Anna's Hummingbird, Santa Fe
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After a rocky start to our vacation in Santa Fe, I was determined that Day #3 would be a success!
☞HIGHLIGHTS
✯The Loretto Chapel, which was right next door to our hotel. It's lovely!✯
The Loretto Chapel
The "Miraculous" Staircase at Loretto
There is a sweet story about this unique spiral staircase. Supposedly when the chapel was built in 1878, they decided that a ladder would be the only way to get to the upper story. The sisters of the chapel prayed for a solution to this problem, and a stranger showed up on a donkey and said he could help. He built this gorgeous staircase and disappeared, taking no payment for his work. The sisters believed that it was St. Joseph himself who answered their prayers. Here is a link with more information about this cool story.
Natty lit candles for all of our pet "angels"...she is such a sweetheart!
✯Amazing plants, including this blooming Santolina in front of our hotel✯
✯The Davey Audubon Center. Only one trail was still open due to the fire hazard, but we had a really nice hike with the kids✯
Blooming cactus at Davey Audubon Center
Gorgeous vista at the Audubon Center
✯Hummingbirds!✯
They were whizzing around the trail. It was the coolest thing ever! We even had a mama bird dive-bomb us to protect her hidden nest. I am a big hummingbird-lover, so I was totally enchanted with this.
✯Shopping with Natty!✯
My daughter LOVES to shop. Let me say that again. LOVES LOVES LOVES! She is hilarious. We snuck off and left the boys in the room, and had a super fun mother-daughter shopping extravaganza, including cute hats, clothes and jewelry. Yay!
✯Sunsets!✯
Incredible Sunset!
☞LOWLIGHTS
And now for the lowlight. UGH! It never occurred to me that we would have any trouble with the elevation in Santa Fe. Of course, we are from Boston (sea level) and Santa Fe is 7000 feet above sea level. Cristian got a headache the first day, and Carl got a bit queasy. I had a cough that I'd been dealing with for months, so I didn't notice right away that anything was wrong. My cough started to get worse, and soon I was having trouble breathing. However, I decided that once I acclimated to the new elevation, I would be okay.
Oops. Maybe not.
Coming up...Day #4: DESCEND! DESCEND! DESCEND!
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