The Santa Fe Railyard is a fairly desolate place, I think it's simply a turn-around point for the Rail Runner. There's a pretty neat brewery nearby, though, as well as an REI and a Borders bookstore.
Today was a good day.
I still started off lazily, doing wake-up calls with Caitlin and chatting with her while she started her day, then reading for an hour or so. I've been consistently getting up at 7:30am Mountain Time, which will keep me on schedule (or close to it) when I go back to Eastern Time.
Around 11:30am, Aaron (the subtitles guy) and I headed to the Santa Fe Climbing Center to get our climb on. I haven't climbed in MONTHS (the last time was at Towson with Tony and Brandon, I think) but I brought my gear with me, because i'd either 1) find a climbing gym, or 2) find myself needing some kind of harness for heights. Aaron had climbed before, but always with the rope tied to a carabiner, then clipped to the harness; he was unfamiliar with the actual knots associated with climbing. We got to the climbing gym, signed in, signed our waivers ("If you fall and die, you can't sue us. You should know what you're doing" kind of thing) and got the tour.
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This place is small. Their bouldering area is about the size of Towson's bouldering gym, and about half the size of EarthTrek Timonium's bouldering cave. Their top-rope section was also small, about 10 top ropes to a 23' ceiling. I guess i'm spoiled by EarthTrek's 35'+ walls and dozens and dozens of top ropes. Oh well, I can't be picky. What did suck was Aaron didn't know his knots, so he couldn't belay me. A climber without a belayer is a climber with no fall protection, and that doesn't fly. Luckily, the gym had four or so top ropes with Gri-Gri's attached, so Aaron could belay me "legally". I started with some easy climbs, and quickly worked my way up. I think I completed a few 5.9's with little difficulty, which surprised me. I think the ratings on these climbs is a little weak, i'm used to much more difficult climbs which are rated the same back home (that is, a 5.9 here feels like a 5.8 back home). My forearms definitely got a workout, but I was proud to keep my technique, because I completed about 8 or 9 top-rope problems, and a handful of bouldering problems, and my arms could keep going.
Aaron was burned out though, so we wrapped up our day and headed home around 2pm. I grabbed some lunch and watched a show on TruTV called "All Worked Up", about repo men and process servers. Pretty cool stuff. Unfortunately I stayed glued to that for a few hours. I finally peeled my butt off the couch around 3:45pm, vowing to go to the Plaza. I changed out of my climbing gear, gathered up my camera and backpack, and headed out. I threw on my earbuds and dialed in the latest episode of "Car Talk" as I walked the mile and a half to the plaza.
The plaza is the "downtown" portion of Santa Fe. There are tons of shops and resturaunts, and I had no idea what to expect (or how to get around) once I got there. One of the first places I came across had some neat gift ideas, so I picked something up for Caitlin (i'm not telling, darlin :)) and kept moving, knowing it was Sunday and stores were going to close.
After walking around what I felt was every inch of the plaza, I feel like I can narrow down the Plaza to two words:
Tourist. Trap.
There were jewelry stores, clothing stores and gift shops everywhere. Some stores selling unique things, but most selling Santa Fe shirts, Native American jewelry, etc. I felt like if you saw one store, you saw them all. If you were into jewelry, you would want to check out all the shops, but that's not my thing. In fact, the whole style is not my thing, so I wasn't interested in a lot of what i saw. It's hard to tell the difference between a genuine , hand crafted item, and something that was mass-produced for tourists.
I'm not slamming every store in the plaza, because there were some neat places. On another day off, I want to go back and explore these stores some more. I felt like I came on a tourist-heavy day, also. I think coming back on a day off during the week (fat chance) would give help. There were a few camera places that I was interested in seeing, however two were closed on Sundays. The third camera store I stopped into reinforced the "Tourist Trap" feeling. They advertised "Sensor Cleaning While You Wait!" on the front window. I inquired, and they said it would take about an hour and cost $40.
*choke* what? $40? I can send it into Nikon and they'll do it for free. They also had a Nikon SB-600 for $399 and a Nikon 18-200mm lens for $1,299. If you follow those links, you'll see that the MSRP for those products are HALF of what this place was selling them for. What the F. No thanks. BYE.
There was also a "Five and Dime" General Store which reminded me a lot like the Woolworth's that used to be right by my house (Now a Dollar Tree). There was all kinds of knick-knacks from Santa Fe, and something i'd check back in with. (Yes, I know Woolworth's was one of the original five-and-dime stores).
"Our Lady of Guadalupe" Church, west of the "Plaza" in Santa Fe, NM
After finally giving up on the plaza, I headed in the direction of a Borders and REI. Not authentic Santa Fe, I know, but I needed to get away from the tourist trap. As my phone directed me to the Borders, I passed "Our Lady of Guadalupe" Church. I really got a taste of the region walking past this church. There was a service starting (it was about 5pm) and the doors were wide open. Inside, I could hear what sounded like a mariachi band playing church songs, with everyone singing along. No organ, but lots of stringed instruments. Everyone was singing in Spanish. It was an enlightening experience.
I continued towards the Borders, and passed a "CostPlus World Market". Intrigued, I went in.
Holy crap.
I don't know how to describe this place. One part of the store had bar-ware (shakers, shot glasses, wine glasses, etc), another had kitchen and outdoor furniture, another had kitchen tools and toys and cookware. My favorite section was the food section, which definitely earned it's name "World Market". There were spices I had never heard of here, hand-packed. Salsas from around the world, chocolates and cooking oils and candy from anywhere and everywhere. It was definitely a chef's playground.
AND they have Jones Soda BY THE CASE! HEAVEN IN A BOX!
I needed to get the hell out of there before I spent my summers pay, so I finally headed to the Borders for some reading. I poked around a little, helping to decompress from the day. Didn't really find anything to buy, so I started heading back home. I chatted with Caitlin for a bit, then finished up my "Car Talk" episode as as I snapped photos on the walk.
The map says I walked about five miles today, but that's not including the walks through the stores. The calves hurt, the arms hurt from climbing. Today was a good day.
-Matt
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