Santa Fe

I played hooky from my Albuquerque conference a few weekends ago so I could visit Santa Fe. When I was a graduate student and I was exhausted and stressed out, I would read about Santa Fe on the internet and imagine what it would be like to go there. Here are some highlights of my now-realized dreams.

I went for lunch at a vegetarian-friendly place that had mole on the menu (if you've not experienced it, mole is a particularly delicious, and often hard-to-find Mexican sauce). I sat at the "community" table - a big table in the middle of the room where you get to meet fellow diners. I chatted with a nice couple who quizzed me on my favorite movies. We spent a lot of time discussing No Country For Old Men, which was appropriate given the surrounding landscape, and the fact that Cormac McCarthy lives just up the road. I splurged on a nine-dollar espresso milkshake, pictured below. It kept me going for the rest of the day, such that I skipped dinner.

Santa Fe is a very liberal place, especially compared with dear old Lubbock. After my milkshake I wandered about, and found the local hemp store, which carried an array of left-leaning bumper stickers and ethically-produced t-shirts. The poster selection says it all: