Bev and I arrived in Santa Fe on Sunday evening, August 3. After an early dinner/late lunch at La Boca Restaurant — which we highly recommend for its tapas and great wines — we walked the plaza. Here is the statue of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Santa Fe, outside the Cathedral bearing his name at the end of San Francisco Street.

And here is the cathedral itself.

On Monday, we enjoyed visiting the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, where the largest collection of her art is located. One example:

Afterwards, we drove to Canyon Road to see some of the many art galleries. This sculpture outside one of the galleries is called, “Pooped.”

Following a light lunch and facing the threat of heavy rain, we drove to the Capitol Building, where we saw many art works in the Governor’s office and hallways, the rotunda, and the gallery for one of the legislative houses. Here’s the rotunda:

In the early evening, we boarded a shuttle for the opera and enjoyed a delectable buffet dinner and marvelous preview talk. The speaker was a former opera singer and the wife of the conductor for the evening’s performance of Don Pasquale. Here are two shots of the beautiful venue, taken before we settled down for a marvelous performance of Don Pasquale. Heavy thunderstorms seemed to miss us, thankfully.

Tuesday morning, we enjoyed Huevos Rancheros, NM style, at Tia Sophia’s on San Francisco St. The weather was great, so we drove to Taos Pueblo, about a two hours’ drive north. The last hour provided gorgeous views of the surrounding hills, while dark clouds hovered over distant mountains. After a short talk by Yellow Feather about the pueblo history and current life, we saw ruins of the original Catholic church, several shops, ate some fried bread, and took pictures.

On Wednesday — time’s up. We packed for the drive back to Albuquerque and the flight home. The photo sequence ends with a selfie on the plane.