference. Before too long the plane was obviously sliding and the back end was cat-tailing back and forth, having never experienced this before it was an “invigorating” experience. Actually it happened so fast that I didn’t really freak out, it’s more scary in retrospect. After the tires stopped squalling we gained traction, shuddered a bunch, and then were good. A few overhead compartments had flown open, but I don’t think anything had fallen out, at least nothing big.

It was really windy and snowy, obviously.

There were tons of shadowy planes stuck out there in the darkness.

I later learned that we were the last flight in before another ground stop, so I don’t know if those planes were waiting to park, or to take off.

It was hard to see much of anything though.

It actually took us like 35 minutes just to park because they were having to clear the spaces. The plane couldn’t drive itself in either, it had to be towed.

But, finally, after about 45 minutes from touchdown I was able to get off the plane. I was very pleased to be on solid ground. However, the next 3 hours were decidedly not going to get any better.

It started with a 40 minute wait at the baggage carousel, made worse by the fact that the doors near carousel 8 (mine) were stuck open, letting in the freezing cold (it was about 9 degrees) and winds. Eventually my bag came out…. with the back ripped off. Yeap. First time in my life having luggage damaged and it had to happen this night (it was already midnight). So I had to go report that, and they were, of course SUPER HELPFUL. The good news was that I’d packed intelligently and my cheap running sweatshirt had plugged up the gaping hole and as such I didn’t lose anything on the inside of the suitcase. The bad news is that as part of American Airline’s baggage claim process, you have to turn over your suitcase to them. Well, that really wasn’t going to work since I still had to get home via public transit. I asked if they had a garbage bag or something, they of course did not, so that doomed me to about a future 2 hour trip to get back to the airport to hand over a broken bag.

Anyways, I then took my broken bag out to where the Silver Line picks up, and HOLY BALLS THE WIND, I went numb all over. Well, the bus came (about 15 minutes late) and from there I thought things were going to improve. NOPE. We got stuck in a tunnel for a half hour because there was a wreck at the other end of the tunnel due to weather. This tunnel was hilariously full of Silver Line buses, easily 20 of them (which has to be like 90% of the fleet for the Silver Line). We got stuck down there for so long, that eventually we had to get off the bus, walk down the tunnel, into a maintenance stairway, and up to street level where we boarded a shuttle which took us to South Station where I waited for a bit on the Red Line subway. Because it was around 1am at this point, the train was almost entirely empty.

The Red Line runs all the way up to Harvard Square.

But not that night.

OH NO, I got all of THREE STOPS and then the train stops. Because of bridge construction I had to walk up out of Park Street Station, then walk a block in the blizzard with my broken luggage, where I got on another bus.

This bus took me across the bridge, stopping at various points along the way, and then dropped us off at the station right on the other side of the bridge. So then I got to go back down and wait on the Red Line again, and then FINALLY, FINALLY proceeded to go the rest of the way to Harvard station… at about 1/5th the trains normal speed since they were sharing tracks due to all the construction.

But at last, I made it to Harvard Square, and quickly darted into Harvard Yard, which thankfully was already being cleared by Harvard’s slaves.

However, as soon as I got to the Plaza, the clearing had pretty much stopped and the snow was about 5-6″ deep.

My suitcase was too heavy to carry while tromping through snow, so I pulled it liked a sled behind me, stopping every once in awhile to push stuff back inside the hole on the back.

Pig and I (and our suitcase) were just a couple of battered pioneers.

But, in some ways, despite being after 2am, being exhausted, and being very sore, it was very peaceful and quiet in ole’ Cambridge. There was a kind of “I have to laugh because this is so shitty” element to it.

But, 3.5 hours after landing, we made it home. I inspected the luggage again to ensure nothing was missing, put some things away, and then shortly after 3am, finally crawled into my own bed, ending one crazy ass trip home.

And that was how I ended my amazing New Mexico trip, and looking back, I wouldn’t even change those last few hours.

C’est la vie.

I’ll follow this with a “Things I Learned Post,” but for now, I think this is a good place to end our journey. 🙂

Until next time,
-Taco

New Mexico Mega Post [Part 2 of 3]

January 30, 2016 by Taco

It’s time to continue my New Mexico Mega Post, be sure to read Part 1 if you haven’t already.

But first, I will say, I am about to rip my f*cking hair out over the image issues with this blog. With some help from Meem I recently solved one issue, the file size problem. Meem increased the image size limit to one that I should never use and, more importantly, I’ve also started compressing my images in mass. So that’s gotten rid of the “Image too Large” problem that clipped random images from a mass upload, leaving me to hunt through the images to find which ones were no longer there. However, the sideways image problem persists and it’s about to drive me insane. I have no idea how to fix it either. See, I’ve tried to fix it, in fact I thought I fixed it prior to uploading the most recent round of images, but NOPE. Sure enough 100s of damn images returned to being sideways as soon as they touched WordPress. Then, not only that, WordPress is kind enough to screw up the order, so now I have 100s of sideways, out of order images, thanks. It’s gotten to the point that image-heavy posts literally take be hours just to get ready to type (which then takes several hours by itself). If this doesn’t change then I am going to heavily cut back on images, because It’s absolutely stupid to deal with.

Ahem.

But I did take the time, the hours to get images ready for this post. So let’s get the next phase of this image-laden journey started shall we?

[Author’s Note: Most of the pictures in this post have been taken with our new camera, the ones still taken on my phone will usually be pretty obvious in comparison.]

If you remember from last time, SB had just arrived!

SB on her way!

By the time SB got in it was well past Pig and I’s normal dinner time, so after letting SB get settled into the casita, we headed off to the Plaza for dinner! What’s cool is that a surprise was waiting for all of us!

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the Plaza all lit up!

Indeed, I had never actually been to the Plaza at night, so I hadn’t seen these lights either.

It was really cool to see a different “side” of the Plaza.

There were so many lights, yet somehow I failed to notice them all wrapped around the trees when I had been there in the daylight.

After gawking at the Plaza for a bit we headed over to The Shed, where we had 8:30 reservations. The Shed is on pretty much every “must eat at” list for Santa Fe, but it is also known for its margaritas. One cool note about The Shed is that its located at 109 East Palace Avenue, which is also where the “Check-in” office for the Manhattan Project up in Los Alamos (or simply “The Hill”) was. However, any remnants of the Manhattan Project have long since gone, other than a plaque of course.

SB and I couldn’t resist trying one of the margaritas, and while it was expensive, it was most likely the best margarita I’ve ever had, and it was most certainly the first blood-orange margarita I’ve ever had.

For dinner SB had a quesadilla, while I had some fish tacos (which had been recommended to me).

Then for dessert we couldn’t pass up a lemon souffle, it just sounded too good, and it was.

After dinner we meandered back to the casita, where Tristen was quick to demand his “manries” fire.

Of course, despite the fire being “Tristen’s” it was enjoyed by all.

For the rest of the evening we just chilled out in the casita and made plans for the next day.

Speaking of the next day, it started off decently early, but the boys were more than ready to embrace it!

We had to get out and about to drop off some postcards (which SB apparently had no idea how to fill out, but they still arrived – luckily) and pick up our rental car, Shiva!

We had decided to pick Shiva up on Saturday morning because the rental place was only open until Noon on weekends, and more importantly because it only cost 9$ per day to pick her up on a Saturday, as opposed to 32$ per day on Sunday, yes, seriously. Of course the final costs with taxes and fees and liability coverage was higher, but still it wasn’t bad.

After gassing Shiva up and returning her to the casita for the day, we set off so that SB could see some Santa Fe sights, starting with the Roundhouse.

Of course it was closed for the weekend, but SB at least got to see the outside and peak in the windows. We also went by San Miguel Chapel.

I then took SB to see the New Mexico Supreme Court’s gold-leaf doors as well.

We passed over the mighty, roaring, massive Santa Fe river, of course.

Which brought us to the Plaza.

It looked much more familiar to me in the daylight, without all the fancy and pretty lights.

From there we walked over to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. So, remember how last time I was under the impression it was closed during the weekend? Well, I was either mistaken, the sign was lying, or it was actually closed when I was there. Either way, it was actually open this time, which we learned by watching for people to enter or leave the main doors.

Speaking of the front doors, they were actually really impressive.

Of course so was the interior.

It reminded me a lot of some of the churches I visited in Europe.

I always really like how detailed churches like this are.

They even had a fountain in the center of the church.

The woodwork and art was really impressive.

I liked how open the church was, pretty much the entire main floor was accessible.

As were each of the alcoves.

You could even buy a candle if you wanted.

There were quite a few of them.

The alcoves also offered up some amazing stained-glass windows.

Church architecture in general tends to impress me.

And though I like the smaller, more cozy chapels just as well, there is something to be said for this grand style.

All in all I’m really glad we decided to try our luck at getting into the basilica, as I had sort of just assumed it would be closed again.

After checking out the St. Francis, we headed over to Loretto Chapel (whose staircase was previously explained in detail) so that SB could see it.

I actually stayed outside because I didn’t feel like ~~tithing~~ paying 3$ again, but I’m glad SB decided to go in, especially since she caught a couple of details with the better camera that I had missed with my phone, such as the lights.

Of course she somehow missed the entire story of the staircase 😛 , but hey, that’s what I’m here for.

After Loretto Chapel I took SB over to Fort Marcy, so we could climb up to the Cross of the Martyrs and see Santa Fe from (slightly) above.

Without the excess snow the climb was much easier, though the weather was just as gorgeous as last time I was there.

Since it was so nice, SB got some good views.

Notice that pink building? Keep that in your mind’s eye.

And we got to retrace Pig and I’s pioneering steps.

I actually enjoyed coming back, as I could see a whole lot more of the landscape than I could last time.

We even went to the start of the little trail that Pig and I had followed, which was now much less snowy, but much more muddy.

And while we didn’t go too far, we did meet a rabbit/hare friend named Bocephus.

While Pig had enjoyed the snow, he seemed just as thrilled about the mud.

Fortunately we kept the boys from getting too dirty, and instead kept them placated with exploring.

While up at Fort Marcy we had noticed the Scottish Rite Temple, which was modeled after the Alhambra in Spain (which SB had visited). Since SB was interested, and I hadn’t been up close to it yet, we decided to walk towards it, despite it appearing to be a good distance away. Fortunately, it really wasn’t that far.

Not so fortunately was that it was closed, so we couldn’t get in.

Though SB did notice a Snowman Guard sleeping on the job.

Despite not being able to get in, it was cool structure so I’m glad we went out of our way to check it out.

As soon as we were done there it was lunchtime, so we walked over to the Santa Fe Bite to get some food and beer.

I went with a Guinness Blonde American Lager – Guinness Ltd. while SB went with either a pilsner a ipa from La Cumbre Brewing Co. (we don’t remember).

For food, I of course had a Green Chile Cheeseburger, which was awesome, while SB had some tacos.

While eating we noticed that we were being watched.

Yep, those were dinosaurs – fitting consider the “bite” in the restaurant’s name. Tristen was pleased.

After parting ways with Tristen’s new friends, we decided to head a few blocks over so that SB could check out Canyon Road.

Valentino approved of the bears.

