Back road to Santa Fe...

Jon and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary by meandering down to Santa Fe over the weekend. Since bad weather was predicted in the Taos mountains, we veered towards Albuquerque and then took the old highway to Santa Fe, known as the Turquoise Trail through the Sandia Mountains, that also happens to be the old Route 66.
We were going to let the weekend unfold for us, but did know we would need reservations to our favorite restaurant The Shed, so did call ahead and with 2 1/2 hours to go until a 5:30 reservation, all that was still available, we meandered towards Santa Fe, the sun already thinking of setting.

Just off the interstate, was this little lovely house, the illuminated fence...colored wine bottles, only in New Mexico!
We drove through the hippy town of Madrid, Harleys and Subarus occupying the parking spaces in front of the converted shacks, now selling wind chimes, jewelry and tye dye, our main goal to meandering around the less commercial and more "pure" village of Cerrillos...

As in all New Mexican villages, the center of the town is the Catholic Church, the largest and grandest building, the streets radiating out from it...

Cerrrillos had quite a lead mining boom and the main visitor attraction, though we did not stop, is their mining museum and petting zoo, complete with llamas and chickens...

The below picture is the Opera House, apparently Cerrillos was quite a cultural town back in the day, I believe up to the 1920's...

Like many things in this country, it deserves a second look, when you than see the Masonic symbols left by the stone layers....

Of course there were dogs.....

Though, I don't think it would be wise to hop out of the car and try and make friends with these guys...

The sunsetting we made our way into Santa Fe, with only minutes to navigate the spiralling streets downtown...

but walked into the Shed right on time...

where we started off our meal with homemade chips and salsa, local beer and a Sangria, yum! And then meandered a little bit more before we found our hotel, just off the square, Las Palomas...