“It’s football time in Tennessee!”

I inherited two sports teams from my dad – the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tennessee Volunteers.  I have seen loads of Cardinals games over the years, but finding my way to Knoxville to see the Vols is a bit more complicated.  Four years ago, I saw them beat NC State in Atlanta, but it’s been five years since I went to a home game in Knoxville.

Thankfully, one of my good friends lives in Knoxville, so we coordinated our schedules and found a fall weekend to see Tennessee play!  Unfortunately, the only weekend that worked for both of us was the Alabama game. While I knew it would likely be a loss, game day in Knoxville is always an amazing experience.  I mean, there are 100,000 people wearing orange!

Several friends spent the weekend in a cabin in the Smokies, which was beautiful!  I had a REALLY long drive (roughly eight hours!) on Friday night, but the sunrise and mountain views on Saturday morning made it all worth it.

The Knoxville friends had organized all of the meals for the weekend.  I literally didn’t have to do anything all weekend.  It was such a treat!  We even got to eat breakfast on the porch overlooking the mountains!

A few hours before game time, we went into Knoxville.  We walked through campus, World’s Fair Park, and downtown.  We had lunch at Tomato Head before heading back to the stadium.

I love all of the pre-game traditions!

 

We made it until partway through the fourth quarter before giving up and heading back to the cabin.

There were even more friends at the cabin when we arrived.  I call them “friends,” even though I met all of them for the first time that weekend.  Funny enough, the world is so small that there were some pretty comical mutual friends and stories of connectedness among us.  (One of them was an eHarmony match with one of my very dear college friends who lives in a different state!  And one of them went to high school with the friend I just visited in Boulder a few weeks ago!  How does that even happen?!)  I absolutely love evenings that linger around a table telling stories and laughing hysterically, and that’s exactly what the evening was like.

On Sunday morning, we woke up bright and early to go for a bike ride.  I warned them that I’ve only ridden a bike 2-3 times in the past decade, but they found a bike and helmet for me to borrow and let me come along.  We were at a place called Cade’s Cove – a valley in the midst of the mountains.  It was beautiful!  The only downside?  Learning to share the single lane road with the cars.  Lots and lots of cars.  When you’re terrified of falling off your bike or being hit by a car, AND when you don’t really understand what gears to use, it makes for a comical day.  The loop is about 11 miles, and somehow I made it without injury.

When this Knoxville friend came to visit Switzerland in February, he introduced me to some of his former Knoxville friends who are now living in Switzerland.  (Remember how I told you about the smallness of the world?)  Anyway…one of them is an artist who was commissioned by the City of Knoxville to paint a mural under an overpass in the city.  We went to see it on Sunday afternoon, and I loved it.

Sunday afternoon also included one more fun event – a baby shower for my friend’s Nigerian friends.  They are PhD students at Tennessee, and they are fantastic.  I think I had heard about nearly half of the guests at the shower, so it was really fun to connect faces with names.  The parents-to-be are precious, and they were so excited.  I loved being a part of the celebration!

[Aren’t their shirts so fun?!]

This weekend was so refreshing for my soul…spending time with wonderful people, getting a good dose of nature, doing so many fun activities, and laughing a lot.

 

Fall Fun

Being back in the Midwest means that there is no shortage of fall fun to be had.  Don’t get too excited.  I’ve still never gone apple picking, and I didn’t visit a pumpkin patch this year (or maybe ever?).  I don’t even think I’m going to carve a pumpkin this year.  But, I have been finding a lot of fun things to do around St. Louis this month.

Saw Blind Pilot (a new-to-me band) at The Ready Room…

Received some beautiful “congrats on your new home” flowers from my Barnacle…

Spent a Sunday afternoon at the FOX Theatre seeing the musical Once with my Barnacle, her mom, and our new Irish friend…

(Funny story: I invited one of my Irish friends to come to Once, since it’s based in Dublin.  Her mum was visiting from Dublin and really wanted to see the musical.  In the end, her mum joined us having never met any of us before.  We made a delightful new friend!  One who also came to my house the following weekend for dinner!)