While a lot of the shops were closing since it was after 5, we still got to see all the good outdoor stuff.

SB got some cool shots of the art.

It was a neat area, I hadn’t explored it as closely last time.

The sun was starting to go down though, and it was getting cold, so we started to make our way home.

Along the way we stopped in and picked up that Zia beer huggie I’d been debating about. While walking back from there I was reminded about how cool (or “warm,” rather) Santa Fe looks during dusk.

Especially with all the farolitos.

Once home we started up another fire.

While the boys relaxed in various places.

But we all got to bed decently early because the next day we were up with the sun to load into Shiva and hit the road north to Taos!

Since I’d flown directly into Santa Fe, this was my first time out of the city, and I was immediately impressed.

The mountains are on both sides of you in most parts of northern New Mexico.

Before too long we passed the iconic “Camel Rock.”

After stopping in a gas station to pick up some much needed cheap sunglasses, we soon made it to the “High Road” to Taos.

There are essentially two ways to get to Taos from Santa Fe, the “High Road,” which goes through more hilly regions, and the “Low Road” which goes through basins and follows the Rio Grande River. While people differ on which you should take to or from Taos, everyone agreed that you needed to do both, so we started with the High Road.

The contrasts with the sky were amazing.

Tristen was claiming things left and right.

Even though I was driving, I had to keep bringing my attention back to the road, there was just so much scenery to take in!

Eventually we found a nice pull-over spot for some photos.

Since we were getting higher, we had caught with the morning clouds still stuck on the mountains, so it was actually kind of chilly here, but the boys didn’t seem to mind (obviously Valentino wouldn’t anyways).

It was kind of neat to see the edge of the cloud cover out on the horizon.

As we progressed onward the cloud cover increased.

It was really pretty though, so we didn’t mind.

We actually got into a few valleys where a lot of the snow that had fallen recently hadn’t melted yet.

But fortunately the sun started to work its way through again as the morning clouds burnt off the mountains.

And while we did alternate in and out of cloudy and clear skies, the blue slowly started to win out.

The road had a nice ebb and flow to it, with rises and falls along the way.

Although the here grades weren’t too steep, they did afford us some nice views given the landscape.

We passed through several small towns as we got closer and closer to the base of the mountains.

Eventually the road got into some rocky canyons, which was a cool contrast.

As was coming back up the other side.

Eventually we found ourselves in Ranchos De Taos, which is just a stone’s throw south of Taos itself. We had to pee – so we did.

Rather than proceed directly into Taos first, we then decided to go check out the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, so we actually headed back south to get on a side road.

Even though we missed our turn at one point, I really liked the back road.

There weren’t many houses out there, which isn’t really abnormal for most parts of New Mexico, and I like that.

The mountains were almost in a 360 circle around us, it was awesome.

Eventually we made our way back to the main road, and then headed out towards the Rio Grande Gorge.

The Rio Grande gorge is actually in this photo.. somewhere.

Now, I have to say that no one had actually mentioned the bridge to us. Despite all the recommendations I had, no one said anything about the gorge. It was really only upon seeing it on a map that I decided we should go see it. But we did not have any idea just how big it was, until we were literally driving over it and it just kept going down and down.

Facing south.

We of course stopped, which was easy considering that they had a little dirt parking area – but not so easy because it was covered in ice. The cool thing is that you can walk across the entire bridge, there were even some Native Americans set up and selling stuff at the west end of the bridge.

There were sidewalks on each side of the bridge.

As well as some viewing platforms.

The views were incredible.

Facing north.

The mountains made up about 180 degrees of the horizon.

The Rio Grande itself appeared to have a pretty solid flow, despite the cold.

Looking down was an easy way to get vertigo.

But not for Tristen, of course.

After that we decided to head towards Taos for lunch! As with all things, the photos do the Rio Grande Gorge zero justice.

The road back had us facing the mountains, which made for a Terminator-like scene, except with real mountains.

We had a tasty lunch at the Guadalajara Grill which had been recommended to me. It was quite yummy, and they had HUGE portions, these were half orders!

After lunch we decided to head out to the Taos Pueblo. The Pueblo is, understandably, near Taos.

I had heard really cool things about it, so we were pretty excited.

When we first arrived a guided tour was about 10 minutes away, so we kept close to the gathering area (the San Geronimo Mission Church).

A view from near the main entrance.

SB continued to capture cool photos.

Soon enough the tour was starting, and although we gathered inside of San Geronimo, you aren’t allowed to take photos of the interior, so here is the courtyard for the church, which is where we started.

And then the front of the church itself.

The church is located in a little “core” area of the Pueblo.

Though the Pueblo is actually more expansive than it initially appears to be.

Even though it was pretty muddy, it was incredible to walk around an area that had been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years.

Many of the residents take advantage of the influx of tourists in order to sell us stuff.

We of course bought some noms, but more than anything I was really taken in by the views.

The Pueblo formed a large sort of semi-circle.

Then there was a slightly wooded area in the middle.

And flowing through the entirety of the center of the Pueblo was Red Willow Creek, which is the Pueblo’s water source (there is no indoor plumbing) and flows from a sacred lake several miles up into the mountains which is now closed to non-tribal people (interesting note: it was actually President Nixon who returned to the land to the tribe).

Anyways, our tour was conducted by a girl belonging to the tribe (Tiwa people) who was currently a senior in college and wants to go to medical school. We learned a wide variety of things about the Pueblo, ranging from history, to culture, to architecture.

We learned how they make and repair the adobe buildings.

Notice the straw, which is used as a bonding agent.

Even though the Pueblo isn’t at full capacity during the winter (for practical reasons) its still home to several families year round.

The history portion of the tour was interesting, but somber.

However, you really don’t have to know the details to feel bad. Basically we stole their land and killed some of them and oppressed their religion, then eventually they rebelled killing some of us. So we returned and slaughtered them mercilessly (including burning them alive in the church – seen above) and then physically and culturally enslaved them, end of story.

If that doesn’t make you feel nice and good about yourself, I don’t know what will.

On a more positive note, the cool thing about the tour, in addition to it being led by a tribal member, was that some of the many dogs around the Pueblo decided to join us.

Then the gorgeous day didn’t hurt either.

But the Pueblo itself rivaled its surroundings, and I thought that it was way cool that we got venture throughout most of it.

Including checking inside of the hornos (literally Spanish for ovens, as SB later told me) that are still used each day.

We learned that while a large portion of the Pueblo is original, there have obviously been modifications over the years, such as the modern doors.

And weirdly, these doors were about as “modern” as the Pueblo got.

As mentioned, there is no indoor plumbing, and most areas have no electricity either. In fact, the upper levels of the Pueblo are still accessible only via ladder – there are no stairs. Unfortunately you can’t go inside many of the buildings, which makes sense since they are actual homes. However, by and large you are free to roam, and those areas that you aren’t allowed to go in are pretty well marked.

There were surprisingly few of the “No Go” sawhorses though.

By and large the outdoor areas of the Pueblo were open to exploration (and spending money in the handful of shops).

Although the Pueblo does extend outside of these old adobe walls, these former defensive walls outline the “original” areas of the Pueblo.

Red Willow Creek was partially visible through the ice.

We then crossed over to the eastern side of the Pueblo.

Which had some more homes and shops.

And seemed to extend up a small hill a good little bit.

There was even a gallery!

Which we actually didn’t go into, because we were horrified of being unable to stop ourselves from buying things (which happened later in Taos). So we headed back over Red Willow Creek.

And traversed the mud back to Shiva and then headed into Taos to our hotel, the El Pueblo Lodge.

This photo was taken later in the day, thus explaining the lighting, I just put it here because it made sense contextually.

So now I’ll explain how we came to stay at El Pueblo Lodge. Quite simply, it was the H Connection. All one needs to do is search for Taos hotels (especially on a holiday weekend [MLK], like our stay) and you’ll find that all the centrally located ones are quite expensive. Yes, even the lodge where we stayed had rooms in the 175$ a night range. But we didn’t pay 175$, or 150$, or 125$, or 100$, or 75$. Nope. We got a “Family Discount” rate of about 60% off, despite not being “family.” Well, at least not family in the traditional sense. See, while at the AG’s office I met an HLS alum, who happened to have all like 12,000 connections here in the state, so simply by the fact that we were both HLS people, I got all sorts of Taos hookups, most prominently this hugely discounted hotel – and not only did we get a good deal, we got an upgraded room with a fireplace, noice.

Anyways, after we got checked into the hotel and got settled in our room (and getting some coffee from the lounge area) we busted out the cinnamon sugar bread cookies we’d bought from the Pueblo!

These bad boys had been made in an horno just that morning, and they tasted like it. It was funny too, at 3pm the hotel serves cookies, so we had Tiwa bread cookies and then like 30 minutes later we had mass market chocolate chip cookies. But still, cookies are cookies. So, after a solid half hour of cookies, we decided to head down towards the Taos Plaza to see what was happening there. On our way we walked by yet another gallery (which appeared to be closed, but looked cool from the outside).

As well as some little-bitty mittens!

As we made our way towards the Plaza, the “Taos-feel” definitely began to come out.

The mountains loomed strong on two different sides of the town.

Before making our way into the Plaza itself, we stopped at World Cup Coffee, which had been recommended, and rightfully so – it was awesome.

I had a mocha mixed with orange zest, it was extremely good.

You could tell World Cup was a very “local” place, there were a lot of people there all mashed in, and none of them really bothered to move for anyone coming or going. The place was also full of anti-establishment/anti-capitalist propaganda, which I suppose fits with coffee shop histperism anymore. Once we had our warm and yummy coffees in hand we proceeded on to the Plaza itself, which had some cool artwork in addition to a myriad of shops.

There was a La Fonda here as well, just like the La Fonda in Santa Fe (the Santa Fe location has existed for a long time and was where Manhattan Project scientists often came down from “The Hill” to drink at – though not too many drinks, special agents in plain clothes moved around the bar continuously listening for a “loose lipped” scientist).

Based on the cold and the time of day, the Plaza was actually pretty quiet, not that we minded.

It was a cool little area, and we noticed a huge numbers of lights, so we decided we’d come back after dark.

We also checked out a couple of the stores and picked up our trademark magnet for the town.

Stores pretty much lined every inch of the Plaza.

But they also extended down cool little side alleys.

Which opened up into even smaller “Plazas” of their own.

It was here that we stumbled into a locally-owned gallery, where not even our poorness could save us from buying a La Catrina art piece from a local artist.

After that we decided that we probably needed to save our wallets and head back to the hotel.

We passed by the funky gallery again, this time noticing the cacti (Little Friend) gate.

This time we also stopped to take some photos of some metal art we had passed earlier.

There seemed to be a wide variety of themes represented.

From insects and animals.

To Día de Muertos.

Once back at the hotel we checked out the grounds a bit more, both to take them in and to figure out the best way to get to the hotel’s breakfast in the morning (which turned out to be AMAZING by the way).

I really like the Southwestern theme in general, so it worked well considering we were, you know, actually in the Southwest.

Though everything was snow covered or muddy, it seemed like a nice place.

And there was plenty of parking to boot.

We headed into the hotel room and the boys took off their traveling gear for the night.

