Southwestern Road Trip Stop 2: Sante Fe

Sante Fe was just a short trip from Taos. I was surprised at the size of the city, I was imagining something a bit bigger. Sante Fe is around 70,000 people. We started out at Cowgirl BBQ which boasted the best brisket around. It was indeed quite good. We enjoyed the beer and atmosphere as well. After satisfying our hunger we went to check out the downtown plaza area. Near the plaza is where we saw the rest of the main sites for our one night stay in Sante Fe, NM. 

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was a beautifully gothic styled church dressed in purple and pink for Advent. As we entered, the childrens choir was practicing for 5:00 mass. There was a small gift shop as well. We did not stay for mass.

The Loretto Chapel, also located near the central plaza, is the home of the miraculous staircase. This chapel used to be Catholic, however was more recently turned into a wedding chapel. There is a staircase built to the choir loft with no supports. It has two 360 degree turns and absolutely no supports. It is said that St. Joseph himself built these stairs in the 1870's. Many visitors come to see these miraculous stairs, including a pilgrimage that we saw. The church is donned with beautiful stain glass windows depicting important individuals from both the Old and New Testaments. It was also seen on Unsolved Mysteries...

We also tried to visit the Chapel of San Miguel, the oldest church in the United States, however it was closed on Sundays except 30 min before mass. We did not have time to wait around. 

We had time to check out a few bars, however the majority of downtown Sante Fe was art museums. There are over 250 art galleries and museums in Sante Fe, and we did not have time to check them out.