Santa Fe and on to the Crane Festival

After we left the Petrified Forest, we did a drive into the late night hours on into New Mexico and up to Santa Fe. I actually tend to prefer driving the RV at night as it's mostly just us and the truckers, but you do miss out on the scenery (and Laura doesn't like it so much, so she sits there and grumbles and attempts to turn the dogs against me). Funny, but I don't get any complaints when we get up the next morning where we were headed, ahead of schedule.

We decided that Santa Fe was interesting enough in and of itself, so we spent a few days there before heading down the Socorro and the long awaited Festival of the Cranes, saving Albuquerque for the spring leg of our wanderings. We actually didn't even get to see all that we wanted to in Santa Fe, so there may be an encore there as well. While there we did spend a bit of time in the downtown area, which is pretty cool even if it is basically a Southwest shopping extravaganza. The downtown parking situation is one which, in fitting with the casinos scattered around the state on New Mexico (and most of the West and Southwest, for that matter) seems more a game of chance in which the jackpot is you finding a parking space at which you are privileged to have the opportunity to feed exorbitant quantities of change into a "no-armed bandit." If there were any justice, you'd at least have the one-in-a-million chance to hit the jackpot and receive your parking for the day for free...

While in the Santa Fe area, we made it to a couple wineries and a few breweries, so I'll give you the short version of my take on them, but I'll leave the more knowledgeable review of the wineries to Laura. As far as the wineries go, my first impression of New Mexico's offerings was not a good one. We started out at the Santa Fe Winery, where we evidently caused the pourer (the person who provides the wine samples and is supposed to be knowledgeable of them) there great inconvenience by asking to sample some of their wines in the hopes of perhaps buying a bottle or two. He didn't seem interested in sharing any information about the wines, nor was he impressed with my taste in them, which he made all too clear. Interesting sales strategy, and not one which left a positive first impression...

Our next stop was at a winery that didn't appear to actually exist, unless you consider a ramshackle shack on a dusty, chained-off lot which bore a strong resemblance to a salvage yard to be a likely purveyor of fine wine. OK, so not much of a second impression...

I was about to write off New Mexico wines, but fortunately, we next visited the Black Mesa Winery. Aside from the dubious distinction of having a stable of winery cats instead of the far superior winery creatures of the canine variety, this was a much better experience, with respectable wines that both Laura and I found enjoyable. Their claim to fame is a red table wine, Black Beauty, with chocolate flavoring added which even I found ridiculously sweet, though we still bought a bottle for family members whom I know will enjoy it.

OK, on to the microbreweries...

We found the Second Street Brewery in what appeared to be one of Santa Fe's more colorful neighborhoods. The atmosphere, the food, and the beer were all adequate, but not spectacular. Not a place that I'd go far out of my way for, but if I lived close by, I'd probably find my way to it often enough to fill the occasional growler.

We didn't eat at the Santa Fe Brewing Company's modest cafeteria style eatery, but we definitely sampled some good beer there. We left with a growler of the Oktoberfest (it was Laura's turn to choose, although I couldn't complain about her choice- it was a very easy drinking ale), but I had to also pick up a bomber (22 oz. bottle) of their Chickenkiller Barley Wine: definitely one of the smoothest barley wines I've had. I'd have to say that given their selections, I'd definitely be keeping a growler of their beer in the fridge on a regular basis were I a local.

Last, but definitely not least was the Blue Corn Cafe and Brewery. While I can't vouch for their downtown location, if it's anything like their south side location, I'm sure that the food and brew is excellent. On the food front, Laura had their recommended carne adovada, while I had one of the specials, spicy shrimp tacos. I can offer thumbs up to both, because I used the leftovers from Laura's substantial meal in a quesadilla the next day (did I mention that we finally broke down and picked up a quesadilla maker? More on that later). As far as the brew side of things, I particularly enjoyed their Road Runner Pale Ale and their Sleeping Dog Stout, but I think most will find a beer to their taste there. I guess if I lived in Santa Fe, I'd be alternating growlers of Blue Corn and Santa Fe Brewing.

Back to the quesadilla maker. Since we got it, I've been driving Laura nuts with my willingness to put just about anything between two tortillas, so I'd love to hear some creative suggestions that would really send her over the edge.

From Santa Fe we headed a couple hours south to Socorro and the Bosque del Apache NWR's Festival of the Cranes. In the next couple blogs, I'll keep the commentary to a minimum and focus instead on some bird pictures, so if you're into that, check back in the next couple days.