The Four Horseman of the Apocolypse or My Trip to Santa Fe

My friend Jeanene and I headed out to Santa Fe on Thursday.  Our flight was great.  We got exit row seats so we had plenty of legroom, we had a bible-sized In Style magazine and the flights were short.  We had a great lunch outside of Albuquerque and then got into Santa Fe around 4.  Our hotel, La Posada, was very nice and we had an ample sized ”casita” for a great rate (through Travel Zoo – if you haven’t subscribed to their weekly email – you should).  The weather was sunny and mild.  We headed out to walk to the town square and look at the shops.  They were mostly starting to close but we got a good idea of what to look forward to in the coming days.  I was able to get a couple of pictures from the square before the sun went down.  Santa Fe Square 1 Santa Fe Square 2 Santa Fe Square 3  We walked back to the hotel and decided to have a drink in the bar.  The bar was very hot so we took of our coats and sat down.  The waitress told us they had other rooms, which were cooler, to sit in so we moved to a great area that had a sofa and comfy chairs.  We had tapas and a couple of drinks and then I realize as we were leaving that I left my jacket over the barstool in the other room.  I go grab it and we head back to our room for a good night’s sleep.  The next morning we awaken to heavy rain and colder weather.  We decide to schedule spa services for the afternoon since it was raining so hard and drive around for the first half of the day.  I grabbed my coat to leave and realized that my wallet was not in it.  Yes, it was stolen out of the bar.  All of my money, credit cards and my ID.  Lovely.  I call my husband to ask him to cancel my credit cards and he doesn’t answer because (some good news here) he is being fingerprinted for our I-600A.  He calls back while I am standing in a fabric store and I lay out my tale of woe.  He tells me he will cancel all of the credit cards (as I am looking at all the fabric I can’t buy) and that I need to file a police report so I can fly back home!  I had completely forgotten I didn’t have a driver’s license as ID for the airport.  My friend and I are adjusting to our new situation and starting to laugh about it.  We head to the nearest police department and as I am waiting for an officer J gets a phone call from her sister.  Her mother has had a heart attack.  I am standing in a police station on the morning of our second day of vacation and my poor friend is crying in the parking lot.  I get my report filed and find out that J’s mom was resting and was scheduled for an angiogram.  We try, yet again, to adjust to our new situation and decide to 1. buy wine 2. have lunch 3. continue with our spa treatments since we won’t hear about her mother’s test until that afternoon.  As we are buying our wine it starts hailing.  As we are eating lunch it starts hailing again and the lights go out in the restaurant.  We head to the spa and try to relax for our treatments.  They were wonderful though we were both distracted by the stressful news.  I head back to the room and J is already there and has found out that her mother had passed away during a second ambulance ride to another hospital.  It is just too tragic.  By this time it is too late to get out of town so we attempt to have a nice evening.  We drink our wine, toast her mother and remember their happy times.  Yesterday afternoon J flew on to California and I back to Austin two days early.  It wasn’t the trip either of us expected but we hope to get back to Santa Fe and try again.

On a brighter note, as I mentioned above we received our “fingerprint appointment” letter on Thursday.  My husband drove to San Antonio on Friday and was fingerprinted with no problems and I intend on going on Tuesday.  The outlet mall in San Marcos just happens to be on the way back.  Can you say “Pottery Barn” and “Baby Gap”?  I thought you could.