We then headed up the road to a El Prado, Tao’s northern mini-town (like Ranchos de Taos to the south) and got a bottle of beer to share later (Mojo IPA – Boulder Beer Company), while at the liquor store the women were watching the playoff game between the Broncos and the Steelers (with the Broncos obviously being the local favorite). From there we headed back into Taos and then went for dinner at the Taos Ale House, which was convenient since its right across the street from our hotel. We placed our order at the bar then found a corner spot to scrunch into with our beers.

Sadly these beers have been lost to time.

It was SUPER packed for a bit, which was obviously because of the NFL game.

While I was happy to have it clear out a bit, it was fun watching a game in “home country” which never really happens for me, since I haven’t liked the NFL teams of either place I’ve lived long-term. Oh and the Broncos won, which was even better.

Our food was greasy goodness, with me going for a Green Chile Cheeseburger yet again!

Once we were done with dinner we walked out to where Shiva was parked and drove down to the Plaza (no point in walking since everything was closed and it was cold now) to see the lights. It was a well worth the trip.

Red white and blue was definitely the name of the game.

While I don’t think Taos had more lights than Santa Fe, I think their lights were more concentrated.

I really liked the contrast between bulbs and accent lighting.

It kind of had a slight Christmas-undertone, which made me wonder if the lights change throughout the year, or if they just cover all their bases at once.

The whole trip was made even better by the nice big moon above us!

Once we were done seeing the lights we drove back to the hotel where we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tristen and I did epic battle with the fire, which we finally got to burn properly, and eventually everyone got just hungry enough to bust out our leftovers and have our beer.

Not too long after that, it was sleepy time!

Which made sense, because we had yet another early morning ahead of us. In fact, we were once again up with/before the sun.

The plan had originally been to head down to the Bandelier National Monument, then from there to Los Alamos, and then finally back to Santa Fe – which would have been a day in and of itself. However, me being me, I got to reading (one of the magazines at the hotel) and learned about the “Enchanted Circle.” Now, aside from sounding like a pedophile village, the Enchanted Circle is actually pretty cool. It’s an ~85 mile “scenic byway” around Wheeler Peak that goes through ski country and towns such as Questa, Red River, and Eagle Nest, it also goes by Eagle Nest Lake (one of the few big lakes in New Mexico) but that was frozen and snowed over at the time.

I decided that we had time to drive the Enchanted Circle, we’d just need to get up early – but since we were already planning on getting up early it really wasn’t that big of deal. So, after waking the next morning we headed over to the main lodge for some continental breakfast. Turns out that this was a GREAT choice because the breakfast was AWESOME, easily restaurant quality food and enough variety to put most hotel chains to shame. After breakfast we wrapped things up, checked out, and then were on the road again!

Our luck with the weather had continued into the next day.

The trip starts you off in the “plains” area where the Rio Grande Gorge is at.

However, rather than heading towards the gorge, you instead start slowly creeping towards the mountains.

Before too long we got back into the foothills (if we ever actually left them – remembering that even the “plains” here are like 6000-7000ft above sea level).

After a bit we started getting right up next to the mountains.

There was quite a bit of green in this area.

The sweeping views never stopped impressing me.

There was a faint fog in the valleys, which only added to the beauty of the area.

Eventually we came into the shadow of the larger mountains, likely one of: Pueblo Peak, Lobo Peak, Relica Peak, or Wheeler Peak (highest point in NM at 13,159′).

We moved in and out of the shadows for a good while and the temperature fluctuated quite a bit too.

Although SB was battling the windshield when it came to focusing the camera (she is still learning its fancy features), some of the shots came out really cool.

Intermixed with the mountainous areas were huge plateaus.

SB and I kept commenting on how much the landscape in New Mexico changes in such a short amount of time.

During some parts of this portion of the trip we were going pretty slow because we got behind a rich-people ski bus, but we weren’t in a hurry and plus the bus went like 75mph downhill.

In fact in most areas the bus was going much faster than I had any desire to.

But by and large, traffic was essentially non-existent.

We passed a lot of areas that were clearly ski-oriented.

Eventually you leave the “better” road and get on a smaller, more curvy road.

Its pretty easy to tell once you’ve journeyed onto the “road less traveled.”

And while it had been listed as in bad condition about a week ago, this stretch of the road was nice and clear at this point.

Which was good, considering the (millions of) sharp turns.

Some parts of this road reminded SB and I of Washington (state).

For good chunks of the strip there was scarcely a cloud in the sky.

If we had more time, and an off-road capable vehicle (no offense to Shiva), I’d have loved to have explored one of the many “Forest Roads” that branched off from the main road, but that seemed like a one way ticket to getting stuck and consumed by ravens, crows, and squirrels.

There was a smattering of “villages” along this road, I’d be hesitant to actually call them towns.

Around this point I noticed that we were going down, slowly but surely.

And while there were no huge grades, the descent did become fairly constant.

As we neared the end of the loop things opened up a lot.

And before too long we had returned to the great flat-lands.

Although we passed south of Taos (we were now on the “Low Road”), we did notice the Rio Grande Gorge off in the distance, and also that the road was slowly approaching it.

However, what we didn’t realize at the time was that the road was actually descending down to the river, so no bridge this time.

Eventually the decline became much more obvious.

Despite this being the Low Road, it had its fare share of peaks and valleys.

Though we did slowly begin to leave the mountains of the “Enchanted Circle” behind us.

Meanwhile the road worked its way down towards the Rio Grande.

Despite this being a main “artery” for New Mexico, traffic was pretty light.

Not that I really minded.

Before too long the Low Road joined the Rio Grande.

There were actually quite a few pull-off spots, but the curvy-downhill nature of the road made it really difficult to see them in advance – but SB was still able to get some good shots of the river as we drove.

Although the road never strayed too far from the river, it wasn’t always right next to it.

Believe it or not there is a river in them thar’ hills.

Told you.

This is pretty much how the road continued for a good bit, though the river did start to slowly ebb away from the Low Road.

And once we’d taken a pee stop in Española and passed through to the other side, the scenery once again began to change.

We’d ventured from evergreen mountains to the wild west in around an hour, one of New Mexico’s many amazing qualities.

While these “mountains” weren’t of the same magnitude as those we’d just left, the geography in this area was much more mesa-centric.

And while this area wasn’t quite as green, I still really liked it.

There was just something peaceful about it.

Of course that might have had something to do with the fact that there is pretty much nothing people-wise there.

But if you know me, then you’ll know that I seldom have a problem with people-nothingness.

After a bit, the road enlarged by about 4 fold.

I didn’t know why at the time, but we later learned (on the return trip) that we were on the main (ok, really the only) thoroughfare to and from Los Alamos.

We’d apparently hit it at a pretty good time too, because there was still hardly any traffic (granted it was MLK day).

So we traveled on, wide open roads and wider open spaces.

Eventually though, we began to climb.

And climb..

And climb some more…

And then we plateaued.

It’s not obvious from the photos, but we had actually climbed up on top of one of the mesas.

The area was an interesting blend of rocky:

And flat:

Which in fairness kind of describes the entire state.

At one point we passed through White Rock, which seemed like a nice small town.

However, once we got to the other side of White Rock, the road reverted to a small mountain(ish) road.

Some evergreens returned as well.

Again, we were actually up on top of a huge mesa, but also again: it was hard to tell that.

Although we had passed a few “Technical Area” signs for Los Alamos, it really wasn’t until we spotted a huge satellite nestled away in the hills that we realized how close we were to the infamous lab.

But that satellite wasn’t our destination (not that we could have gotten there anyways), we were on the road to Bandelier.

Around this time we noticed that the composition of the rock was changing (we’d later learn that this was actually hardened volcanic ash [tuff] from the eruption of the Valles Caldera 1.14 million years ago).

Before too long we got to the entrance of the Bandelier National Monument. I was all prepared for human interaction, but the entry Ranger’s station was closed and there was sign posted about it being MLK day and being free. I hadn’t mentioned it, but we actually shifted our plans around a bit after I learned that national parks/monuments are free on MLK day. Had we gone to Bandelier any other day we would have had to pay 20$ to get in. So, MLK day it was. I was actually expecting quite a bit of a crowd because of this free status, but it was actually pretty desolate (at first).

Shortly into the park (I realize its a “monument” but I’m going to call it a park henceforth) there is a nice pull off spot.

You can actually get right up to the canyon’s edge.

It was (obviously) fairly rocky up there.

But the views were great, you could even see one of the entry roads.

And it wasn’t too rocky for a Little Friend.

After heading on from the scenic view the road makes a sharp turn and then you immediately start descending.

This road takes you down into the floor of Frijoles Canyon, and the whole area is part of the Pajarito Plateau. Here you find the visitor’s center and the start of the cliff dwellings.

As well as a dinosaur, polar bear, and pig.

The visitor center definitely had a New Mexico style to it.

Once we picked up a 1$ guide book, we started on the main trail.

And it wasn’t very long at all before we came to the first of the archaeological sites.

This area was once (or rather, still is) the Tyuonyi Pueblo, and the sites range in age from ~1150 all the way up to ~1600 – and the area was inhabited by the Ancestral Puebloans (kind of an “umbrella term”). The circular pit in the photo above is the lower remains of what was once a kiva. The formerly inhabited region was both along the floor of Frijoles Canyon and also in the canyon walls themselves.

Aside from being asked not to be a douche (which sadly most people are incapable of), you were allowed to roam at your leisure.

This next photo is a view of the cliff face, as seen from the lower “village” area.

And then here is the “village” and seen from the base of the cliffs.

The path up to the cliff structures was cool in and of itself.

Although it was steep, this part of the trail was pretty safe and fairy simple.

The trail is actually in “stages” and you sort of progress higher as you go.

Before too long you come to the first set of houses (technically called “cavates”).

And the best part is that there are even a few cavates you can climb up into.

Even this first row of cavates is a good bit up the cliff.

The houses are either carved into the cliff tuff itself, or built against the cliff with stone, adobe, and wood.

Despite being a cool day, it was pretty warm in the sun and against the cliffs, it was amazing how much cooler the insides of the houses were.

Although we’d been cold on the canyon floor, we were working up a sweat up here!

The trail sort of winds along the edges of the cliffs.

In most spots the trail was decently wide and accessible.

Though the only way to actually get into the houses was via ladders.

Of course whether or not to climb in wasn’t even really a question for us.

The houses had even better views than the trail.

Here is a view of the “village” for orientation purposes.

We even met some deer buddies!

Around in here the rocks got a little more wonky and jutted out a bit more.

Which made some of the house placements even more impressive.

And made us even more anxious to climb and squirm our way up into them.

It was a really cool experience.

Here you can see the “village” again, as we move further along the cliff face.

However, the monument itself actually covers a 50 square mile area [though the trails obviously don’t cover all of that], so there was still plenty to see even as you lose line of sight with the central area.

The structures, and evidence of former structures, are pretty continuous along the cliff.

Around here was where the petroglyphs first became really apparent.

A closer look:

And some more, including what appears to be some happy people, probably prior to us coming and ruining their existence.

Once you pass a bend you come to the “Long House” which is aptly titled, since it’s a long series of interconnected, formerly three story high (in some spots) cliff dwellings.

