rail runner

On Saturday, Cyndi, the boys and I took the Rail Runner to Santa Fe. The train depot is about a five-ten minute drive from our house. There was a large crowd waiting to get on, lots of free parking but it was filling up. The cost on Saturday was $12 roundtrip for all of us. Nice coaches, with an upper deck and even a little table to sit around.

It took a little over an hour to get to Santa Fe, with three intermediary stops. A beautiful scenic ride and very smooth. There's a free shuttle when you get to the Santa Fe depot near the Sanbusco/Guadalupe district that will take you to the Plaza and Canyon Road. After heading toward the plaza and then out to Paseo and around to Canyon Road, we got dropped off near the cathedral and walked across the plaza to Lincoln and Marcy, the center of our usual Santa Fe trips.

(I think we could have gotten a better drop off on the smaller, more comfortable, white "Pick Up" buses, because going back they were waiting for us at Lincoln and Palace, near the museum on the northwest corner of the Plaza. We took the white shuttle to depart; arriving we took a larger city bus which was waiting for the arriving train. You could almost walk to the Plaza faster. All theses shuttles were free and circle along their route often for the better part of the day. The routes don't seem to match the published routes.)

Scaffolds and tarps were hiding the cathedral, and the Plaza grass has been removed and replaced with sand, making it look to me like a big ash tray. No other plaza in New Mexico compares to Santa Fe, with its shops and the streets radiating outward, the nearby hotels, restaurants and galleries, the Indian jewelry under the portico along the Governor's Palace, and its bustling crowds, but the plaza itself has never struck me as beautiful. The plazas in Albuquerque and Taos are far nicer.

Anyway, Jackson wasn't feeling well. We had gone to baseball practice earlier while Cyndi ran a 5K around the Academy. I think he was dehydrated and hungry, but the air didn't seem to circulate that well on the trip, so maybe the ride got to him, too. We had a nice lunch at a tapas cafe on Marcy between our two must-stops: Toyopolis and J. Crew. The tapas place is called La Boca. It had a wonderful menu: tapas and sandwiches under $10, and amazing looking desserts. We had an Argentinian white wine, Torrontes I think. It was an excellent wine for the first full day of Spring. I don't know white wines well, but I think it's a good choice for something other than a Chardonnay, cleaner and more aromatic, and it was reasonably priced. It reminded me of some Viogniers I have had and the Summer Sage (which was a blend with Riesling) we bought on our Jemez trip. We asked for a simple butter pasta for the boys, which they presented tapas style. Ry and Jack ravished it, something I can't always count on, along with the rolls and a lemonade soda I asked for to revive Jackson. The place filled up while we were there for our late lunch, so I imagine during the higher seasons of Santa Fe it would have been bursting out the doors.

The boys got a card game and a box of magic tricks from the toy store. At J. Crew, Cyndi got a skirt on sale from the sales price she had seen on our last trip. I forget when that was, but it had to be a long time. We walked over to the Plaza Bakery, another must-stop, for kid scoops of Haagen Daz ice cream, and then caught the shuttle to Sanbusco, looked at shoes for a minute, and then waited at the depot for the 4:30 train.

Another big crowd. Talked with some nice people. Jackson grabbed some seats up top, and we played a hand of I Spy Snap, the card game we bought. Both boys fell asleep on the ride home.

We are thinking about going to the Grand Canyon for a few days at the end of Jack's spring break.