My Introduction to Santa Fe, NM!

In the days leading up to my work trip to Santa Fe, NM, I had been excitedly counting down the days to when I would land in the city of "Holy Faith" and for St. Francis of Assisi has been named the patron saint!  As you might already know, St. Francis is one of my patron saints and I could hardly wait to see this city for myself since it was my first time visiting.

This was the gorgeous view on one of the planes I took to get to Santa Fe, NM a few months ago.  I loved how the water blended into the sky in this image.  How beautiful!

The white clouds reminded me of marshmallow fluff in this image.

 

Margo, my colleague, and I had to laugh when we saw this sign on the wing of our plane.

 

As we were landing, Margo stumbled upon this list in one of the airline magazines tucked inside the seat.  How convenient!  I know I need to work on # 3....and am currently experiencing # 5.

I forget the name of this awesome statue that was in the ABQ airport but I really enjoyed it!

This was our home for four days and five nights!

 

I got excited when I saw this art in our room since I couldn't wait to see the local sights in Santa Fe!

This was one of the first images I encountered in Santa Fe the next day when taking a break during the conference.  The Loretto Chapel was located right next to the resort where our conference was held.  It wouldn't be until Friday afternoon, during the lunch break, that I would be able to peek inside this chapel and see the Miraculous Staircase.  Anyhow, going back to this image, I had never seen rosaries on a tree before so was rather intrigued by it.  On Friday afternoon, upon visiting the Loretto Chapel, when I asked the information desk about the reasoning behind this action, he simply stated that pilgrims to the Chapel started placing the rosaries there a few years back and others followed suit.

On our way to lunch on Thursday, my colleague, Sharon, from Colorado, and I caught a glimpse of this BEAUTIFUL Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis down the street from the cute French pastry place where we ate crepes for lunch.  I didn't know it at the time, but I would later attend mass in this gorgeous church on Saturday night!

 

How pretty the architecture is in this city!  This was the outside of the resort that hosted our conference.

This was the first of three attempts to gain access to the oldest church in the USA!  It was built in 1610, when Santa Fe was founded.  In fact, archaeological investigations discovered evidence that Native Americans occupied this very site as early as 1300 AD.  Unfortunately, I never did see the inside of the church as hours are operated on a volunteer basis and every time I stole away from the conference to walk the 3 blocks to this church, the doors were locked.  : /

 

Across the street was the Oldest House but that too, was locked.  Bummer!

I so wish I could have seen the beautiful altar backdrop on the inside of the church that is a shrine to St. Michael and offers mass weekly.  The altar screen, inside the church, dates as far back as 1798 and is the oldest wooden altar screen, or reredos, in NM...oh well, guess I will just have to go back to Santa Fe in the future!! 

 

This was the view as you exit the San Miguel Church.  I found it rather interesting and wish I could have learned more about the formation of this courtyard!

A view of the Inn and Spa at Loretto, where my conference was held from across the street.

Night time view above the main entrance to the Inn and Spa at Loretto