A Sunny Sunday in Santa Fe

We had a long list of places we wanted to be sure to see, so we planned our day by what opened first on a Sunday morning.  That was the San Miguel Mission.  The first structure was built in 1610, making it the oldest church structure in the US.

 Next door is the oldest house in Santa Fe.

 From the church, we walked over to the state capitol.  It wasn't open, of course, but we walked around it and enjoyed the park like setting and the sculpture.

 At 10:00 the historic Governors Palace opened, but first we had to check out the vendors.  They were all from the Jemez Pueblo, showing pottery and jewelry.  Yep, I bought something.  I'll have to do a post on my purchases when I get back home.

 The Central Plaza on a sunny Sunday, aglow with autumn color.

 We learned about Santa Fe history in the museum in the old governor's Palace, and then switched gears at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.  We watched a good video about her and then got to see many of her famous paintings.  No purchases here. :-)


After a lunch at Subway we were able to get inside the cathedral.

 And then on the way to the Loretto Chapel, we encountered more vendors.  Yep, another purchase.

The Loretto Chapel has a famous self supporting spiral staircase, built by a mysterious carpenter. Oops, I guess I didn't get that photo in.

 We had time to visit lots of shops, drive into some other areas, then returned to the historic district to have dinner at The Pink Adobe.