Day 7 - "Watch Out for the First Step it's a Doozy"

This is our last day in Santa Fe and our first day to really explore around the square. Rob starts packing the dirty clothes, we have to be out of here tomorrow by 10:00 am and our flight out of Albuquerque is not until 4:40. This does mean one more stop at El Modelo. We are getting something lighter to eat, not something that takes us 2 days to finish. After breakfast we got in the car and drove off to where I saw the pine nuts truck on Wednesday. Yeah, yeah, I am having my "Ahab moment" here. Nope, no pine nut truck. OK, water bottles filled - check, sunscreen, check - dorky tourist sun hats on, check. Time to take off for the square. Those selling on the sidewalk in front of the square are limited to members of the 23 federally recognized tribes in New Mexico. We are very lucky, this just reopened 2 weeks ago.

Normally those selling are right noext to each other, now there is 6' between them and they extend around the corner. We were told that there is a lottery every day to determine who gets what spot. They start to sell at 10:00 and we arrived before 9:00. Some were still setting up, we looked a little but decided to return later. There are still many of the typical schlock tourist stuff in stores, but some of the very nice stores have been replaced by either expensive clothing stores, micro breweries or pot/CBD dispenseries. We keep wandering. There is a park near the San Miguel mission with several Indians set up selling verious things. We found another doll for Danielle. I had started to collect dolls from different countries for her when we travel. He told me that this was from the Pueblo people

and this one for Henry is made by a Hopi woman.

Sorry Henry, no Princess Peach and do not let Bingo get this. We did buy something for Victoria but just in case of the slim chance that she is actually reading my ramblings I will not post the photo. Rob thought that this would be a good one for me. I even have earrings at home that match.

We kept walking around. The last time that we were here I bought a dried chili wreath. It must not be the season for it or they do not have them anymore. Getting it home was not easy and when we moved I left it in the previous house. I bought a fresh pepper wreath in Seattle two years ago thinking that it would dry and look like the other one. Eh, it more shriveled than dried. I had been seeing ceramic chili peppers around town. For some reason this time I did not see any dried pepper wreathes or strings for sale. I had seen them when we were before, but not this time. I showed Rob one of the ceramic chili pepper strings, no. We kept looking around at different stores and I found a smaller version. Oh, those were OK. It was not eawy to look at them, they are hung up and in front of them on the ground are huge ceramic pots. We found one with a good combination of colors and I promised him that I would throw out the shriveled wreath when I got home. I wanted to show him a cute ceramic cat that was colorful and stretching. He bent down to look at it and when he stood up I could see that he was about to hit his head on something hanging. You know how you see something happening and you try to stop it? Yeah, I am telling him to watch out and put my hand on his head but before either one could happen, bonk, he hit his head pretty hard. He has declared the entire place a booby trap. We go to check out. The guy at the register is dealing with two customers who cannot decide what they want, but they want his attention. He tells us and another customer that we can go inside to check out. OK, that is fine. We get to the door, "masks required." OK, stop put on mask which involves taking the hat off. I adjust to the darkness inside and head to the front of the store. There is a step down that I do not see. Oops, I stay on my feet but that is quite a jarring experience. I am OK, but I kind of jammed my new knee and my back, I am also little startled. I warn Rob about the step. we pay and she wraps my peppers very well for their trip home. We go to leave and I do not see the two steps down to the sidewalk. Doh! This for some reason triggers an ocular migraine which means that I have flashing lights in my field of vision. This causes me to say what Rob has been waiting all morning to hear; "I am done, lets go back." I did stop at the store with the necklace that I really loved, but the store and the people in it had that "if you have to ask the price you cannot afford it" look to them. I wish that I could remember which store it was. I really just want to know how much it cost so that I would know that there is no flippin' way that I could afford if. From other jewelery that I saw I am sure that this is in the 5K range. After lunch we decide to go see the artwork in the capitol building. Our walking tour guide had recommended going to see the artwork there. All of it is from artists from New Mexico. The amazing part was that parking was free and we were able to just walk in. When we got there I heard some yelling on the front steps. Oh no, not a demonstration. It was three women in "Lizzard People" tee shirts announting these two statues with oil and saying prayers:

I asked the guard about them. He said that they would not mind if they annointed the statues with Holy water but the oil is an issue. It still smelled like oil when we left. There were several Navajo rugs. I explained to Rob how they are woven, it is all little bundles of yarn for each color change. It takes the average of an hour to weave an inch and 6 hours per inch for the last 5 to 6 inches. Nope, not going to do this. Here are a few pieces that caught my attention.

This was my favorite. It is a flat woven rug of a chair with a rug thrown over it. Wow!

I also liked the handles of the doors into the capitol, I found the torquoise inlay interesting:

Well, now we are getting ready to head home tomorrow. We are trying to finish all of the soda. I think that I have had 4 Vanilla Coke Zeros today. I may fall asleep sometime around Tuesday.