The sheer number of cavates was incredible, there were so many they were sometimes easy to miss!

Plus, the sheer scale of the area was awesome.

Towards the end of the “Long House” the trail actually starts to level off with the canyon floor again.

However the dwellings/remnants of dwellings continue, including this one that actually had a painted surface at back of the house which was covered over at one point, then uncovered again during excavations.

Shortly beyond that was another big petroglyph. According to the guide book it was a macaw, however, we (Tristen) all know it was a dinosaur.

After the ~~macaw~~ dinosaur the trail heads back down into the wooded area of the valley.

Looking back at where we had come from.

But the dwellings kept going, even once the trail pulled away from the cliff.

Right around this point I made the comment to SB about how good of condition these trails were in.

And almost as soon as I had finished saying that, the nice trail stopped.

See, the “main” loop from the visitor’s center is about 1.2 miles in total, and this takes you up near the cliff face and then follows a steam back to the visitor’s center. However, the star attraction of Bandelier is the so called “Alcove House” which is is about “0.5 miles” off the main trail, and the path there is a bit more back to basics (I say “0.5” because even though the sign said it was a half mile, it was definitely more than that to the house).

The upside to the lack of the nice path was that it was even more gorgeous back in here.

And to be fair, there was a trail, it was just mostly mud and snow.

There were a few people back on this trail, but less of them than I had expected.

We did meet our first Abert’s Squirrel though!

Based on what a passerby told us, this was a pretty photogenic squirrel. After passing the squirrel friend the path rejoined the stream.

I was actually pretty thankful that the snow along the canyon floor hadn’t melted much yet, otherwise there would have been more mud.

Even though it was still bright and blue out, it was much cooler down in this area.

And even though the trail wasn’t entirely flat:

We really didn’t have enough climbing (yet) to make up for the semi-blocked sun.

After more than “0.5 miles” the trail began to connect with the cliff again.

For a awhile it sort of ran between the cliff and the stream.

And shortly after that, it made a sharp turn and led straight into the cliff face.

This was the start of the climb up to Alcove House, which sits 140′ above the floor of Frijoles Canyon.

We gained elevation pretty quickly.

And although each ladder led to a little plateau of stairs:

These were not the same tier of paths as back on the main trail:

The handrails definitely helped with balance.

But the path was still really tight.

And the ladders were actually vertical in few areas.

Fortunately there were places to stop and take in the view along the way.

And the views were definitely worth taking in.

Once you climb for a bit, you get to a small terrace.

Which has some nice views of its own (and no handrails to block your view, haha).

And then from there it’s just a couple more short ladders up to the entrance of the Alcove House.

And it isn’t called the Alcove House for no reason, its both a naturally eroded alcove and there were/are dwellings within it.

It’s actually pretty cavernous.

But I can definitely understand why someone would choose to make their home there.

There were all sorts of little carve-outs and remnants within the alcove.

And the views were amazing.

Around this time some other people started to arrive. We had actually been really lucky in that we had gotten the place entirely to ourselves and the silence for awhile.

So we started making the trek back down to the canyon floor.

Going down was a bit trickier in a couple of spots.

And you can definitely see why they close the Alcove House when the cliffs get wet/icy.

But we safely made it back down to the bottom without issue.

Then started the “0.5 mile” walk back to the main trail.

The number of people was slowly picking up, but it was still pretty quiet back in here.

We also ran into our squirrel buddy again. I mean, I guess it could have been a different one, but it wasn’t.

After talking to squirrel friend for awhile we crossed back over the stream (actually the trail crosses it several times).

And then from there it was a peaceful walk back to the visitor’s center.

By the time we got back to the parking lot SB was pretty hungry, so we got some overpriced Forest Service food and then headed on our way. I’m glad we got there when we did, because the park was bumping by the time we emerged from the boonies.

We then drove Shiva back up onto the top of the mesa and headed through some quiet back-country and through some Technical Areas while on our way to Los Alamos.

We actually had to go through a security checkpoint prior to entering the town, which was unexpected, though maybe it shouldn’t have been considering that it’s Los Alamos. In case you didn’t know, Los Alamos the town is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Which was of course home to, and founded as part of, the Manhattan Project in 1942.

Today, this mesa town of around 12,000 people [around 9,000 of which are employees of the lab] still hosts the lab, which does ongoing nuclear and defense-related research. It’s definitely a company town, which means it feels a little sterile, but everything is in good shape.

Aside from just wanting to go where the nuclear age was born, I also wanted to see the Bradbury Science Museum, which has the benefit of being totally free.

Here they house all sort of nuclear history and modern defense related goodies, such as a replica of Little Boy, the nuclear bomb which hit Hiroshima.

As well as it’s slightly younger, but much fatter brother, Fat Man, the nuclear bomb which hit Nagasaki.

Just a couple of nuclear bombs in a pod.

They also had more modern weaponry to check out.

Including some personal gear such as this bomb suit weighing over 100lbs.

I will always think of these as “Bulldozers” due to a video game called “Payday: The Heist.”

But the real highlights of the museum are all the historical relics of the Manhattan project and a 16 minute talking about Los Alamos itself.

In a comical twist, the U.S. Government essentially stole the site from private landowners, who had originally stole it from Native Americans. Chain of love.

In addition to having working Geiger counters that you could play with, there were also some actual, non-replica pieces of equipment, such as this “arming device” which was used to arm Fat Man prior to it’s explosive plunge to earth.

And then there were kind of funny little bits of history, such as this “stopper” in the lower right corner which rode with Fat Man while it was in transport and was really all that kept the nuclear fission process from starting – yep, that little plug.

After checking out the museum we walked up the street, obtained one of our crucial magnets, and then hit the road back to Santa Fe.

Even though we had to drop Shiva off by 5pm, we had made really good time, so we weren’t in a huge rush.

We got behind that “Tricare” car, so happy free advertising to whatever the hell tricare is.

The descent on this “front” side of Los Alamos was substantial.

Of course this just made for great views!

In fact the views pretty much continued all the way down the edge of the mesa.

Eventually things started to open up and flatten out again.

Though the descent took quite a bit of time once we hit that gradual grade – it’s easy to forget how high you are out here!

Before too long we were saying goodbye to the mesas around Los Alamos.

And hello again to the mountains.

And as we neared Santa Fe we were treated to the beginnings of a gorgeous sunset.

Once we arrived back in Santa Fe proper we had enough time to fill Shiva back up to a half tank, drop our stuff off at the casita, and then return Shiva to her home near the Plaza. SB even got to drive the last little 0.7 mile voyage from the casita to Shiva’s house, haha.

After the long day we decided to just chill. SB wasn’t really hungry yet (which was odd, since she’d been hungry more often than me that day 😛 ), so we decided to go get some beer. Prior to SB’s arrival I had found (but not tried) a place called the Draft Station which is located right on the Plaza, so we decided to try it out. The plan was to have a couple of beers, decide on food, and then go get food elsewhere.

Left: Double White Ale – Marble Brewery, Right: Riverwalker – Bosque Brewing Co.

That plan seemed great at first, but unknown to us, a long day and (in my case) an empty stomach caught up to us. Before too long we were really feeling those beers and we got into epic conversations about the world, it’s problems, and how to fix them – typical bar stuff. Eventually we realized that it was getting late and that we really needed to eat, so after some debate, we decide to just get pizza from where we were at. See, Draft Station makes up one end of the upper floor of the Santa Fe Arcade, while Rooftop Pizzeria makes up the other end. As such, they seem to have teamed up for maximum profits and at Draft Station you can order from a limited (pizza only) version of Rooftop Pizzeria’s menu. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m not a big pizza person (unless I’m the one making it), but after a long day and two beers we decided to get some pizza – oh and more beer.

Left: Unknown, Right: Elevated IPA – La Cumbre Brewing Co.

At some point after our second round of beers arrived – how long, the world may never know – our pizza arrived!

Our pizza consisted of: Roast Chicken, green chiles, toasted pinon nuts (pine nuts), cojita & asadero (cheeses), and alfredo sauce, all on a blue corn crust. It was yummy. I know it was yummy because I ate leftovers for the next two days and my cognition had returned by then.

After dinner and beers we had a fun walk home and then Tristen and I crafted a fire, which ended up being incredibly large and hot (in part due to the huge pile of wood SB stacked right outside the door for us), but it was a nice way to end the long day.

The rest of the night was defined by nearly falling asleep on the couch, struggling not to be incinerated by the fire (I set the cleaning brush on fire at one point), and a little bit of packing for SB. Unsurprisingly, we hit the hay in a timely manner that night.

The next day SB sadly had to head back to Boston and I had to return to work, so we both got up and around relatively early. Fortunately my supervisor was actually out of the office, so I was able to delay coming in for an hour or so, which was nice because it was more time for me and Pig to spend with SB, Valentino, and Tristen. However, despite our nice little morning (which included a little mishap in which I briefly set the trash on fire and melted the bag with hot coals), before too long SB was headed off on a shuttle to Albuquerque to begin her process of flying home.

And from there, Pig and I made our way to work and settled in for a day of productivity. I only had four days of work left, and I still had a lot to get done.

Which brings us to the close of Part 2 of my New Mexico Mega post. As mentioned last time, Part 3 will cover the “Post-SB” period which encompasses my final days at work, my (crazy-ass) voyage home, and then I’ll do a short post with a couple of “Things I Learned” reflections (Big Blue Bear style). As for timing, Part 3 will probably (hopefully) surface a bit less than a week after this post since it won’t have 12 trillion pictures like the first two installations did (but will still have plenty, have no fear).

Until next time,
-Taco

New Mexico Mega Post [Part 1 of 3]

January 21, 2016 by Taco

So it is time to begin my “New Mexico Mega Post.” As I mentioned here the plan was to make one big Santa Fe/New Mexico post upon my return to Boston. Well, after looking at the sheer volume of “material” that I would need to cover, I’ve decided to break my New Mexico trip down into three big components. Part 1 will be Arrival and Pre-SB, Part 2 will be SB’s visit, and Part 3 will be Post-SB, Departure, and a Summary.

Since I’ve decided to bust up the posts like this, I’m actually going to go ahead and start writing this series while I’m still in Santa Fe. As mentioned, this part will take us from me leaving Boston up until SB’s arrival. The reason I am busting things up like that is not only because it makes sense, but also because SB brought out our nice new camera (Christmas gift from FIL) and therefore most of the pictures from that portion of the trip are in SB’s possession. Then, the last portion, Post-SB and Departure, is currently happening and doesn’t end until around Midnight on Saturday the 23rd. So I can’t really write about what hasn’t happened yet.

Anyways, without further ado, let’s jump back a couple of weeks (to Monday the 4th) and then work our way up to last Friday evening (the 15th) when SB arrived.

As a warning, this series is going to contain A LOT of photos – more than any other post thus far. [Though still not as many words as Salem]

[Side note: Given the difficulties I’ve had lately with upload size limits on pictures, as well as them being sideways – gathering, organizing, and uploading all these photos essentially became a part time job, so enjoy them.]

—

If you are wondering why I’m going to New Mexico – or where I’m going in New Mexico. Start here.

