The English Maximalista

Over the Fourth of July national holiday, Mr Maximalista and I decided to take advantage of our 4-day weekend to drive down to New Mexico. We had been fully intending to explore the region, even before we moved to Colorado, and were super excited for this opportunity to see more of the American Southwest.

Camp Bow-Wow opens at the crack of dawn, which meant we could drop Sadie off early, then stop at the local Waffle House for some caffeination and sugar-filled fortification before hitting the road. We had a 4-hour drive ahead of us, planning to take the scenic route through the mountains.

It was Thursday 3 July. The skies were clear, the temps in the low 70’s. Perfect roadtrip conditions. Lady Penelope (my car) had a full tank, a full trunk, and was ready for adventure. We hit the road!

My personal travel agent [AKA my husband] had planned this entire trip: hotels, restaurants, sights, breweries, bookshops. A friend of mine who is local to the area had recommended a couple of pit stops, which we added to our itinerary. 

Mr M wanted to go to Taos first, so that is what we did.

As we drove into town, I spotted that Taos has a Re-Store [see previous blog entitled Burger, Beer, and a New Bog], but unfortunately for me, Mr Maximalista was driving and he saw that blue sign, too. His grip tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles whitened, his face was set determined.

And THEN he adamantly drove STRAIGHT PAST, which I thought was really quite rude of him. He was insistent that, “no, we will not be bringing home any more junk.”

I muttered quietly under my breath that HIS stuff was junk, whereas MY stuff is precious treasure. Albeit my chunterings have to be more circumspect these days, ever since he got his hearing aid installed a few weeks ago.

But never fear, gentle reader: as is often the case, I ended up having the last laugh. Because flash forward two days… when we spotted my favourite resale shop, Savers, thankfully *I* was behind the steering wheel. Long story short, I went on to fill up TWO shopping carts of treasure for my nest… but more on that in Part Two of our New Mexico travel log.

In the meantime, we went sailing right past Taos’s Re-Store; I pouted for the next few minutes that it took for us to reach our hotel, which proved to be a charming place called the Historic Taos Inn, effectively distracting me out of my brattish little funk.

The Historic Taos Inn has lots of enchanting little courtyards, which abound in this neck of the woods. It transpires that I’m quite a sucker for a good courtyard, and have added one to my ever-growing Dream List of Things I Want to Build at Our New House. Along with a chapel, a yoga studio, and a bell tower.

Hey, a girl can dream.

They also have a small-ish yet decadent Southwestern style hotel lobby, including a sunken area with an adobe fireplace (added to my Dream List), and a charming fountain tinkling away in the center of the room (ditto). Their lobby has lots of darling little nooks, as well as a kind of minstrel’s gallery on the mezzanine level. (A minstrel’s gallery?! Yup, seriously considering putting that on my list, too…)

We spent Thursday afternoon bumming around the pretty downtown areas, filled with adobe-style shops selling all kinds of Southwestern souvenir goodies. There were several second-hand bookshops, too, which we both love nosing around. We grabbed a very late lunch at Taos Mesa Brewing; I had the most amazing avocado salad, washed down with an IPA, to tide us over to our 7pm dinner reservation.

On our drive through the Sangre de Christo mountains that morning, Mr Maximalista and I had started joking about bumping into Taos’s most famous resident, Julia Roberts. By the end of our long drive, a bit slap-happy from the White Line Fever, we were referring to her as our dear old friend, Jules, which became the standing joke between us for the rest of our stay there.

Dinner was at Martyr’s, where there was a lot of activity in the function room out back… of course, we were craning our necks to see if it was because Julia Roberts was back there.

Spoiler alert: she was not.

*****

Next morning, we bid a fond farewell to the Historic Taos Inn before heading out early toward our next destination: Bandelier National Monument. This had been recommended by my friend, and ZOMG, I am SO glad we went. It was amazing.

Bandelier National Monument is located not far from Santa Fe, and I highly recommend visiting. We walked the paved one mile loop in its entirety — it’s a magical trail set within a peaceful little valley. There are a lot of steep steps hewn into the cliffs, leading up to the Ancestral Pueblo Indian cave dwellings; some of these are accessible via rudimentary ladders.

Further along the trail are petroglyphs carved in the rock walls. It’s a remarkable place.

Word to the wise: go early in the day, to beat the crowds AND because it gets HOT later on. Also, the caves are not wheelchair accessible, although the trails are. 

It was a bit surprising to note that Bandelier is not dog friendly. Surprising because we see well-behaved dogs on leashes almost everywhere that we go. (How nice it must be to have a well-behaved dog to bring to so many dog-tolerant places…)

The scenic route we took through NM hugged the Rio Grande. We kept noticing that there were many boat launches peppering the river banks; apparently, it’s a popular spot for white water rafting, if you’re into that sort of thing. We decided to stop at one, just to say we have dipped our toes in this famous river. One more item crossed off my Bucket List!

Our next stop? Santa Fe. I shall tell you all about that special visit, tomorrow.

Lots of love,

M xo