We spent the day touring and shopping for the children back home. It’s funny how we are so used to doing everything for our children, that now without them it’s a little like being lost. When we see pinecones on the ground, or the cottonwood fluff we reminisce about how much they would enjoy collecting them for games. My head turns when we pass a park and i subconsciously check it out for how much fun the children would have there. I miss Rose not being there to oooh over the flowers with me. 

Life’s not quite as fun without children, is it? I feel suddenly narrowed into the adult world, and it’s awkward. What am i supposed to do with myself? 

Santa Fe is a beautiful town. Despite being a capitol city, it has a very small-town feel.  This was a complicated statue outside of one of the churches. It amused me to see the goat was one of the animals at the bottom that was refusing to hold anything up. 

There’s so much history here.

And you see curious things all over, like this metal dragon statue on the roof. The adobe style of buildings gives it a very earthy feeling all over town. 

A little creek meanders through, and is very cool and pleasant to sit beside. All over the place you find little corners and courtyards of peace and beauty. 

And the roses….i have a weakness for drifts of roses. 

We even found apricot roses – the most beautiful of all i think. 

Art is everywhere. This city has a very creative soul i think. 

We had gelato. Because we are weird and had mixed feelings about eating something disgustingly sweet but were tempted because it’s a vacation, we got the teeny tiny kid-sized cups.

I never shop – I’m not at all a shopper, but Susan’s Christmas Store was bad for me. 

It was all the gorgeous German toys. Its my second weakness after roses. 

We went on to see three beautiful churches. They were closed, unfortunately, but we admired the outside. This was the Saint Francis church. 

This one was made in a French style. I noticed that about the lovely stonework before i read the history blurb. 

And this elegant, simple building is the oldest church in North America, right next to the oldest building. 

The oldest building had a tiny museum inside with artifacts. It used to be much larger and housed 12 families. 

After that, because we are old and tired, we retreated to the air BnB. It’s pleasant here, but I’m not really a city person.