We’ve talked about some of the places that would be near the top of our places to live before but Santa Fe is definitely on the list now. We loved it and we definitely want to go back.

Santa Fe started out in our heads as just “a city near Taos where we could get some maintenance done on our car.” So we found a mechanic, who we won’t name because of the Thumper rule (“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”), but we were a little nervous about finding a place to stay since all of the RV parks were really expensive (and we later found out, completely full for the Indian Market, see below). Fortunately the Genoveva Chavez Community Center was amazing and let us stay in their parking lot for a few days. We were right next to the bike trail and disc golf course so walking Cheat was really nice, and the Community Center was amazing. They had an Olympic-sized pool, an ice skating rink, an indoor track, and a full gym and weight room (and showers for us RVers!!!) that we could use for $7. Big fans.

As for other things around Santa Fe, the first day we were there we went to a Beers, Brunch, and Bluegrass event where we got to have more of the amazing green chili cooking of the Southwest. Then we drove up into the mountains 15 minutes outside of town for a decent hike.

Later we went to Meow Wolf which was the most interesting art exhibits we’ve ever gone to. For those Carnegie Mellon friends who read us, it was like the people who do Booth for Spring Carnival bought a warehouse and just kept building forever. It was interactive, you could touch everything, and the whole thing told a story of a family that traveled through different dimensions until they broke something and their house became a portal to those dimensions. The artists had even gone through the trouble to make fake magazines and newspapers and business cards to leave in areas of the house to make it seem real. We got to play with musical woolly mammoth bones, laser beam harp strings, and solve techno music puzzles by pressing buttons around a room. It was a blast. If you’re ever in Santa Fe it is our number one recommendation for thing to do.

That said, we also got extremely lucky (Luck of the Nik you might say) and happened to be in town for the largest gathering of Native American artists in the world, the Santa Fe Indian Market. Over 100,000 people come to Santa Fe for this art festival, which is why all of the RV parks were full. It was like other art festivals we have been to, but much much larger and all of the artists were native Americans from all over North America. Allison bought two sets of earrings and we got to see native dancers and some amazing artwork.

Overall, the people were extremely nice and understanding, the food and art was amazing, it had good beer, and I even got to go kayaking nearby! 🙂 Both of us left agreeing that Santa Fe was a really good fit for us and we really want to come back.