My “J-Term” adventure began early(ish) on a Monday morning. I was, of course, joined by my trusty travel companion Pig – who was doing research of his own in New Mexico with soil.

Before we even got off the ground in Boston we had already discovered a cool statute in an area of the airport we had never been in before.

The airport gods were smiling on us and we got through security and to our gate without any issues.

While waiting to board we noticed a little luggage shoot next to the to plane. To say that these bags were handled roughly would be sugar-coating it.

Now I know why my bag tends to disintegrate a little more each time I fly.

Even though I had gotten stuck in a middle seat, I was placed right in front of a TV. So I had a good view of “The Martian” when it was on. It was ok, but I don’t think it was nearly as exceptional as a lot of people said it was.

The guy in the window seat was.. uh.. large and he slept almost the entire flight, which meant he kept leaning on me. The girl in the isle seat was a bitch who wouldn’t move when said large man had to go to the bathroom. The kid in front of me probably only whined/cried 15% of the flight, which is like a godsend anymore. So all in all, not too bad of a flight, we really only had one batch of turbulence too.

I had a connecting flight in Dallas/Fort Worth. I didn’t think I had been to that airport before, but I had, back when SB and I were returning from Seattle. What made me remember it was the Skylink shuttle train.

Last time it was about 104 degrees in the little gap between the terminal and the train, not so much this time. My connection was going to be really tight, so I had this all mapped out in advance. However, the airport gods continued to smile on me and my flight was almost 40 minutes early (I think the most ever for me) so I had plenty of time to see some things and get noms.

View from the Skylink.

View of Skylink from our regional jet.

The hop over to Santa Fe was via a smaller regional jet. This wasn’t really an issue for me since I had one piece of checked luggage and then a little day pack that fit under the seat in front of me. So while many were bitching about their normal-sized carry-on luggage not fitting, I was chilling and perusing the same magazine I just finished reading cover-to-cover 45 minutes ago.

Soon enough we were up and away a second time.

The weather was cloudy and cool as we got deeper into New Mexico, but this offered up some amazing scenery.

Believe it or not, Santa Fe is in this photo.

The landing was smooth and before too long it became clear just how MASSIVE Santa Fe’s airport is.

The plane literally pulls up to the terminal and drops you off – and by terminal I mean the only building that isn’t a hanger or storage unit.

Interestingly enough Santa Fe’s airport is almost 900 feet lower than Santa Fe itself (6344′ vs 7199′).

Outside the bustling leviathan that is the Santa Fe Regional Airport is a sculpture by local artist Dan Pearson.

The bad news is that Santa Fe’s airport is about 11 miles from my apartment (or “casita”). The good news is that I have a local friend from last summer in Denver. In fact, said local friend played a decently large part in my building rapport with the local legal community, so that was doubly cool. Anyways, they picked me up at the airport, took me to my casita, and then later took me grocery shopping. So that was nice. Sadly they had to head back up to Denver the very next day, but it was still a warm welcome to New Mexico.

Speaking of my casita, it has turned out fairly well so far. Since the Attorney General Clinic is a bit slow, and my specific hiring process was also slow (and frankly a bit ridiculous), I kind of had a mad dash to find housing less than a month out. Additionally, in order for Harvard to pay for my airfare and lodging (which they cover up to a certain point, but nothing else) I had to meet a set of requirements. So that further complicated a last minute search for a 3 week home. Fortunately, I found someplace, and thus far it’s been pretty good. I say pretty because there’s been a couple of issues, but i’ll cover those in a bit.

Pig chilling by the fireplace.

Pig chilling on the couch.

Pig chilling on the bed.

Pig chilling on the lamp (with “Pigsten” his toy dinosaur).

After our long day of travel, we were pretty tired. So after getting our groceries and unpacking, we walked around our little complex for a couple of minutes to see the Farolitos.

Then we had our first local beer, Happy Camper IPA – Santa Fe Brewing Company.

What I didn’t realize is that a fairly decent snow storm was coming in. In fact, just as I was arriving in Santa Fe it was starting to snow. So while I snuggled up into bed for my first day of work in the morning, the outside world was changing.

Had you asked me what I thought my first walk to work would be like in New Mexico, I would not have guessed it to be like this.

The good news is that it really wasn’t anything compared to Boston, and also that my work is only a 15 minute walk from my casita.

Approaching the government area of town.

Once I arrived to work, complete with snow all over my legs, I got checked in with security and waited to get my badge.

After getting all that sorted out I got to meet my supervisor and then see my office.

It’s the nicest office I’ve ever had to myself. It’s also the only office I’ve ever had to myself.

After that I got a tour of the building, including tons of meet-and-greets with people I’ve mostly since forgotten.

Of course the one person I didn’t forget was Hector Balderas, the Attorney General of New Mexico. I was really surprised I got to me him on my first day (which worked out since I had a tie on). He was extremely approachable and nice. I was pretty nervous prior to meeting him since it was a 1 on 1 session, but it turned out to be a cool meeting. Now I’ll never see him again, but still, it was a cool first day. After that I mostly did some HR-stuff, reaffirmed my confidentiality stuff, etc. Then I pretty much settled in and started working.

That night Pig and I did a couple of things around the casita, namely because we hadn’t had much time to settle the night before. The first was to go stock up on some more beer to last us through the coming weeks.

From left to right: Happy Camper IPA – Santa Fe Brewing Company, Wildflower Wheat – Marble Brewery, and Pale Ale – Santa Fe Brewing Company.

The second thing was to test out our fireplace (there are actually two in the casita). It took me an embarrassingly long about of time to figure out how to start the fire without proper kindling, but eventually I became Tom Hanks and made fire.

Pig eventually decided on a cubby-hole up above the fireplace itself.

Eventually though I think it got a bit too toasty for him and he decided to watch things from afar. Coincidently, this was also the night that I re-learned the heating properties of adobe and raised the temperature of the casita to a pleasant 150 degrees.

Speaking of the casita, now that we had a full evening to check it out, we figured things out a bit more.

The main room is pretty nice, it has a decently stocked mini-kitchen, complete with plates and utensils, all the way to coffee filters and plastic bags. Oddly there are no scissors or pens.

The lighting is pretty decent, though it involves turning on about 300 different lights to achieve proper brightness.

The bathroom is also nice, complete with a poo-device and a tile shower that has TWO shower heads, one on each side.

The bedroom has a super comfy bed and a TV, though the TV requires mystical words of power to get it to shut off.

There is a decent patio that I haven’t been able to use due to the weather.

The two gates lead to the side parking area and then the street in front of the casita.

There is a grill, which again I haven’t used.

The main door is controlled via electronic code, which has actually been really nice. There is also a side door that is locked and doesn’t get used.

Then there is my heartily-sized wood pile for the burnanating.

There is also a communal hot-tub (which doesn’t seem to be turned on, nor does it appear to be capable of being turned on right now) and a fire pit area. The complex is made up of at least 4, if not 6+ (it’s hard to tell) casitas.

This sort of brings me to the downsides. My casita is an adobe house divided into two units. In the main room is a cheap wooden door that separates the two units. This means that when people are in the other unit, its like having a piece of tissue paper between you and them. This is actually a really, REALLY stupid design because the walls are adobe, so other than that one crappy door, they muffle the sound really well. But nope, someone had to put that door in, and not only that, they essentially went to Home Depot and said “Yo, give me the biggest piece of shit door you have and make sure it blocks no sound.”

The silver lining is that thus far people have only been around in the Thursday-Monday range, meaning that I have 3 nights a week of pure silence (it’s a very quiet neighborhood).

The other issue was that my internet died the first weekend. To their credit they fixed it on a Saturday, but they were NOT easy to get a hold of, and when the guy came he tracked mud all over the place and tried to blame me for the problem (my guess is that he was trained by Comcast).

[Edit: I also lost internet again on Thursday, so we’ll see how that turns out. I just have no luck when it comes to internships and the internet I supposed.]

The third thing, which was fairly minor but still annoying, was that at one point they came and got firewood for another unit (I’m assuming). Well, they unlocked my gate – then left it unlocked, then they flipped over the wooden table on the patio and left it that way, then they knocked over a garbage can and left it that way too.

Still, things could have turned out FAR worse and overall I’ve been pleased with my casita, especially since I’m not paying for it. Well, I’m going to get reimbursed for it.. eventually.

Anyways, back to the New Mexico tale. Pig and I pretty much just chilled with our fire the second night.

I eventually figured out a good balance between fire size and not spontaneously combusting.

Before too long it was beer time.

Which is a fancy way of saying sleepy time.

The next day the snow had receded a good bit already and I could actually see the nearby Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

There were still some low clouds as I made my way to work, but that added to the cool factor.

Most of the snow had already been cleared the day before near my work.

Speaking of my work, the attorney general’s office actually takes up two combined buildings. The older portion, the Villagra Building was built in 1934 as the Public Welfare Building. The Villagra Building is in the photo above, and that is where I work.

Attached to the Villagra Building is the Paul Bardacke building, which was constructed in 2006. It houses the AG himself (nestled securely up in the center of the third floor) as well as several other AG divisions. Together these two buildings form a sort of “V.”

The second day of work was much more worky and less handshakey, which honestly I was fine with.

However, as we were working, yet another round of snow started to pour in.

Fortunately my supervisor was kind enough to take me home, where Pig quickly reclaimed his couch spot with Pigsten.

And again, the night was mostly hibernation with a dash of beer.

The next morning I came out to more snow, which had largely undone the clearing operations from the day before.

It still wasn’t too awful bad though.

The area near my work was already cleared pretty well even by 8:30am.

Of course the cacti-bros at work were happy to be inside regardless.

The night we ventured out to stock up on some food we had missed the first night of shopping. I found magical new flavors of puffins.

And Pig found new sleepy spots.

There was a little bit of snow overnight, but nothing major.

The sidewalks had managed to turn into sheets of ice though, so that was fun.

However, that afternoon it got really windy and it started looking like yet another snow storm was coming in.

And soon enough it arrived.

In fact it got bad enough that the AG offices in Santa Fe and Albuquerque decided to close at 4pm (on Friday, noice). My boss was kind enough to drive me home, but I think walking would have been faster given the snow storm and the traffic.

All in all it was a good evening to stay inside and be warm.

Fortunately we had added even more beer to our collection, this time Rio Grande IPA – Sierra Blanca Brewing Company.

In addition to the beer, Pig and I celebrated the end of our first week by making a turkey-swiss green chile melt.

It was quite tasty when paired with the beer.

Now at this point I supposed I should briefly mention chiles in New Mexico. To put it simply, New Mexicans are obsessed with chile, so much so that there is even a specific kind of pepper called the New Mexican Chile. It comes in two broad varieties, red and green (though both are the same chili pepper, just picked at different stages of growth), and from there there are even more sub-varieties. There is, in my newbie opinion, no consistent heat hierarchy between red and green. Sometimes red is hotter, other times green is, it just depends on the establishment/brand. However, a common way for these chiles to be served is “Christmas” which appropriately combines both red and green chiles. Overall though, I will say that by any large “spicy” actually means spicy in New Mexico. My first introduction to the chile sauce was at a work lunch and I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying.

Another big thing out here is the famous Green Chile Cheeseburger, but more on that beautiful culinary creation in a bit.

