Rio Grande Gorge

---

The original title for today’s blog was going to be Taos, since that was the primary city, we were going to for the day, however, as will be explained letter, I just had to change the title to the most significant sight of the day.

We again slept in, as we decided at 5 am when the alarm went off, to skip the museum we had planned for the afternoon, sleep in and head out later for Taos. It allowed us to sleep a couple more hours, although Tarragon does not when his breakfast is delayed.

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and were on the road by 10:15. The first stop of the day was the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. This is a bridge that is roughly 800 ft above the Rio Grande Canyon floor, where the Rio Grande is flowing. For you Oregonians, this is about 2 ½ times higher than the bridge at the Crooked River Gorge. The gorge is quite spectacular, is it the Columbia River Gorge, of course not, nothing really is, but it has its own unique beauty.

There is a nice rest area on west side of the gorge you can park and walk around. They didn’t use to have a fence so you could have just jumped off if you wanted. There is now a fence that does act as a barrier between the edge of the gorge. You can then walk across the bridge where there is a view area. We started to walk out to the center of the bridge, but I could only make it about a quarter of the way, my healthy fear of heights (which I clearly got from my mom) kicked in and I just couldn’t walk any further. I got dizzy and cold sweats, I turned back and Jerry went out to take pictures. Driving across the bridge was difficult enough I had to look straight ahead so I would not have any chance of seeing the bottom.

The drive to the Gorge, through Taos and back to Santa Fe was breath taking. Including an amazing sunset shot, which I hope the picture gives you some sense of the natural beauty.

Our next stop was Taos for pottery shopping and lunch. The experience was so very disappointing, I just can’t blog about it. I will say this, lunch was the worst ever. I was looking forward to my first green chile cheeseburger. What I got was more like a green chile hockey puck. The fries were the end trails and burnt. The place was also filthy no masks, and gnats everywhere. TIP never ever eat at the Alley Cantina in Taos. As we left there was a long line of customers waiting, I told them it was not worth the wait or the money, at least half left.

We then stop at another church for a quick picture and drove back to Santa Fe. Again, amazing natural beauty.

Back in the room Tarragon was waiting for dinner and his nightly walk, which he has now had both. So, hoping dinner tonight keeps our string of decent dinners going.

Well dinner did not get off to a good start. We had reservations at La Boca a Spanish tapas place. We love tapas and were looking forward to the evening. When we got there, they were packed and completely not distances as far as the tables. They were in fact sitting on top of each other as if it was pre-covid, maybe six inches between the table. I am just not ready to be that close to anyone. So, we cancelled that and searched for somewhere else. That was an ordeal which I am simply just not going to go into. Long story short we ended up back at Joseph’s Culinary Pub.

There is always a danger of repeating someplace you liked, because what if the next night is an off night, it could sour your previous experience. The only other time I recall us repeating a restaurant on the same trip was London 2016 over Christmas. The good news, is that it was just as pleasant as last night. Service was a bit off, but by the end we ended up with the same server as last night, she finished our dinner service. The best part of the evening was a lovely conversation we had with the couple at the table next to us. They were truly delightful, and interesting. She came to this country from Iran just before the revolution and her husband a bit after. They had a highly intelligent and well-mannered sun. Our conversation ranged from politics (all on the same team) to food. She took my number and is going to text me so I can send her our address, she is then going to send us some Persian Saffron, which is suppose to be better than Spanish.

The meal was equally as good as last night. Last night was a bit more outstanding, mainly because of the temperature of the food. Jerry’s dishes could have been a bit hotter. Jerry started with Crispy Organic Pork Tamale Rojo. It really looked more like a chile relleno to me, but it did taste very good. I had a Lamb Lollipop & Mole Rojo. Possibly the best mole I have ever had, sometimes it is very bitter, this was just perfect.

Entrees were equally as good. Jerry had the Vegetable Enchilada: Squash, Corn sauté, local mushrooms, red chile, Cotija cheese crumble, East Indian spinach Puree & green rice. Other than the temperature it was a nicely compose dish.

I had the Organic Crispy Skin Chicken Breast & Fava Bean Puree, served with fingerling potatoes, red peppers, green olives and a caper garlic lemon sauce. I rarely order chicken in a restaurant because it is always dry and over cooked. This was tender and moist with every bite.

We ended with a butterscotch pudding with caramel sauce. You forget just how good butterscotch is until you have it.

It was a good ending to another wise mixed day. The dish of the day isn’t really just jumping out at me. Yes, dinner was really good, but nothing just wowed us like the night before. Certainly, nothing we ate for lunch even comes close to consideration. I am opting not to have a dish of the day. Everything at dinner was good, but just didn’t have the wow factor for dish of the day.

Tomorrow is our last day in Santa Fe, then off to Denver. We will be spending the day in town mainly looking for a piece of pottery for the entry way.

---