Phoebe's Fun Finds

One of Phoebe's and my favorite stores in Florence, Italy!

My friend Phoebe seldom sits still. She divides her time between her two houses—one in Mexico and the other in Maryland—but doesn't like to spend too much time in either one if she can be traveling instead.

NM Vignettes--Beyond the Middle of Nowhere

If you want to truly get away from it all, I think you can't do better than Silver City, New Mexico, a surprisingly metropolitan gem of a town where fewer than 10,000 people make their home.The walk-friendly historic downtown has only one flashing red light to monitor traffic, no stoplights, and lots of friendly shop owners ready to welcome you to their antique shops, thrift stores, two used bookstores, artists' galleries, and bars and restaurants.

NM Vignettes -- Visiting the Pottery Pueblos

You can go to a boutique in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and buy a three-inch Santa Clara black pot for $200, or you can go to the Santa Clara Pueblo and get it for $100. Or, you can do what David, my fiance, and I did, and buy nothing at all! We still enjoyed the hunt though, especially since the Pueblo was only a ten-minute drive from our Airbnb. Here's how to do it.

NM Vignettes -- Taos Pueblo

The Taos Pueblo is the longest, continuously occupied Pueblo in the Western Hemisphere, and David and I met several of the people who still live there today.

NM Vignettes -- Meow Wolf Interactive Art Museum

We fell down the rabbit hole today but didn't mind in the least. David and I strolled through a refrigerator and crawled through a fireplace to get to the land of the dragons. If you're in Santa Fe, you'lll want to do the same thing at this interactive art museum called Meow Wolf.

David begins the descent into the rabbit hole!

NM Vignettes -- Santuario de Chimayo

Holy cow, holy mackerel, holy crap, yes, but we never heard of holy dirt until today.

It seems that back in the 1800s, a priest found a crucifix on this site that he moved to a church. The next day the cross magically appeared back at its original site.

 This happened three times until everyone finally gave up and decided the cross was where it was supposed to be. It was declared a miracle and the site was considered sacred ground. Believers come from around the world to pay their respects.

NM Vignettes - Mesa Verde, Colorado

One hundred steps, most of them cleft from the rock face, and four ten-foot ladders, made me wish my ancestors had been mountain goats instead of Swedes.

NM Vignettes --Joys of a Road Trip

Evidently one cannot be married, have a significant other, or be entangled in any way to get into the Sunflower Theatre in Cortez, Colorado.

NM Vignettes -- Chaco Canyon

Our GPS misled us so instead of a nine-mile rutted gravel road, we got to enjoy 21 miles of washboard that bounced our car like a bronco. We never had to worry about what was ahead or around a blind curve, because it was always more of that endless road.

NM Vignettes -- Los Alamos, a Drinking Town?

Bathtub Row Brewers might have you believe that Los Alamos is better known for craft brews than for the nuclear bomb that ended WWII, but don't fall for it. This is a town full of savvy people whose ancestors were brought here in the 1940s to work on "The Gadget."

NM Vignettes -- A Light Sanctuary

Light, like air, is one of those intangibles that we depend on even though we never see it directly. We notice its absence, but never get to feel its presence. At least that was true until Virginia Dwan found a way to give light substance in  this light sanctuary in a tiny town outside Las Vegas, New Mexico,

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