What we did (and bought) in Santa Fe

This is the last compelling installment (I promise) about our girl trip to Santa Fe, NM. You can also read about where we stayed and what we ate if you are planning to travel there yourself.

Favorite museum stops included the Museum of International Folk Art and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Photos (sans flash) were encouraged at the folk art museum, but frowned upon in the GO museum:

I was so intrigued by the folk art, but of course my camera died mid-visit. Imagine a very large space slam-packed full of every kind of handcraft display imaginable. I loved the detailed papercuts, like the Polish examples you see above. I had my nose on the glass trying to see how they were done. Robyn and I were both blown away by a large display of heinously complex and accomplished 18th and 19th century cross stitch samplers (not pictured). You had to squint to see the stitches. We were exclaiming over them to each other and then we realized that many were signed by nine-year olds. Great scott!

I bought the pretty matryoshka doll you see at the top of the post in the museum’s gift shop. I wanted to buy a few, but limited myself to this one. Like every shop keeper’s nightmare customer, I had them all unassembled on the counter, trying to decide. There was another doll who was painted holding a large black chicken that I loved, but the colors on this one were more unusual. It’s now happily installed on a ledge in my kitchen.

I did really enjoy the collection at the Georgia O’Keeffe, but was disappointed that it didn’t contain a lot of her well-known large florals or houses. It did, however, have an exhibition of biographical photographs, which were really fascinating. She was a very photogenic person. I came away with a couple of notecard sized prints that I like (shown above with some handmade pendants, bracelet, and Bandelier rocks that also came home with me).

(When I was a surly teen, I remember holding my mother in contempt for wearing a perfectly awful pair of large, cheap ‘mommy’ sunglasses. In an instance of karmic justice, I’ve just realized I have on the same pair of sunglasses.)

If you look closely, you can see the cliff dwellings and pueblo behind me and my ridiculous hat.

On our hike around Bandelier, we ran into a retired Park Ranger who gave us a crash course on the petroglyphs to be found there. My favorite was the turkey. What a nice guy! Despite the snow on the ground, we were able to peel off coats, hats and gloves later in the hike.

Not pictured: We made a sidetrip to the Birkenstock-friendly town of Madrid, where we walked up and down the main street and shopped the jewelry and jumble stores. We also attended a live National Theatre broadcast of The Magistrate with John Lithgow at the Lensic one night. I think Robyn and I might have been the youngest ones there.

One of my favorite shops in Santa Fe was The Spanish Table, where I picked up these pretty plates, bowls and Spanish olive wood spoons as gifts and souvenirs. They had a great selection of cookbooks and shelves of gourmet eats too.

We browsed through the Wheelwright Museum and then spent a long, very squeaky time downstairs in their trading post (the ‘authentic’ wood floors protest loudly with every step you make). I picked up some fun Native American themed paper crafts to do with the girls (we are currently studying early American history so it fits right in) and I had to buy corn necklaces too. I did not buy the $10,000 handwoven wool blanket.

Our four days there was the perfect girl getaway, if you measure by the LHAS (Larissa Holland Amusement Standard). We had an ideal itinerary of eating, shopping, lounging, watching, seeing, oohing and hiking. I realized at the end of the last day that I had forgotten to get my ritual city magnet for the fridge. Anyone in Santa Fe want to send me one? Pretty please?