So anyways, Pig and I were now facing our first weekend. We really hadn’t had the time to be tourists, so that is exactly what we decided to do.

The snow storm had given way to nice blue skies.

It was a great day for some exploring.

We finally made our way to the Plaza, which is kind of like the “Hub” of Old Santa Fe (remembering that Santa Fe dates to 1610).

Given the cold and snow it was surprisingly quiet, though I did find a cool snow memento stuck to one of the plaza trees.

Though I didn’t notice it at the time, the holiday lights were still up in the Plaza – or maybe they are year round, I actually don’t know.

I walked around and checked out the general area.

I also passed by the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

A sign said that it was closed on weekends, which I thought was really weird. However, I now have reason to believe that that sign was wrong, but that’s for next post.

I was actually working my way away from the Plaza for now, as I was headed to the site of Fort Marcy, which is on a hill overlooking downtown Santa Fe and is now the spot of the Cross of the Martyrs.

Although the streets were still pretty nasty, things were fairly walkable on the whole.

Eventually I made my way to the gate for Fort Marcy Park, I didn’t even get lost.

Although it’s not an overly steep climb, the snow didn’t help matters.

As I zig-zagged up the hill I found some snow angels.

The views towards the top became increasingly impressive.

The very top, near the cross itself was quite windy, but offered up the best views (to my knowledge) within Santa Fe itself.

Adorned on the cross are the names of the Franciscan Monks who were killed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

The cross actually sits just below of the top of the hill where Fort Marcy was (though the cross and the monks aren’t related to Fort Marcy). The actual fort site is of course now mostly covered by houses.

The path continues beyond the cross and you can get to some of the ruins of the fort, which were entirely covered by snow when I was there.

Pig used this an opportunity to scout for grubs.

But then decided that he just wanted to chill for a bit.

While walking around the top of the hill we discovered the “main” entrance to the park, and realized we’d sort of came in the “back” way.

Near here we spotted what looked to be a series of footprints leading towards some nearby houses, so I almost didn’t follow it. However Pig inspected it a bit more.

Turns out it was actually part of a short trail attached to the park.

It led into some not-so-back-country that felt a lot like back-country.

Pig quickly sprung into grub-hunt mode.

And I do mean sprung.

After his snack we hit the trail with little more than footprints to guide us.

The trail led down into a little valley sort of thing.

And then went right back up the other side.

Somewhere around this time Pig and I took tinkles, only to discover that we had done so not that far from someone’s house.

It was the deer.

The trail actually got decently steep in a couple of spots.

But that just made for some good views.

At one point the trail sort of plopped you right out into a neighborhood.

There was a dog that wasn’t too pleased with my presence, so I continued on.

Eventually making my way to a more clear area.

Which then offered up another view of ridge I’d been on earlier.

After that we headed back down into the center of town, complete with the red muddy streets that required tactical maneuvers to avoid getting splashed by cars (some parts of Santa Fe have sidewalks not more than 6 inches wide, I kid you not).

We did pass some cool metal wind “things” though.

As well as crossed over the Santa Fe River, which runs straight through town and looks really pretty this time of year.

To be honest I am unsure as to why it is a “River” as it is an intermittent stream and a tributary of the Rio Grande, but who knows.

While walking I actually stumbled across Canyon Road, which is a street lined with independent art galleries, most of which are ran by the artist themselves.

I meant to go there later in the day, but I figured I’d explore a bit since I was here already.

Both sides of the street were lined with gallery after gallery, with one or two cafes thrown in for good measure.

The buildings were of course adobe, but they were all a bit more eclectic than most of the adobe structures elsewhere in the town.

There was so much to see that I can understand why art-oriented people can spend an entire day (or more) on this one street.

While I didn’t go into any galleries, there was still plenty to see in the form of outdoor galleries and pieces.

Animals were a popular choice, which I didn’t mind one bit.

Bears were a big theme, which made me think of Valentino.

But even some smaller creatures found their way into the road’s offerings, like a bee butt.

As well as a big ole’ pig, much to Pig’s joy.

I spent a decent amount of time just checking out the outdoor offerings.

But I also liked the aesthetics of the area in general.

After making my way through Canyon Road, I kind of got into a series of back-alleys that brought me up to the San Miguel Mission and the “Oldest House” from behind.

Now, I didn’t actually go into the “Oldest House” despite it being free.

Even though the foundation dates to around 1200 CE (Pueblo) from the exterior it looks mostly the same as all the other old adobe structures in the central area and along the Old Santa Fe Trail. And since I only had so many hours in the day, I decided to skip it and head into the adjacent church.

The San Miguel Church (Mission), originally dates to 1610 and is one of the oldest, if not the oldest church structure in North America.

It definitely has that classic southwestern vibe.

Inside the altar was quite impressive, considering the modest nature of the church and its age.

They also had artifacts dating from the period around the church’s construction, which I thought was really cool.

It was a fairly small church, but I liked how much non-flashy history it had.

While I do like the extravagant cathedrals, there is something special about this more antiquated churches, kind of like St Margaret’s Chapel in Edinburgh Castle.

The coolest thing about the San Miguel Mission was the San Miguel Bell.

This sucker weighs 780lbs and was made of all sorts of goodies.

The best part is that you can ring it with the rubber mallet they have, free of charge. I mean, I donated upon entry, but technically if you want to go walk all over a church and hit things with a hammer and not give them any money, that’s your prerogative.

It felt really weird to hit something so old with a hammer, but the docent assured me it was quite ok. I’m glad I did, it was really neat learning the different sounds it would make depending on where you hit it.

In addition to the bell, the church housed some incredible wood work, though it was almost assuredly done by forced Native American labor.

After hanging with J.C. for awhile I decided to go over a hang out with the devil politicians at the state capitol.

The capitol building, or “Roundhouse” as it is most commonly called, houses the state house, state senate, legions of lawyers and lobbyists, random staff, and also the governor (when she isn’t throwing drunken pizza parties anyways).

Being Saturday I didn’t figure it would be busy, turns out that it isn’t even open on weekends. Which I guess makes sense in retrospect, so I just walked around the outside and decided to return another day (which I did, and is covered later in this post).

After traversing the roundhouse grounds and encountering Santa Fe’s official crazy homeless dude who endlessly screams I started making my way back to the Plaza. On the way I passed some contraption (in front of the NM Land Office) that was talking about solar and oil energy in New Mexico, I actually laughed out loud at the thought of the oil industry working with the solar industry.

Then I walked back over the Santa Fe River, which was now melting a bit quicker than before.

I also passed the nice “Loretto Hotel” which wasn’t looking so nice with all the mud.

However, I then put two and two together and realized that I was right next to the famous Loretto Chapel.

Now, getting past the fact that Loretto Chapel charges 3$ to enter – and that I think a church charging to enter it is kind of dumb (but they do this in Denmark too) – it was still a cool place to visit.

However, you really pay the 3$ because you want to see the staircase.

So, story time about that staircase.

In 1872 Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the Bishop of the Santa Fe Archdiocese, commissioned the building of a convent chapel to be named Our Lady of Light Chapel, which would be in the care of the Sisters of Loretto. The chapel was designed by French architect Antoine Mouly in the Gothic Revival style, complete with spires, buttresses, and stained glass windows imported from France. Although it was built on a much smaller scale, the chapel bears an obvious resemblance to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The architect died suddenly and it was only after much of the chapel was constructed that the builders realized it was lacking any type of stairway to the choir loft. Due to the chapel’s small size, a standard staircase would have been too large. Historians have also noted that earlier churches of the period had ladders rather than stairs to the choir loft, but the Sisters did not feel comfortable with that prospect because of the long habits that they wore. The Sisters of Loretto relate the story as follows: Needing a way to get up to the choir loft the nuns prayed for St. Joseph’s intercession for nine straight days. On the day after their novena ended a shabby-looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but that he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. The identity of the carpenter is not known for as soon as the staircase was finally finished he was gone. Many witnesses, upon seeing the staircase, feel it was constructed by St. Joseph himself, as a miraculous occurrence.

It’s worth noting that the staircase did not originally have handrails and it definitely was not attached to the column via a metal brace as it is today.

You can thank OSHA.

Still really cool though.

After that Pig and I were off again, going with Dios.

Most of the snow and ice in the streets had melted, though this didn’t help the red mud issue.

While trekking through the muddy streets we came across part of Route 66, which I thought was cool.

Things were picking up a bit more from the morning, probably because it was no longer below freezing and the streets were getting better.

The Plaza was still fairly snowy though, which I liked. Also, some Native American singers had came and started performing with their drums while I was off walking around Santa Fe. I stayed and listened to them for a bit – they didn’t seem to be doing it for money, though maybe the town pays them, or maybe they just do it because they like it, who knows.

Next up was the Palace of the Governors, a 1610 adobe structure which has been the seat of more than one government and withstood many sieges. Its kind of the iconic Plaza building.

Native Americans line up on the patio and sells various handmade wares. The southwest is ripe with various gemstones, so you find a lot of gem-based works, all of which are far outside of my price range. The cool thing is that you actually have to have a real tribal affiliation to set up shop here, so this keeps joe-blow from selling fake Rolexes on the patio as well.

The interior of the building has been converted into part of the New Mexico History Museum, which I decided was worth the (student) price of entry for the Palace of the Governors alone.

The portions of the museum that are with in the 1610 structure have left the building mostly unchanged.

Although some rooms have obviously been recreated, there was a lot of effort to show you what was new, and what was not.

The museum had a wide variety of artifacts which ranged from indigenous, to Spanish, to U.S. based.

Some of the Conquistador stuff was especially cool.

But really I found myself enjoying the building as much as anything, including the 4 FEET THICK walls.

They definitely built this place to last, and so it has.

As mentioned, the Palace of the Governors only makes up part of the museum, the rest is housed in a newer building which has been pseudo-attached to the Palace. Effectively nestled between the two is one of two gift shops, which had some chocolate I was familiar with.

Interestingly enough my fellow tourists (though their tourist level is a few notches lower than mine) seemed to be convinced that it was locally made. Nope, it’s actually made in Somverille, MA, but in fairness it is based on traditional Mexican production methods.

In order to get to the new building you pass through the original interior courtyard of the Palace.

Once inside the new building there is a map showing you where things are, I only mention this because there was literally a Meem room.

The collection in the new building was a bit more modern, but it still started off with older stuff.

They had a few really cool artifacts, such as Billy the Kid’s spurs.

A few mildly macabre items such as Pancho Villa‘s death mask, complete with the bullet hole in the forehead.

As well as some other related “violent” pieces such as this clock that stopped when shot during a raid preceding the Battle of Columbus.

Close up of the card.

Then there were some plain weird items, such as an exhibit on pinhole cameras which I still don’t understand.

But these were contrasted against things I did understand and learned quite a bit about, for instance the Harvey Girls.

One room was entirely devoted to the Manhattan Project which happened up at “The Hill” (Los Alamos) and was of course completely top-secret and mysterious to the residents of Santa Fe in particular.

They even had one piece of the original machinery (oscillograph) that registered the first atomic blast in history.

After finishing up at the New Mexico History Museum, I headed over to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum.

