The English Maximalista

You may recall me telling you that my mother was here on holiday, last month. She flew over from England with an old family friend of ours, and they stayed with me for a fortnight. We had a truly delightful time together, and I’m not just saying that because they both subscribe to my newsletter.

On their first full day here, they treated me and Mr Maximalista to a proper, home-made English Afternoon Tea, replete with trifle, crustless sandwiches, petit fours, and scones. Other days, I took them to see some of the local sights. We also took two mini-vacations, whilst they were here. That first weekend, the three of us drove to Moab, Utah (I shall tell you about that some other time!); the second weekend, Mr Maximalista came with us to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Santa Fe is one of my favourite little cities, which I have written about previously. I also adore Taos, but we simply ran out of time to take Mummy Dearest there on this trip.

My personal travel agent — AKA my husband — booked us into another one of those artsy fartsy hotels that I adore: this time, we stayed at the Drury Plaza Inn, which was SO much nicer than I was expecting.

My mother and our FF stayed down the hall from us, in a double queen suite with a balcony, whereas Mr M and I roughed it in a king-size corner suite. I took this quick video tour so you can see the type of thing Mr Maximalista subjects me to:

The Drury Plaza is just off the central plaza in downtown Santa Fe, only steps away from the hotel we stayed at last time, so we took the ladies for a quick tour of the lobby at La Fonda on the Plaza, because it truly is a special hotel. Then we took them for a spot of shopping, exploring the charming little side streets in the afternoon sun. This trip, I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but my mother and our FF were on the lookout for souvenirs.

I also dragged everyone around The Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, which is small yet mighty. I recommend it.

We had previously stopped by the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, but it was closed… on a Sunday?! Word to the wise: apparently, the cathedral is only open for mass on Sundays.

Nevertheless, it was lovely to simply walk around the gardens of the Cathedral, then down to the Plaza, soaking up the cloudless New Mexico climes. Here were lots of other gentle perambulators also enjoying the ambience, as well as the usual street vendors, and live music. I was thrilled that my two English guests got to see a live Native American musical performance, which I recorded [click on video below]. They were amazing:

We had worked up quite an appetite, and decided to dine on the balcony at the Thunderbird Bar & Grill, overlooking the Plaza. It was still light out, so we got to enjoy the warm early evening awash with background music of a very talented fiddler, beneath us on the street.

Have I mentioned how much I love Santa Fe?

*****

Next morning, we hit the road at 8am so we could get to Bandelier National Monument. It was a Monday, and we wanted to be home around lunchtime. Mr Maximalista and I had visited Bandelier on our prior visit to NM, on the recommendation of a friend; now it has turned into one of those places that has become compulsory for us to take visitors. It is such a delightful place to spend a few hours.

Mummy Dearest, who is 72, was cavorting around the rocks like an errant teenager. Seriously, I cannot take her anywhere.

She clearly drank too much free coffee before we checked out of our hotel, that morning. I took photographic evidence but am afraid to post the pictures on the internet in case the authorities see them and revoke my National Park membership. So, we just let her run off some energy, hopeful that she would fall asleep in the car on the ride home.

*****

One of the nice things about entertaining guests from overseas is that everything here in the US is new to them. Even some of the fast food chains — that we take for granted — seem special to visitors. Long John Silver. Chic-fil-A. Culver’s.

Which is how it transpired, on our drive home, that we took the ladies for a super special lunch at a nice little restaurant in Taos, called Wendy’s.

They loved it.

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Lots of love,

M xo