If I Were a Rich Man

Yesterday started out with a bang. I was reaching back with my razor to clean up my neckline, and I caught the top of my right ear with the razor. Damn, do ears bleed. I skipped breakfast out with the boys because I couldn’t get it to stop. When I pulled the bandage off this morning, it started bleeding again, but just a little bit. I think it will dry, but I’m going to carry another bandage with me today just in case it starts again in earnest.

As I said, I stayed home while Mark, Kevin, and Jeff went to The OG Pantry. It’s a local diner a block from our VRBO. (I got to go this morning, and it’s very reasonable—$5 for two eggs and toast. After the O’Keeffe yesterday, which I already mentioned, we walked around downtown a little to see some galleries. (Santa Fe is almost entirely about art for us. I hope you’re not bored.) All of the ones we visited were full of beautiful things, but the first one we went to, The Manitou Galleries…. WOW! If I had $50 or $60k laying around, I’d have walked out of there with a half dozen pieces.

Here are some of my favorites.

There was so much good art at the downtown galleries. Much—probably most—of it is contemporary art—abstract, Modernist, abstract expressionist—if you’re looking for an old Dutch master, good luck finding it in Santa Fe. I wish we’d had more time to spend downtown, but onward we had to go. Scrounging around for a place to have lunch, someone suggested we go to La Fonda—a grand old hotel in operation for more than a century. (Yep, it’s still La Fonda, Doug.) It’s filled with art, too, but perhaps as important, it has a restaurant, La Plazuela that was very reasonably priced and head and shoulders above any hotel restaurant I’ve been in. The hotel also houses a French patisserie. Sigh. We didn’t make it there. Next time. Here’s a photo I took of the boys horsing around near the Santa Fe Plaza.

The weather was turning on us, but we soldiered on and visited Canyon Road, famous for its 100+ galleries. It’s not at all what I was expecting, but it was quaint and pleasant to walk—other than the snow flurries. Unfortunately for us, though, many galleries were closed on Tuesday. Not high season. The ones we were able to get into, including the one that the owner opened for us, were fantastic. Of course, I spotted one painting that ended up being my favorite of the day. Too rich for my blood, though. (Actually, everything was since we’d bought a rug, but even in we hadn’t spent our limit, we couldn’t afford most of what we saw unless we both had much better jobs. 😁)

I think all of our backs and feet were killing us by around 4:30, so we headed back to the VRBO. And besides, most of the galleries closed at 5, and it was getting dark.

Naps were taken. Dinner at iHop. Then to round out a busy day, we played a rousing match of the card game, Phase 10. I pulled it out in a squeaker with Kevin. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever won Phase 10. Off to bed, then a new set of museums galleries today, which I’ll talk about next time.