Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Jemez Springs, and Flagstaff

Yesterday morning we woke up and went back to downtown Santa Fe.  We started out the day by walking the St. Francis labyrinth (that one was for you, Amanda G!).  The labyrinth is beside the cathedral and backs up to a pretty little park.  The labyrinth experience is meant to be representative of life--feeling lost at times, seeing the end goal or not, taking a winding path--and a tool for meditation.  Pretty cool.

After the labyrinth, we walked down to Tia Sophia's restaurant for breakfast with the locals.  We sat with a couple of schoolbus drivers who told us all about the Hollywood history in Santa Fe (Twins, Young Guns, and Wild Hogs all have scenes filmed in or near Santa Fe), and we talked with some other locals guys, including the mayor, about the Preakness favorites.  Breakfast was delicious, and the coffee was great too.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Loretto Chapel, where we paid three dollars to see the miraculous staircase.  It's a beautiful chapel, but save your money, folks.  After the Chapel, we went to the Georgia O'Keeffe museum and took in a good sampling of both her paintings and writings about her work and her life.  It's a cool museum, and it's only $4 for students.  

Then we took a gorgeous drive through the mountains to Los Alamos, one of Oak Ridge's sister secret cities.  We visited the Bradbury Science Museum (named after the head of the Los Alamos plant, Norris Bradbury), and felt a strong kinship with the kids who grew up in another weird science town across the country.  We learned that babies born in Los Alamos during the war actually had birth certificates with a PO Box number in Sandoval county--no actual town address!  The shots below are of us halfway up the mountain to Los Alamos and of Allen checking out the History exhibit in the Bradbury museum.


When we left Los Alamos, we headed down state route 4 through some beautiful country.  The photos below are of the Valle Grande and the Soda Dam near Jemez Springs.  We walked around the gorgeous ruins in Jemez as well--a pueblo from the 1600s.  We actually descended a ladder into the reconstructed ruins of a kiva, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, our camera was dying while we visited the ruins.

We decided the spend the night in Flagstaff, where we checked out downtown, had some yummy fried rice, and got up for a jog this morning, during which we sucked wind and had our path crossed by a half dozen prairie dogs (they are adorable).  We're on our way out now for a late breakfast and a visit to Sedona as our last little side trip before the Grand Canyon, one of the views we're most excited about.  The parting shot below is of a huge T-Rex sculpture against the sunset in Holbrook, AZ.