Saturday, June 13, 2009

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 through Friday, June 5, 2009

Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tuesday - I left early and had a beautiful drive to Santa Fe.  I went a different way, and it was much more beautiful than the interstate!  Karen and I had lunch with my sister Carol.  Afterwards, Karen and I drove back to her house, and went walking through the plaza.  The plaza is downtown Santa Fe - a redone area that is upscale and expensive art stores and tourist places.  But, the heart of Santa Fe is still here with old churches and cool places.  We walked by a church with a statue of Saint Francis out front.  I have always loved statues of St. Francis - - patron saint of the animals - - but, I had never seen a statue like this . . . with him and a dog by his side.  It was awesome.  In the courtyard, close to the statue, was a labyrinth.  I can't resist those, and Karen and I both followed the path to the center, and then followed it out again.  Labyrinth's are supposed to be very introspective "devices."  I'm not sure if I had any epiphanies while I walked, but I did think it was fun!

Wednesday - Karen and I walked to a used cowboy boot store today called Kowboyz.  The interesting thing is that when I was in Los Angeles, staying with Karen's mother, Edie, we were going to go to this store, but I found out that they had moved to Santa Fe!  So, I finally returned to Santa Fe and went to the store.  

We walked on down the street and found another western store, and I bought a cowboy hat that I had been looking for.  Then, we ate lunch at a place called Cowgirls!  It was a cowboy kinda day!  We also walked through the oldest church in the United States.  It was pretty awesome . . . built by Native Americans, and they still had the remains of an old Native American village preserved under the church.  It was interesting.

Thursday - Today, was my grand niece's or my great niece's (my niece's daughter . . . I don't know the official term) graduation from middle school. She had a solo piano piece, and she did wonderfully! The music sounded beautiful, and the way her hands moved across the piano keys was also very beautiful to watch.

When I got back to Karen's house, the four of us - - Karen and I and Checkers and Benton - - walked down to the plaza. We did some people watching, and the dogs enjoyed hanging out down there. I had written in a previous blog entry that men my age aren't cute. Karen insisted that they are, and she showed me some that I had to admit were . . . on the cute side!

Friday - I went to lunch with my sister, Carol, and my niece, Lisa, today. Good lunch, good conversation. Then, when Lisa went to drop me back at my car, we talked for a long time. I haven't seen her for quite awhile, so this was nice connecting again.

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