After 25 years we are once again in Santa Fe. Yesterday we took our time driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, taking the back highway that follows the Turquoise Trail. The road was not paved in turquoise, but it is the region where a lot of a specific type of turquoise has been mined since well before the Spanish came. It is apparently nearly mined out now, but it is a beautiful drive and we came across a couple of nice small towns.

Our lunch stop was in Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid), which was a former mining town that had pretty much become a ghost town by the mid-twentieth century, but was revived in the seventies. Now it is a bit of an arts colony, but also clearly a very close knit community.

Downtown Madrid

At one point we were in the chocolate shop (just looking, of course) when a crowd of people came into the shop and accidentally let one of the shop dogs, Mr. Taos, out the door. Arby, the shop owner, was busy with customers but no worries, one of the locals was also in the shop and headed out immediately with a leash to round up Mr. Taos.

We had lunch in the Mine Shaft Tavern, a local landmark, where the food was delicious and the atmosphere was fun. Our friend Julie had told us that New Mexico green chili cheeseburgers were a thing not be missed, so Mike tried his first of the trip. It was WONDERFUL. Not only did it have chopped green chili relish on it like many things here, but it ALSO had a whole deep fried green chili on it (and an extra on the side).

Mine Shaft Tavern

Some great murals over the bar in the Mine Shaft Tavern

After lunch we moseyed on down the road to Santa Fe, checked into our hotel, and followed the Sounders game via twitter and streaming radio. Nope, not a victory, only a draw, so clinching the playoffs will have to wait.

This morning took us to Old Town Santa Fe, one of our biggest memories of our previous trip. It’s still a very interesting area to explore.

Didn’t see THAT coming

We wandered into an unassuming place for lunch called the Plaza Cafe only to discover that it is the oldest restaurant in Santa Fe, established in 1905. It was a classic diner and full of locals. We understood why after our food came as it was quite good. Mike thoroughly enjoyed the seasonal special, pumpkin chorizo posole (have to try making that at home), and Tami had a very hearty bowl of tortilla soup.

We noticed a small band playing in the main plaza, including a trombone player (something we always pick up on), so we wandered over to investigate. They were quite good, and played some old jazzy tunes, like “Don’t Mean a Thing”, so we had to get a CD from them. They called themselves the Speakeasy Jazz Cats, and said they had actually formed the band in Seattle, and might be going back there. The CD came in a brown paper bag with no notes or even song titles, so I hope we can figure out what is what when we get home.

Speakeasy Jazz Cats

We were also amused to wander into one pottery shop and spot an Acoma style pot with a large Seahawks logo on the side. We told them if that had been a Sounders logo we’d have bought it! The weather was perfect today and we wandered until our feet were nearly falling off, but wanted to head back to the little mall near our hotel for dinner. Yes, you read that right. We went to the mall for dinner. Last night we went to the mall for a stop at the drugstore for cold medicine due to Tami’s untimely acquisition of an annoying cold virus. As we walked by a restaurant near the mall entrance, we noticed a hand-written sign that said “Lamb ribs will be back Thursday night”. Well hey, we’d better check that out! Lamb ribs are one of Tami’s favorites things and very, very hard to even buy in the grocery store any more. So that’s why we were at the mall for dinner and we soon found that this was a popular place with the locals where many people seemed to know each other. The ribs arrived and oh my, but they were good! By the time we left there were many people waiting for tables and we certainly understood why!