Now, in fairness, while I was vaguely familiar with O’Keeffe’s work, I couldn’t have told you she spent a fair amount of her life in Santa Fe. I really just wanted to go because she is featured in Breaking Bad. Her work is mentioned in Breaking Bad on the premise that some of it looks like vaginas.

Yep, those flowers are definitely vaginas.

But it wasn’t all vaginas, there many other pieces as well.

I especially liked the one on the right.

After leaving the O’Keeffe museum behind I began meandering towards the federal courthouse since it looked like it had a green area on my little map. Along the way I came across some cool artsy outdoor areas.

As well as a sculpture of my Saint Francis of Assisi with a groundhog or something, I dunno, but I liked it.

Eventually I came to the federal courthouse and it was kind of meh, namely because what is probably a pretty area in the summer was just snowy and muddy now.

After that I decided to start heading home. In doing so I crossed back through the Plaza where I picked up a couple of post cards and strongly debated getting a beer huggie with the Zia on it to match my CSU huggie from Colorado, but talked myself out of it (though I later ended up getting it with SB). I did see a nifty La Catrina bag though.

Speaking of the Zia, it’s time for a little lesson on this symbol which is also the Flag of New Mexico.

First off, the symbol, called the “Zia” is so called because its a symbol from the indigenous Zia People. Its full name is the “Zia Sun Symbol,” which is the red symbol on the yellow background. However, the red and yellow colors come from the Old Spanish Kingdom (a combination of the Hapsburg Spain and the Crown of Aragon).

The Zia symbol itself has a pretty intricate meaning, which stems from the fact that the Zia consider the sun to be sacred. The symbol is a circle with groups of rays pointing in four directions. Four is the sacred number of the Zia and can be found repeated in the four points radiating from the circle. The number four is embodied in each of the four rays, each group having the following meanings: the four points of the compass (north, south, east and west); the four seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn and winter); the four periods of each day (morning, noon, evening and night); the four seasons of life (childhood, youth, middle years and old age); and the four sacred obligations one must develop (a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of others), according to the Zia’s belief.

So there you go, you know now the history of the Zia symbol, and at least a partial history of the New Mexican flag.

Continuing on, after stopping in and picking up some post cards I continued home. I passed by Burro Alley, which doesn’t require much of an imagination to figure out why they called it such.

I also passed the swanky El Dorado hotel, of drunken governor fame.

By the time Pig and I arrived home we were pretty hungry. Since we had spent all day walking around and had just eaten snacks from home, we decided to treat ourselves a little bit with some takeout food.

We decided on Blake’s Lotaburger, which is pretty much a New Mexico staple. While they serve many things, they are best known for being cheap and for serving a good green chile cheeseburger. Interestingly enough, there is a Lotaburger about a 4-5 minute walk from my home, which made the decision to go even easier. Now, if you know me you’ll that I really don’t eat fast food. In fact the number of times I’ve had fast food in the past couple of years is probably in the 3-4 range. However, in special circumstances I’ll get it. This was one such circumstance, namely because Lotaburger is a regional chain and people kept talking up the green chile cheeseburger (and I hadn’t had one yet). So Pig and I went.

We saved some money by using our own pepper-jack cheese from home, and passed on the fries in favor of some crackers I had. Even with the substituted cheese, this was a pretty good fast-food burger, and, more importantly, it was a good induction into green chile cheeseburgers. Would I go often? No. But that’s more because I don’t eat fast food much, as mentioned. Would I recommend stopping through one if you find yourself in New Mexico? Certainly (though as I later found much better green chile cheeseburgers exist elsewhere – but not for this cheap).

Sometime after dinner I noticed that I had worn a whole in my jeans at some point.

Considering that these are my only pair of jeans out here, that was a bit of problem. And while SB could fix them, she was still a week away (SB’s fix ending up busting in less than a day, these jeans are probably on their way out). Still, it was on the inside of the thigh and I was normally wearing long-johns when I was out and about due to the cold, so it could be worse.

Any concerns I had about my jeans were washed away with some Peach Sleepytime Tea (and also beer, but the beer came first) which was the first time I’d had it, though I had seen it last summer in production.

After tea and beer time, Pig and I were off to dreamland after a long and eventful day. Tomorrow we were really considering a hike near town, but given our lack of car we decided to sleep on it.

Of course we decided to do it, but I do have to give credit to my friend and supervisor who gave me a list of things I should do, otherwise I probably would have never found this trail.

Santa Fe is pretty much right up against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. One of the closest mountains to town is Atalaya. Atalaya’s summit is is 9,121 feet high, so, remembering that Santa Fe is 7,199 feet, the elevation gain to the summit is 1922 feet. So, realistically you are climbing 2000 feet to get to the summit of Atalaya if you start in Santa Fe. The thing is, from where I live to the start of the Atalaya trail is about 4.6 miles. So, had I not heard about it, I’d never even known to look for it. But fortunately my supervisor mentioned it to me in an email.

The thing is, public transportation in Santa Fe is kind of limited (it’s a Rocky West thing so far as I can tell). Although there is a free Santa Fe shuttle that would have knocked my walking down to about 1 mile, its weekend hours were weird and there was no way to know how far away it was. It was supposed to come every 30 minutes, but because there is no “schedule” per se, you could end up waiting 1 second, or 29 Minutes and 59 seconds, assuming the shuttle was on time. Then there are car services, like Uber or the god-awful expensive Taxis. Me being me, and Pig being Pig, we decided to just walk it – meaning that it was 4.6 miles just to get started on the actual hike.

I should probably note here that I had no real hiking gear, so I went off on this snowy hike in the same shoes I’ve been wearing to the office. However, the weather was quite nice, albeit cold.

See that mountain peak in the center of the image above? The one way off in the distance? That was my destination.

We started off by following the Santa Fe River further east than I had before.

This took us away from the city-center and into a more “burb-like” area.

From there we got into the “outskirts” of the core of Santa Fe, which was also when we started to gain a little elevation.

We even passed an elementary school, I could think of worse views to have.

This next photo is looking back towards where we had came from, the core of Santa Fe is getting further away.

We then passed some sort of fancy gated community.

Gotta keep out the plebs.

After that we were fairly close to St. John’s College, which is where the trail head is.

I had to take a wee-wee break, so I went into some trees on the of campus and wee’d.

Interestingly enough there was already one set of footprints, so I have a feeling I was not the only person who may have went in there and wee’d.

The trail head was just beyond one of the parking lots for the college.

The trail actually starts in a “low” area and follows an arroyo.

It was actually pretty thick in parts.

The mountains were slowly ebbing closer.

At a few points where the trail followed the arroyo I had to bend over to progress.

Once you pass through this “low” area, you quickly start gaining elevation.

We were now officially at the “base” of Mt. Atalaya.

The trail wasn’t too steep at this point, and the views were already getting pretty awesome.

Fortunately for me the trail was pretty well trodden, otherwise I would have undoubtedly gotten lost and eaten by an Abert’s Squirrel (or more likely the ravens and crows, those things are everywhere out here, and they are big).

This “base” path continues on for awhile. There are a few steepish spots (made worse by the snow and my lack of good hiking shoes) but nothing too major. However, eventually the trail comes to a fork, where you can literally choose to take a shorter and steeper route, or a longer and easier route.

If only every decision in life was marked so well.

Of course I decided on the steeper route, because that is what I do. The trail wastes no time becoming steep.

It’s hard to capture in photos, but that was an incredibly steep incline. I was sliding back a little bit every step I took. Of course the good part about going up as that the views continue to improve.

The steeper path was still fairly well trodden, but it was definitely less-so than the easier route appeared to be.

Pig and I continued our climb though, even with all the sliding.

Pig took the opportunity to climb/eat some local plants.

It’s hard to see, but part of Santa Fe lies off in the distance here.

Eventually we came to what appeared to be a plateau of sorts, which was a welcome relief after a (literally) non-stop ascent.

After just about 5 more minutes of climbing Pig and I reached the summit!

Pig was pretty pleased with our 2000ft climb.

And admittedly I was too. This was one of the few hikes I’ve ever had where I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it to the top. It was a combination of improper gear and not being fully acclimated to the high-altitude. Going from Boston to Santa Fe and then hiking puts strain on the ole’ body, to say the least. But the views were worth it.

We walked around the summit a bit, and even met a fellow hiker who was kind enough to take a picture of Pig and I (after we offered to take his photo). It was interesting, from the trail-head to the summit I’d maybe seen 20 people in total, and most of those were prior to the “steep” split.

Here are some views of various places from the summit:

This one shows Santa Fe way off in the distance.

Here is another of Santa Fe, believe it or not there is actually a city down there.

And then this one is probably my personal favorite from the summit.

About this time I noticed that my hands were getting really really cold. Since I had my phone as a camera, I was having to remove my gloves each time to take a photo. At the summit it was not only much colder than down below, but it was also very windy. So Pig and I decided to call it good and start heading back down the mountain. This is where the steep slopes really started causing us problems, it was basically 4 miles of controlled sliding in my not-hiking shoes. By the time it was over my knees were killing me (as where my shins, but that is nothing new).

The good news was that it got quite a bit warmer as we descended.

By the time we returned to the “low” portion near the arroyo some of the snow had melted away entirely.

After getting back to the parking lot (and wee’ing in our wee spot again – we also wee’d three times on the mountain, I have a bladder the size of an atom) we decided to take a different route home, which would take us through the Santa Fe Railyard. This path took us through a fairly nice “burb” area.

We even passed a fancy private Santa Fe Preparatory school (its down that path, just trust me).

Lots of the homes in this area were gated.

Ok pretty much all the homes were gated.

One of the homes even had a fancy art nouveau piece.

My hands were getting better, but it was still pretty freaking cold.

After about 4 miles of walking, we came to the Santa Fe Railyard Park.

As the name implies, its a park built on the site of a former railyard. While it’s bustling with activity during the warmer months it was kind of desolate when I walked through it. Pig kept himself entertained regardless.

We followed the old train tracks up the road for a bit to the edge of the park.

That’s when we spotted the Rail Yard District itself.

The Rail Yard District is an “up and coming” area of the Santa Fe, which is a fancy way of saying its a tourist area (kind of like Denver’s Cherry Creek). There are loads of various markets, shops, restaurants, and the largest Farmer’s Market in town is also in this district. However, given the cold and the fact it was Sunday, there was pretty much nothing happening, as you can see in the photo above. We did get to see some trains though.

The train on the right is the New Mexico Rail Runner, a commuter rail that runs between Belen (just south of ABQ) and Santa Fe. It’s apparently a pretty nice train and the prices are NOT bad at all. Sadly it’s a true commuter rail, so the weekend schedules are so limited that I won’t be able to use it. It was still cool to the see it and the old station though.

About this time Pig decided his hooves were killing him (ok it was really my feet) so we started heading for home, passing some cool old churches along the way.

When we were about 1/3 a mile from home we passed “The Good Stuff” which we had been by several times, but never actually stopped at. It is a HARDCORE hipster spot, with old books, vinyl records, coffee, and eccentric clothing (it’s also located right next to an rare/antique map and book store – SB heaven).

After walking 18.5 miles, I felt like a coffee was well deserved.