Attended an underwater themed first birthday party for a friend’s little girl  (My friend baked this incredible cake!)…

Went to a Maroon 5 concert at the last minute when I found out it wasn’t sold out…

Felt like making some fall food, so I had friends over for soup, cornbread, and chocolate chip cookies.  Can you say comfort food?

Went for a REALLY long walk in Forest Park on a gorgeous day and walked through the Zoo (which is free) to see some of the animals and the Ottertoberfest festivities.  Not quite the same when the alphorn is a decoration instead of an instrument…

Experienced my first corn maze in Godfrey, IL.  They call it the Great Godfrey Maze.  I purposefully made sure we went during the day, so I wouldn’t be scared.  I expected something enormous that would take us an hour or more to complete.  When we arrived, we asked the woman how long it would take, and she said, “maybe 10 or 15 minutes.”  WHAT?!?  Not quite the difficult maze I was expecting, but it was fun to be outside in the sunshine!  Plus, we got to have a girly lunch at Josephine’s when we finished.

Adele says, “Hello” from NYC

About a month ago, I headed to the Big Apple.  I’m a semi-frequent visitor of New York City, but this visit was concocted when I was trying to figure out where and when to see Adele in concert.  I wasn’t in the US when tickets went on sale, and by the time I got home, everything was sold out.  I told myself that it was okay and that I didn’t REALLY need to see her, but when I still wasn’t convinced a few weeks after returning to the US, I decide to splurge for a ticket.  I looked at all of the weekend dates of her tour and realized New York was the only location where I had a friend who would join me.  Thanks to Adele, I had an excuse to spend a fabulous fall weekend in the city!

I used to only have one friend living in New York, but over the past 1.5 years, several more friends have moved to the city (and a few others are moving there soon!).  This visit, I got to spend time with friends from FIVE different life stages – high school, Miami University, Grand Rapids, St. Louis, and Switzerland!  It made for a little bit of chaos jumping from thing to thing and friend to friend all weekend long, but my heart was really full when I left on Monday evening.

One of my friends from my time in Grand Rapids, Michigan offered to host me.  She lives in Midtown West, and it was the first time I’ve ever seen inside a Manhattan apartment.  Her place was adorable!  I got there in time to drop my bags and run out the door to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).  On Friday nights, it’s free!  We walked in the lobby, and I had another deja vu moment (similar to when I walked into the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, NM).  Had I already visited this museum, too?  This time I remembered that my dad and I walked in when we visited in January 2014, but since he’s not that into art, the $25 admission didn’t seem worth it.  Anyway…I digress…

There were A LOT of people in the museum, but we meandered our way through the crowds to find some favorite pieces.  The highlights for me were Van Gogh’s Starry Night (I always wondered where it lived) and some of Monet’s Water Lilies (I saw a number of these at Musee de l’Orangerie in Paris, and they are incredible!).

After the museum, we went to B Side Pizza for dinner.  It was such a beautiful night, so all of the windows were open out to the sidewalk.  We shared roasted brussel sprouts (honey, lemon, egg, pancetta, parmesan, and chiles) and the Killer Bee pizza (tomato, mozzarella, sopressata, garlic puree, chili oil, and honey), which were both AMAZING!  It was such a fun night, and I’m glad we squeezed it in, because she had to fly out of town early Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning, I got to have a leisurely morning before meeting some Miami friends in Central Park.  They just moved to the city a couple of months ago with their two little girls.  They previously lived in Rome, so I saw them on my first weekend visit to Rome, and we spent Easter 2014 together.  We found an amazing playground in the park for the girls to enjoy while we caught up.

These kids have such incredible skyline views surrounding them while they play in the park!  Amazing!  I learned that swings are a fan favorite among little ones!

From there, I hurried over to meet one of my old Vevey bosses for lunch at Dos Caminos.  He now lives in Connecticut, and he came to meet me with his wife and daughter.  I haven’t seen his little girl since she was a baby in Vevey!  Sadly, I lost track of the time and had to run out of the restaurant to make it to my show, and I completely forgot to take a picture with them!

The show I went to see was “The Color Purple,” and the music was incredible!  Seriously.  Very soulful.  I almost didn’t go to a musical while I was in town, but I LOVE musicals, so I bought a ticket at the last minute.  I’m glad I did.

