Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Day 13: Photo Dump Stalactites and Mites

Here are the promised photos of Carlsbad Caverns. Again they do not do justice to the cavern at all but they at least wet your appetite for geological formations. MMMMM flowstone!



Famous Rock of Ages:


Day 15: Happy 4th of July from Santa Fe

Today was a very relaxing day and thus uneventful. Alie and I slept in for our forced day of non driving. Then we got up and went to a restaurant called The Upper Crust recommend by my Uncle Paul. (Thanks!) It was delicious and as an extra super duper 4th of July bonus they served Sam Adams on tap! This excited Alie and I. There is nothing quite like Sam on the 4th of July with a pizza. It tasted like home, and it tasted good. A lot of beers down here are minimally hoppy. Instead they go for a thirst quenching kind of beer whereas we are used to the hoppy Sam and Harpoon IPAs so once the Sam hit our lips it brought back home to us. Which was refreshing since we've been on the road for 1/2 a month.

After that we returned to our hotel and went for a swim. This was also very relaxing, sitting poolside reading. After that we walked around downtown Santa Fe and entered the Cathedral they have here. It was very neat, one of the oldest structures in town and had some interesting artifacts brought over from the Old World. Alie and I took some pictures so we will be posting them eventually. Then we returned to our room and posted some pictures and did some digital cleaning of the blog.

Around 8:30pm we headed to Santa Fe High School to watch the local fireworks. It was interesting being a major city with the fireworks being at a local high school. Alie and I were discussing this, and in general, we feel there is a disconnect from the holiday and what it means to people around here. Here they have their own local history that is very disconnected from our "Nation's History." When we won our freedom from the British this land was still controlled by the Spanish or the Native Americans. (Not sure which hopefully a reader can correct me.) So when they celebrate the 4th it might mean something to them symbolically, but it's not the same as it is with people in the Cradle of Liberty; at least that's what if feels like to us.

The final thing we want to mention is the cab drivers around here. Since our "Iron Horse" is in the shop. We've had a total of 3 cab drivers. So far all of them are 50+ men who seem to have come here because they were tired of were they were and are laid back kind of people. They also seemed to have done a lot of drugs in the past and continue to while enjoying the new age kind of vibe found around here.

So overall we've enjoyed our stay in Santa Fe. We'd certainly come back here, but I do not think that we would move here any time soon.

Tomorrow at 9am we have an appointment with the dealership and we get to find out if we are to fly out of New Mexico or drive. Here's hoping for driving. Wish us luck!