We had a organic pour-over coffee and then some totally not organic generic brand peanut butter paste crackers from the store. After chilling for a bit we made the last little jaunt to home, just as the sun was beginning to set in the sky.

As soon as we got home Pig demanded his shower.

Happy Pig.

Which we of course followed with some beer.

[Oh and if you were wondering, yes, the hike made the hole in my jeans much worse.]

After all that hiking you’d think I would have slept like a rock, but no, I actually didn’t. I think I was so tired that I couldn’t sleep, if that makes any sense. At least I got to see some cool shadows (from my gate) on my bedroom door as the sun came up.

Plus, the next morning I had to get up early to go to a Police Academy Hearing where an officer who beat a homeless person was facing having their law enforcement certification revoked. The officer had a private lawyer and was backed by the police union, while the Attorney General (my “side”) was trying to make it so they couldn’t be a cop anymore. The officer in question had already been fired (over this and other non-related issues) but they still have their law enforcement license. I found it quite interesting that you can be fired in one precinct for.. let’s say brutality, and then go over to another precinct and get hired as a cop again. Just wat. But that’s the way it works. Anyways, I’m not sure how much I can talk about this hearing as of right now (since it’s still being decided), but I am very glad that I got to go witness it. It took all day, and with not sleeping well the night before I was absolutely drained by the time it was over. But again, it was a very cool (and sometimes enraging) experience.

The majority of the week brought us nice blue skies, a welcome change from all the snow-walking I had done my first week.

Pig and I (and Pigsten) stayed nice and busy.

Though Pig definitely enjoyed his nap breaks.

And taking time out to talk to his momma (SB).

All in all it was a very busy week at work, but Pig and I started sleeping much better. I think it just took us a bit to acclimate to the schedule, environment (altitude), and work.

Speaking of work I got to do a lot of other fun stuff last week too, which not only included some paid-for work lunches and (not-paid for) coffee-chats with coworkers, but also some more “official” business.

I got to go see a State Supreme Court argument, STATE OF NEW MEXICO v. ROBERT GEORGE TUFTS, which was pretty cool and OH SO MUCH DIFFERENT than the U.S. Supreme Court (NM’s court was far more informal) – in fact the defending council kept trying to talk over the justices and got savagely pwned at one point, I also got to partake in a strategy meeting over a pending AG case that deals with water pollution, as well as sit in on call between some western states that I can’t discuss other than to say they are planning some major collective action against the federal government, and then I even got to get a behind the scenes tour of the NM Supreme Court building, courtesy of the Clerk of the Court (not to be confusing with law clerks).

The New Mexico Supreme Court – notice the gold-leaf doors.

During this tour I got to see all sorts of non-public places, such as justices chambers, the robing room, the bomb shelter in the basement, the clerk of the court’s office, law clerk offices, and lots of little nooks and crannies with cool history (the building was built in 1937). At the tour’s closing he strongly urged me to send my materials to the court to be considered for a clerkship. That sounds great in theory aside from the fact I have no letters of recommendation as of yet.

All of the work and excitement kept Pig on his toes, and so he spent most of his home time relaxing (sleeping) or doing Yoga, or both at the same time.

On Friday my supervisor actually left for a vacation in New York, so I took a long lunch (which I was allowed to do, by the way 😛 ) and did some walking.

It was a great day for a stroll.

While walking I decided that I’d return to the Roundhouse since it was now a weekday.

The legislative session didn’t start until the following Tuesday, so I knew this would be a good relatively not-busy time to visit.

I’m really glad I decided to make the return trip, it was a really cool building.

What surprised me was how light security was, you pretty much had free reign to wander around.

While the NM Supreme Court had had pretty lax security, you were still fairly restricted as to where you could wander off too. However at the Roundhouse almost everything was open – including the house and senate chambers.

While they weren’t in session, there was a gallery for you to sit in, so you can still go in there during a live session.

Another cool thing about the Roundhouse is that in addition to be the state capitol building, it also houses a 6$ million art collection.

The art is pretty much dispersed throughout the entire Roundhouse.

My favorite piece was a bison head made ENTIRELY from recycled materials, it was amazing.

Yes this is a BISON not a BUFFALO – get it right America

Here is a close up of it, so you can see some of the materials used.

It was probably one of the coolest art pieces I’ve seen in awhile.

The capitol had some good views of the surrounding area, even with some clouds rolling in (more snow was coming – but thankfully not much this time as SB was also coming).

All kinds of art were present, from paintings, to sculptures, to photographs.

Some of the traditional artwork was interesting to see and read about, such as this awesome mural of Zozobra.

From what I could tell, there were only a few places in the building that weren’t open to the public.

I think the only place I found that wasn’t open was the actual Governor’s office, to which I couldn’t even find the main door. But still, it was a neat visit and I liked the building.

After our Roundhouse tour Pig and I ended our outing with some coffee from Ohori’s, which is a local coffee staple. It was yummy.

After just a little bit more work, Pig and I headed home. It was getting pretty cold, but the snow wasn’t really amounting to much.

Once home we had a snack and took care of a few chores while we were waiting on SB to arrive. Fortunately SB rolled in without many problems (her shuttle driver didn’t know where the drop-off was – but fortunately another passenger did) and then we began our fun New Mexico adventure together! But, as mentioned, that is for next post.

I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of my New Mexico mega post. As you are now well aware, it’s more of a photo-voyage than a traditional blog post. That said, it was ingrained in me about 10 years ago (during a trip to Alaska with my grandfather) that I have to take a lot of photos. So now I do. Sometimes I think I take way too many (for instance these photos only represent a portion of how many I actually took), but really it doesn’t hurt anyone, so I’ll probably keep taking a lot of photos. :p

Part 2 will come out once I’ve had a chance to combine photo libraries (from my phone and our nice camera), which means that it will probably we at least a week and a half or more. Part 3 will probably come out not too long after that.

Until next time,
-Taco

Santa Fe Bound – [& J-Term Explained]

January 4, 2016 by Taco

Hello all,

As of this getting posted I will (hopefully) be on my way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Well, I’ll be on my way to Dallas/Fort Worth, and from there (hopefully) on to Santa Fe. My DFW connection is a lot tighter than I realized, so let’s hope that the aviation gods bestow their favor upon me, otherwise I am going to be stuck in DFW for god knows how long. But that is bad juju, let’s think positive thoughts. As I write this I am almost all packed up and ready to go (thanks to SB), I also got all those little “last minute” things taken care of, at least the ones I’m not forgetting. So all should be smooth sailing to New Mexico on that front.

Anyways, so why am I going to Santa Fe? It all goes back to Harvard’s “J-Term.” Essentially, J-Term (or January Term, or more officially, Winter Term) is a three week long mini-semester scrunched between the Fall and Spring semesters. So technically Harvard is on a trimester system, but no one really considers it as such. Anyways, during 1L you are forced to take the Problem Solving Workshop (discussed in detail here). After the PSW is over, your 2L and 3L J-Terms are essentially open for you to do what you please, well, so long as you’re actually doing something related to law school.

Generally for 2L and 3Ls J-Term consists of one of the following things:

A traditional class with an exam at the law school, just condensed to 3 weeks and generally with 2-3 hour meetings 5 days a week.
A structured clinical placement, this is basically a short internship where you work at a job 8-5, but still get a standard grade at the end. These take place really anywhere you can find and secure work, however the “structured” clinical placements are almost always with an organization the school either directly works with (e.g. local nonprofits) or recognizes by default (state and federal governments, etc.). These clinics use the standard grading system just like a class, and have a required class component in the Spring semester (so they are a fairly large time commitment overall). These have the benefit of funding your travel and rent expenses, within reason. [This is what I’m doing.]
An unstructured (independent) clinical placement. This is similar to the structured clinical, just less rigid (its not necessarily 40 hours a week, for instance). Rather than going with an organization the school “works with” (a fancy term for them sending like one email for you) you go with a more loosely defined internship with an organization who may have no preexisting relationship with the school. These are also anywhere, but are generally a Pass/Fail clinic given the inconsistencies between placements. These generally have no required course component in the Spring. Funding is generally limited with these.
A local research paper. With this option you chill in Cambridge (or wherever you live nearby) and work with a professor to write a research paper over the course of three weeks.
A “travel” research paper. This one is pretty popular. Basically you write a research paper, but instead of doing it locally you travel someplace in the world and just have a “sponsoring” professor who basically just signs their name at the end of three weeks. From what I can this is essentially a way for those with money to travel during J-Term and write a ~~half-assed~~ paper in the process. For those who aren’t independently wealthy this is much more difficult because funding is really low and difficult to obtain, so you end up paying a crapload out of pocket.

From what I can tell, options 1 and 5 seem to be the most popular. Option 1 is just more of the same, and some of the Winter Term classes are unique compared to regular semester classes. So a lot of people just “default” into a class. Option 5 is popular for all the obvious reasons, you get to travel, but again it requires a lot of money as funding is limited to something incredibly stupid like 400$. Option 2 is limited simply because the Winter Term clinics only take small numbers of students and can be difficult to get into (Yay me!). Option 3 seems to be decently popular, but mainly seems limited to people who already have connections with the organization they want to work with and has funding limitations. Option 4 is probably the “easiest” of all 5, because you literally sit in your apartment and play video games for 2.5 weeks and then turn in a paper you wrote in the last 4 days (if you want a P, anyways).

So the point of all that is that I’m doing Option 2, the Structured Clinical. My clinic is the “State Attorney General Clinic” which is one of two AG clinics (the other being Federal, which has no J-Term placements, only semester long Fall/Spring placements).

My placement is the New Mexico Attorney General, Environmental Protection Division, which is located in Santa Fe. So that’s where I will be for three weeks. As mentioned, while this is a “class” it’s more practically a 40 hour a week unpaid internship. The good news is that since this is a structured clinical HLS will pay my airfare and rent (but no other costs, such as food, public transportation, etc. – but I’m not complaining). The bad news is that I had all of two days between getting home from the holidays and leaving again for three weeks.

Anyways, I am not sure exactly what I will be doing there, other than that I apparently will have my own office (score). I also have a friend (from Denver) who lives there who will be there the first day I arrive, but then leaves for Denver the very next day. So I won’t be totally alone, at least not for the first 18 hours or so. Of course Pig will be with me, so he’ll be there to make sure I don’t get too lost or starve to death. SB will also be visiting me 2/3 of the way through my tenure. The funny thing is that Santa Fe is actually 1919ft higher than Denver (5280ft vs 7199ft), so hopefully I have no altitude issues, but at least it never bothered me too much in Denver.

As for this blog, given the three week time frame I’m not sure if I want to mess with “Checking-In” (a la Denver style) or if I will just wait until I get back towards the end of January and write a big ole’ J-Term post. As of right now I am leaning towards waiting until the end, but we’ll see what happens. The point being if the blog is silent for a bit, don’t be surprised. Pig and I will update eventually, one way or the other.

Until next time,
-Taco

Santa Fe at Dusk.

2L J-Term – Santa Fe – “Things I Learned”

New Mexico Mega Post [Part 3 of 3]

New Mexico Mega Post [Part 2 of 3]

New Mexico Mega Post [Part 1 of 3]

Santa Fe Bound – [& J-Term Explained]

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