Later in the evening, I went to meet up with a St. Louis friend who was also spending the weekend in New York.  We had dinner at Lil Frankie’s in the East Village.  They have an amazing Lemon Pasta that was delicious!  After dinner, my friend introduced me to Big Gay Ice Cream, which was SO GOOD!  They layer all kinds of goodness inside a soft serve ice cream cone and then dip it in more goodness.  Mine had dolce de leche inside and crushed Nilla wafers on the outside!

After pasta and ice cream, we took a LONG walk (like, 5 miles long) through the East Village, the NYU campus, Washington Park, the West Village, the FRIENDS apartment, and all the way up through Midtown.  It was such a fun, refreshing, inspiring evening with this sweet friend.

[Feeling right at home.  I miss speaking French.  Is there ever an appropriate moment to confess that I speak French to myself at home?!]

On Sunday morning, my friend & I went to church and then headed to Talde in Brooklyn for brunch.  The chef at Talde was on Top Chef (not something I watch, but maybe a fact that gives you an idea of how delicious it was).  One of my friends from my high school youth group met up with us, which was really fun.

After brunch, we walked through Prospect Park and then headed for the Brooklyn Bridge.  This was my first time in Brooklyn, and I LOVED it…the tree-lined streets, the beautiful buildings, the neighborhood feel, the feeling of calm after time in Manhattan!

Aside from seeing Adele in concert, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge was another goal for the weekend.  It’s possible I’ve seen the Brooklyn Bridge from the water or another bridge, but I actually don’t think I’d ever seen it before, and I know I’ve never walked across it.  It would be hard to forget dodging bicycles and a man carrying a HUGE long white snake!  (True story – I got WAY too close before seeing the snake and nearly started to hyperventilate until I was sure we were in the clear.  Have I mentioned I do not do snakes AT ALL?  Like really, really, REALLY don’t do snakes.)

Before walking across, we stopped for ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, which sits just below the bridge.  I couldn’t resist sprinkles!  Or a picture of their sign: “Ice Cream is the new health food.”  I completely agree.  Or maybe I just wish.

Someone advised us to walk from the Brooklyn side toward Manhattan, so we would get the better skyline view.  The views were great.  There were SO MANY PEOPLE, but I guess that’s to be expected on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in the fall in New York.

My friend and I took a VERY long walk from the bridge into Midtown.  She just moved to the city a couple of months ago, so it was fun to hear all about her adjustment and new adventures.

Once we made it to Midtown, I met up with two friends for dinner at Trademark Taste + Grind.  I hadn’t seen them in ages, so it was really fun to catch up.  They were the ones who went to see Adele with me!  After dinner, we headed over to Madison Square Garden for the show.  She did not disappoint!  In fact, I thought she was hilarious!  And of course, she opened with “Hello.”

I couldn’t resist buying a poster to commemorate the evening (and the weekend).  The fact that it has the Statue of Liberty on it is even better, since that’s where I was heading the next day!

On Monday morning, I met up with my St. Louis friends at Dominique Ansel Bakery.  Dominique Ansel is the inventor of the cronut (half croissant, half doughnut).  When we arrived, we learned that they serve one flavor of cronut per month.  The flavor is never repeated.  The September flavor was Pear Honey Cream Cheese.  It was divine!

After our cronut, we walked down to Battery Park to board the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty.  When I was ten years old, my family went to New York City for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  We did all of the touristy things while we were there, including the Statue of Liberty.  This was pre-9/11, so the security was nothing like it is today.  All I remember is being in the base of the statue, starting to walk up the stairs, hitting the line of people in the stairwell, and my claustrophobic father immediately deciding that we had to turn around and leave.  Since then, I’ve wanted to return to the Statue of Liberty and to go all the way to the crown!  You have to buy tickets WAY in advance.  (I literally purchased mine in May.)  But, now I can say that I’ve successfully visited the Statue of Liberty and made it out of the stairwell!  She is a beauty, and it was an incredibly beautiful day for our visit.

I forgot how big and majestic she is after seeing her smaller counterparts in Paris and Colmar, France.

[The old torch]

[This girl is PASSIONATE about New York!  It is so fun to spend time in the city with her!]

[Heading up the center of the Statue to the crown!  LOTS of narrow, winding stairs.  Thankfully, they only let a few people go up per day, so I was all alone on the climb up to the top.]

