The Lee Family: Santa Fe!

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Santa Fe!

We flew to Santa Fe on Tuesday afternoon and arrived at the casita around 4pm. After saying 'hello' to Aunt and Uncle, we unpacked into their friends' casita directly behind theirs that we've stayed in before and got settled. After, we returned to their casita and caught up. Aunt Shirl had also made a fantastic chili that we all enjoyed. The girls were so excited to be in Santa Fe with their Aunt and Uncle and loved that there was a small dusting of snow on the ground (in the shade)!

The next day, we ventured over to Cafe Pasqual's for breakfast - a must for any visit to Santa Fe. We sat at the community table and Sofia spent her mealtime entertaining and talking to the ladies sitting next to her at the table. She also devoured her pancakes! Olivia has never been a huge breakfast fan, so she picked at her food but the rest of us left overly full. After breakfast, we walked up to the Plaza where the girls played. They ran after pigeons for a while before Olivia found a group of kids around her age to walk around the monument at the center of the Plaza and Sofia tried to sit very still to lure a pigeon near her (it didn't work). Although cool out, it was sunny and clear and felt great in the sun. The little dusting of snow that remained in the shady areas was soon gone.

After playing for a bit, we returned to the casita and the girls played with their horses and dinosaurs while we just hung out. After lunch, we decided to walk over to the Harrell House Bug Museum which Aunt and Uncle had heard great things about. None of us had great expectations, but were soon greatly surprised. The museum was fantastic! There were scorpions, giant tarantulas, a whip spider, hissing cockroaches, and all sorts of bugs in their own enclosures. The museum also had a tortoise and a kimono dragon. The girls walked around looking at all the bugs and they each borrowed a flashlight and magnifying glass to look closer at everything. There was also an amazing collection of pinned dead insects that one man has collected since he was 12 years old. He was there and was so enthusiastic and passionate about his hobby, it was infectious! He told us how he got started and explained all he knew about the bugs and butterflies. He explained that he connected with someone equally entranced by insects and bugs, but live ones and they decided to open this museum. The other man explained several of the bugs on display and let Sofia and another boy take turns holding them while he explained about the particular bug! Sofia even held a hissing cockroach. It was really fascinating! We ended up spending nearly 2 hours at the museum when we expected it to be a quick visit! After our museum visit, we drove over to Maria's for a traditional plate of southwestern-mexican food - another must visit for any trip to Santa Fe! It was a fun and full day!

Snow!!