The Lee Family: A Fun Day in Santa Fe

Since our trip to Santa Fe was so short, we decided to pack in as much as possible. My Aunt and Uncle have talked about the interactive museum, Meow Wolf, which is on the outskirts of the city and quite an interesting place that has received rave reviews. We ate scrambled eggs and bacon made by Aunt Shirl and then loaded up and headed to the museum. We arrived shortly after it opened at 10am and were shocked by the long line trying to get in! The museum has been open for over a year, so we weren't expecting such a great turn out. We somehow found parking on the street and made our way to the line. We bought our tickets and were given 3D glasses and headed in. As soon as we entered through the doors, there was a fully built Victorian house! We soon learned that the house belonged to the Selig family who disappeared one night after conducting a forbidden experiment inside their house. It was incredible and also impossible to describe. The house had a mailbox next to it and it felt like it was night time. Inside the mailbox were a few letters and post cards that were "clues" into what happened to the son who lived in the house. It was a bit creepy, but also very cool. We entered the house and started exploring. It was pretty busy, but there was still a lot of room to walk around and see everything. It's considered an "interactive" so we ended up reading the notes on the fridge, looking over the office space, looking into the bathroom cabinet that extended into a distant room! We finally ended up crawling through the fireplace and entered into a new "universe"! The first area of the new universe was a neon dinosaur skeleton that was musical! It was absolutely amazing! After "playing" on the skeleton, we ended up flowing into the next room was was really crazy with various unknown animals that looked really crazy under the 3D glasses. We ended up exploring all sorts of crazy rooms and areas! It was so cool and it never felt like I could ever really figure out where we were in the museum.

Sofia stuck with Uncle Steve most of the time while Olivia pretty much stuck with the rest of us. However, we were able to stick together pretty well through the whole experience. At one point, we ended up going into an area that looked like we were outside a campsite with a little Winnebago! We went inside the Winnebago and there was a crazily dressed guy sitting at the table who explained to us that he was there in another universe waiting to see one of his spiritual leaders. It was crazy! The girls loved it and so did we. We went through a few amazing rooms and even another universe and ended up back at the house. I don't know who had more fun. Finally we figured out, with the help of some other people, that the family had disappeared into another universe through the guest bathroom. We headed to the bathroom and I wish I'd been able to take a photo of the girls both looking down into the toilet!

We ended up finishing mainly because we were all hungry. It was such a great experience and it would be awesome to go back and see it again. In fact, Sofia kept wanting to return after we ate lunch! She really loved it. We headed into downtown Santa Fe and ate at Santa Fe Bite, which is actually inside the lobby of a motel. It was really cool and the food was fantastic. It really hit the spot after such a fun day. The girls headed back to the casita with Aunt and Uncle while CK and I walked around downtown looking for "the perfect cowboy hat" for CK. We visited a few hat stores and they basically ranged in price from $200 to $800! It was crazy! We hit the great little book store for a while and I picked up a Kate Atkinson book, since she's one of my favorite authors. We decided to grab a cold drink and on the walk, I ended up seeing a really great hat that I felt like I needed to own! It wasn't anywhere near $200, thankfully. We ended up going to one more store and CK found a great, inexpensive cowboy hat. It looked great on him and also wasn't anywhere near $200 either!

We returned to the casita and met up with Aunt, Uncle and the girls. The girls were out on a great exploration in the arroyo. We were soon on the way to Mike and Chris' house up in the foot hills with the fabulous view. They were planning on making us grilled lamb chops, a salad and potato salad. It was all delicious, especially the lamb chops. They are always such gracious hosts and we had a great time catching up and talking while the girls explored the area. They probably ended up in various neighbors' yards while they explored. They had a great time and ended up enjoying their lamb chops, which I don't think they had ever had before. We ended up leaving after a great night and heading home around 9pm! I don't know how the girls stayed up so late and had such energy still. Needless to say, they slept great! Such a full and very fun day!

Olivia tried to give Papa pigtails