[In the crown!]

[The crown is the only place where you can read what’s written on her tablet…July 4, 1776]

[Visitors haven’t been allowed to visit the torch since 1916.  Only maintenance is allowed up there now.]

[Can you tell how narrow and winding the stairs were?!]

I think I walked over 30 miles in 72 hours, but it was a BEAUTIFUL weekend!  I loved the variety of activities, the amazing food, and all of the wonderful friends.  I know I’ll be back soon!

A series of unfortunate events

Every time I’ve relayed this crazy story in the past month, the response has been, “oh, the joys of homeownership.”  I was hoping to avoid that phrase for some time – at least a few months.  But alas, I had a crazy mishap one week after moving into my new place.  After experiencing so many crazy stories in the past three years of writing this blog, I shouldn’t be surprised that the stories would follow me into my new place!

I went to Las Vegas for a conference one week after moving into my house.  I hate Vegas, but I did enjoy walking past the Bellagio fountains during one of their performances.  That and an amazing dinner at STK in The Cosmopolitan were definitely the highlights.

I returned home close to 9:00pm on a Wednesday night.  As soon as I opened my garage door, I knew something wasn’t right.  I could tell there was water on the floor.

When I pulled in, I realized the ceiling was dripping.  I immediately panicked, because my garage is a tuck-under, and it’s directly below the kitchen…where my brand new hardwood floors are!  I ran upstairs, but found no water.  I came back down to the laundry room…no water.  But the ceiling was completely saturated and dripping from a number of points across the beam.  I parked the car outside for the night, because I was afraid the dry wall would come crashing down.

Now, I know that water is a serious problem that has to be dealt with immediately, so even though it was late, I started texted colleagues to get plumber recommendations and started leaving messages with said plumbers.  I’m sure my messages were a bit insane…something about my first week in my place, water coming out of the ceiling, HELP!  I even googled to see if I could find any 24-hour options, but Roto-Rooter was all I could find, and I was pretty sure that wasn’t what I needed.

Believe it or not, one of the plumbers actually called back around 9:30pm or so.  I was truly amazed!  The woman was so kind and reassuring (probably even more so than normal after my crazy voicemail message).  I explained the situation, and she said the earliest she could get someone to me was the following morning between 10:00am-12:00pm.  She asked a few more questions, and when she realized that I have a home warranty, she told me I needed to deal with them directly before she could send someone out.

All of the pictures may have been hung on the walls already, but I definitely hadn’t organized all of my paperwork yet.  Especially the enormous pile I acquired at closing.  I started rifling through all of it looking for the one page that would remind me of the name of the home warranty company.  I found it, called them, and waited for ONE HOUR to speak to a human.  At this point, all I really wanted to do was sleep, since it was nearing 11:00pm, but I knew someone needed to come first thing in the morning to fix this issue.

When I finally spoke to a person, I was informed that they didn’t have anyone available to come out, but they would put me in the queue.  They had four hours to find someone, and if they didn’t, I could call back and get permission to use my own provider.  I went to bed stressed that nothing had been resolved.

In the morning, the water was still there, the dripping was still happening, and I was panicking even more!

[You can tell from the photo how wet the ceiling beam and walls were!]

I will spare you all of the details of the series of phone calls, but in short…the home warranty’s plumber was not available to come out to my place for ONE WEEK.  The home warranty company wouldn’t allow me to use my own plumber.  I called the head home warranty sales guy who spoke to me before the purchase of my home to explain how unacceptable my interactions had been over the past 14 hours.  He found a way to get approval for my plumber to come – with strict instructions that the plumber was to call them before doing any repairs.

The plumber came and had to start cutting holes in the ceiling of the garage.  When he didn’t find plumbing, he had to start cutting holes in the walls.  And when he finally found what he was looking for, he informed me that he had to come up to my dining room to cut a hole to access the water line.  I probably asked him a half a dozen times if he was sure, since I had JUST had the dining room walls painted!

Isn’t it awful?!?!?!  I was trying to remain calm, but was definitely FREAKING OUT inside!

Once he cut the hole in the dining room wall, he was able to tell what the problem was immediately – two nails had gone through the baseboard into a waterline!!!!!  The plumber asked me if I had the floors redone, and I said, “yes.”  He said I needed to talk to the flooring company, because they should fix this.  Another series of phone calls began as I went back and forth with them a number of times explaining the situation, getting quotes from the plumber, etc.  Ultimately, they decided to send the plumber away, because he was too expensive.  Instead, the flooring company sent out one of their contractors to do the fix.

The new contractor arrived, and he immediately started tearing out wet dry wall and insulation.  He also replaced the punctured water line.  The lead flooring guy brought fans and a dehumidifier for the garage.  Not long after he left, he called back to tell me that he spoke with the guys who laid the flooring, and they said they didn’t take off that piece of baseboard!!!  I kid you not.  Of course, I wasn’t taking pictures throughout the construction, so I have no documentation of which baseboards came off and which did not.  The guys came over to look and gave me a LONG explanation of what they did / didn’t do.  Meanwhile, my garage looked like this:

24 hours after coming home to the problem, my house was a disaster, and it was now unclear who would be paying to put it all back together again.  (To which everyone was saying, “oh, the joys of homeownership to me.”)  The contractor tearing the house apart without the approval of the home warranty company voided my home warranty.  (When I spoke with them later, they said that a nail in the baseboard was not “normal wear and tear.”  Even though, the flooring company claims I bought the house with these nails in the baseboard.)

The next day, the contractor’s boss called me at work to ask if I wanted him to finish the work, since the flooring company wasn’t going to pay.  Of course, this sent me into a fury, because the flooring company didn’t have the decency to call and tell me themselves.  When I finally got a hold of them, they said the contractor spoke out of turn, and that they would see what they could help with in the end.  I told the contractor that one way or another, he had to finish the work.

In the end, the contractor did beautiful, beautiful work.  You cannot tell that anything happened to the dining room wall.  And in the garage, the parts of the wall they patched look far nicer than the rest of the garage drywall!  They even painted the whole garage, which desperately needed it.  I think that’s what you call the silver lining.

The cost was 3x what the contractor originally quoted, and while the flooring company paid a portion of the repairs, the final bill was still a doozy.  I now follow my mom’s advice to turn off the water main while I’m traveling.  I’m not sure I would have caught this situation much sooner, since it was buried behind walls and insulation.  But hopefully, this will reduce the risk of future water emergencies.  I’m beyond grateful that none of the new hardwood floors were damaged.  That would’ve been a much worse disaster.

Here’s hoping that homeownership will actually be a joy for the foreseeable future!

Never forget

Four days after moving into my new place, a friend from Vevey came to stay with me for a night before the start of her work week here in St. Louis. I haven’t seen her since our fabulous road trip during my last weekend in Switzerland, so I was thrilled to have some time to catch up with her. 

The visit was super short, and I was trying to finish up the final details of the move, but we squeezed in a little bit of fun! We went (with my mom, who was still in town) to Mission Taco Joint for some yummy Mexican food and to Jeni’s ice cream for dessert. 

The day she was here was September 11th. In memory of the 15th anniversary, 7,021 Flags of Valor were raised on Art Hill in Forest Park. Each flag represented a soldier killed since Sept 11, 2001 fighting the war on terror. Every flag was marked with a name, photo, and set of dog tags. It was a remarkable site, and the wind clinking the dog tags on the flagpoles was beautiful and moving. 

I don’t know if St. Louis does this every year or just for the milestone anniversaries,  but I was blown away. 

A sushi dinner at Drunken Fish wrapped up our day. Grateful that the Nestlé world is small enough for our paths to keep crossing. Looking forward to a 2017 rendezvous stateside when she’s back in the US!

Boulder

A couple of weeks ago, I had a work trip to Denver. I planned to see a few of my friends that live there. When I arrived, I found out that one of them had recently moved to Boulder. And that’s when I learned how close Boulder is to Denver! All this time, I imagined Boulder to be far away from everything somewhere in the middle of Colorado!! Mind blown!

I had an impromptu dinner at the home of a Miamian right after I landed. It was so great to meet her mom, her husband, and her new baby! It’s been five years since I saw her last (when we hiked The Incline and visited Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs), so it was a wonderful reunion!

When my meetings ended, I headed to Boulder to meet up with another friend. Our connection is a crazy one. I was introduced to her when she was moving to St. Louis in 2008 (while I was moving to Grand Rapids) by a friend I met on a visit to Morocco in 2007. When I met her in person, I found out she is an Auburn grad and that she studied abroad in Spain with my brother!!! She moved to Colorado in 2010 – just before I returned to St. Louis. While we’ve never lived in the same city, I love when we get to spend time together! She is a gem. 

She introduced me to the Flatirons!

We had dinner at West End Tavern where we enjoyed the rooftop terrace with views of the mountains. 

The next morning, I was up REALLY early to drive down to Colorado Springs. An early wake up meant I got to see this breathtaking sunrise. 

It also meant I got to stop and see a Miami friend at her coffee shop in Denver on my way through the city! Wash Perk is adorable!

I love when work travel takes me to places filled with people I love!

Virtual Tour

For those of you who’ve been anxiously awaiting pictures of my new place, the wait is over! Earlier this week, some friends came over to see it, and I realized it was the perfect moment to run around snapping pictures to share with you! Believe it or not, I don’t really have any “before” pictures. So, I’ll just tell you that all of the floors are new or refinished, all of the light fixtures are new, and all of the walls and trim were painted. (The only exception is in the two full baths – I didn’t touch the floors or light fixtures in there, because someday I’ll probably redo them entirely.)

I hosted two overnight guests in the first week, so the “B&B” is back in business!

The view as you walk in the front door…

Turning around to look at the front door…

To the right of the front door is a half bathroom…

[With an adorable “Home Sweet Home” print from a Miami friend…and out in the hallway is the gift I received from my neighbors before leaving Switzerland!]

To the left of the front door is the kitchen…

[This is what happens when you don’t have a magnetic fridge]

The front entry way and the kitchen look out onto the dining room, living room, and back patio…

[Some of the festive decorations I received in Vevey made the trek across the ocean!]

My mama came and served as Project Manager this week while landscapers removed a dead tree in my back courtyard, extended the brick patio a few feet to make more room for my table, ripped out some of the small & miscellaneous shrubs, and trimmed the remaining trees & bushes. I think it looks lovely! Excited to add a grill next spring!

[There are A LOT of stairs in this place!]

[You can see all the way up to the skylights in the roof at the top!]

[And you can look over the edge on any floor and see down to the basement level]

On the second floor, there is a bedroom on either end of the hallway – each with an en suite bathroom…

[This hall closet serves as a storage space for my scarves and purses! It’s the first time I’ve been able to store them somewhere with such easy access!]

The Master Bedroom. Not pictured: the built in shoe racks in the closet!

Master bathroom…complete with a big, black bathtub with jets that will have to go someday! No offense if you have one, but I don’t understand why black would ever be chosen over white!

Guest bedroom…

Guest bathroom…

Upstairs is a bit of a bonus room, which I’ve made into a combination third bedroom, office, and sitting room…

[The site of the future reading nook. An oversized chaise lounge is on its way. It will be here in November!]

And way down on the basement level is the one car garage, entry way from the garage, laundry room, and unfinished storage space. The storage space is not pictured, though it should be, since there is a HUGE workbench. I don’t know what to do with it except to turn it into a gift wrapping station!

Thanks for coming along on a virtual tour! Hope you get to see it in person soon!

Up, up, and away in Santa Fe!

Just after I returned from Switzerland, a friend invited me to join her in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a weekend.  We chose Labor Day weekend, so we could enjoy an extra day or two.  Following my work trip to Denver, I drove to her place in Colorado Springs, and from there, we rode to Santa Fe together.

Our first stop was The Pantry for lunch.  Huevos rancheros were a really good choice!  And it was served with the softest, most delicious tortilla I’ve ever had!

We had some time to kill before checking into our apartment, so we went to visit Loretto Chapel to see the mysterious staircase.  The chapel is beautiful, but the building of the spiral staircase inside is inexplicable.  Literally.  They still don’t know who the builder was.

We had dinner at Restaurant Martin and called it a night pretty early, since I’d been up before the sunrise.

Saturday was such a fun day!  After breakfast at The French Pastry Shop, we visited the Santa Fe Railyard.  I don’t know if this existed when I visited last (about 5.5 years ago), but if it did, I totally missed out!  There was a huge farmers market as well as lots of artisans selling all kinds of goods.  I loved it!

We walked back into the center of town around lunchtime and found a restaurant with a delightful second floor terrace called Estevan.  After lunch, we visited the Georgia O’Keefe Museum.  I had a strange sense of deja vu when I entered, but I couldn’t remember if we went during my last visit.  As it turns out, we did.  I think I’ve come to appreciate art more in the past five years, because I really enjoyed it this time.  We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the historic square and perusing some of the (outrageously expensive) galleries on Canyon Road.

It was a GORGEOUS day, and I couldn’t get over the beautiful blue sky full of puffy clouds!

We had a delicious tapas meal at La Boca before our evening activity.  This was one of my favorite meals of the trip!

After dinner, we headed to the Santa Fe Opera House, which is an open air venue.  It has a roof over the seats, but the sides are open as is the space at the back of the stage.  You basically get to see the sun set while watching the performance.  Had we come a week earlier, we would’ve seen an opera.  However, their season ends at the end of August.  We got to experience a Mariachi Extravaganza instead.  I kid you not.

The musicians were amazing!  I don’t think I realized how many violins were part of a mariachi band.  I was definitely attempting to practice my non-existent Spanish, since this was DEFINITELY a Spanglish event.

We were up REALLY early the following morning for our hot air balloon ride.  The last time I visited New Mexico, it didn’t work out for me to ride in a hot air balloon.  As you can imagine, it’s on the goal list, so I was determined to check off that experience on this visit!  We went with an amazing company called Santa Fe Balloons.  Johnny Lewis is the balloon pilot, and per his website and the stories that were shared during our adventure, he’s recognized as one of the world’s most experienced balloon pilots.  The whole operation was impressive, and I’m so glad we chose to go with them.  I asked Johnny if he’s ever flown in the Great Forest Park Balloon Race here in St. Louis, and he has – multiple times!  We had beautiful early morning views as we made our way to the launch site.

I’ve had many other flying experiences – skydiving, parasailing, and paragliding.  This was completely different than all of those.  I’m sure I won’t explain it well, but because you are traveling with the wind, you don’t feel like you’re moving.  You know you are, but you don’t feel the wind in your face.  It’s a strange, peaceful experience – except for the very loud and terrifying blow torch going off repeatedly above your head during the flight.  I was so terrified that my hair was going to catch on fire!  (I don’t even know how that would be possible!)

Lots of work went into preparing the balloons and blowing them up!  Ours was the very colorful one!  (I was so curious as to the color that I asked about it before we even arrived at the site!  As if that really makes a difference!)

[Now do you understand why I was afraid of my hair catching on fire?!?]

[With our pilot – Johnny Lewis!]

I have some pretty great shots of the other balloon that was flying with us.  Wish I had some of our very colorful one, too!

[All I was able to capture of our balloon was our shadow]

[Our chase cars are down below]

[Squeezed into a corner of the balloon basket.  I think there were 9-10 people in the basket!]

When we landed, we celebrated with some champagne and snacks.  The champagne toast tradition after a hot air balloon ride started a long time ago in France (of course).

We spent the rest of the day at Ten Thousand Waves spa.  It was really secluded, and it’s a Japanese style spa that was unlike anything I’ve experienced.  We had a very relaxing time, which was really wonderful.

We managed to snag a table at La Fonda for a drink before dinner.  This rooftop terrace is supposed to be the best place in town to watch the sunset, because the building is higher than just about everything else.  Unfortunately, the sun didn’t set before we had to leave for our dinner reservation, but it was still a beautiful outdoor setting with live music.  After such a hot summer in St. Louis, I was LOVING the comfortable temperatures!

Our final dinner was at Geronimo, which was beautiful.  We had an encounter with THE MOST AWKWARD valet driver EVER!  He misunderstood something we did or said as we were exiting the car and thought we were asking for him to take our picture.  We went along with it, even though the electrical boxes on the side of the building aren’t really a desirable background.

Huge thanks to this sweet friend who planned the whole trip!  After meeting her for the first time in February when she visited me in Europe with her cousin, it was fun to get to know her better and to make some more memories together.