Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our Balloon ride was canceled this morning. (We are on again for the morning. Hopefully the weather will allow us to go.) We visited Santa Fe, about an hour and a half away from Albuquerque instead. First we had  a hardy Mexican breakfast at the Burrito company...Sooo good. Then, we visited the Loretto Chapel and The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. We toured with the Lorettoline tour bus and got to see the end of Route 66 and the Santa Fe trail which culminate together. The Santa Fe trail starts in Franklin/Independence, Missouri and ends in Santa Fe at the town square. The town square reminds me of New Orleans, except it is all adobe structures. The town is very New Mexico and very catholic in it's history. I just adore New Mexico. The Loretto Chapel and staircase was a really nice experience. You just know that Jesus came back for the nuns and built a staircase no earthly carpenter could design. Amazing!

(History from the web of the Loretto Chapel Staircase: When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft twenty-two feet above. Carpenters were called in to address the problem, but they all concluded access to the loft would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior space of the small Chapel.Legend says that to find a solution to the seating problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him, some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself, having come in answer to the sisters' prayers.The stairway's carpenter, whoever he was, built a magnificent structure. The design was innovative for the time and some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. Also, it is said that the staircase was built without nails only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number of stair risers relative to the height of the choir loft and about the types of wood and other materials used in the stairway's construction.)

A great Mexican breakfast stop when in Santa Fe

Good food and atmosphere!

Town of Santa Fe Square

The staircase.

Amazing staircase.

Tour bus at Lorretoline

Memorial to the Indian Code Talkers.

Memorial to the Indian Code Talkers

Pueblo dwellings.

End of the Santa Fe Trail

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi