Let's open up a restaurant in Santa Fe

Well, I didn't, but Alma's family sure has (insert plug for Cafe Castro here).

I spent the past week or so in Santa Fe, New Mexico and fell in love with the place. I'm sure it helped that half of my meals were free with the exception of putting tips on the table and that I spent it with two awesome people, but even without that it was a wonderful trip.

I got to add two new airports to my list (ABQ and STL) on this trip which of course made me excited. I also had my first actually relaxing vacation with a trip to the spa complete with hot tub and sauna as well as a one hour full body massage. We discovered the hippie side of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, fell asleep during the movies Sideways, W, and Milk, drove up through Northern New Mexico, went to beautiful religious sites, and ate some of the most delicious food ever (and I put chile on almost everything!). I also loved meeting Alma's family, who are some of the sweetest people ever, and I'd help them with Math any day.

Overall though, I felt that Santa Fe was a kind of hippie place and so friendly. At first impression you just think that everyone knows each other, but in reality they are just all so friendly to each other that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I also really love that Santa Fe, and I guess all of New Mexico that I saw, has embraced their desert-ness. As an Angeleño, I can say that we are in denial about the fact that we live in a desert, which is characterized by the need to have green lawns and plants that would not natively grow in the area as well as stealing water from everyone else. New Mexicans on the other hand are not allowed to water on certain days of the week cause people like those in Los Angeles are stealing their water and they embrace it. The desert is really a peaceful and beautiful place and I was really reminded of that in New Mexico.

New Mexico also has another big plus working in its favor, and that is you can produce wine in certain areas. According to the locals it isn't that great, so maybe one day I'll be able to change that and open a vineyard and winery with quality wine. While walking through downtown Santa, Alma and Tommy even decided to point out possible locations for my store. Though that may be a ways in the future, I did get my wine fix in New Mexico. Alma made it known that I was a wino and so in my first couple hours I had a Cabernet-Zinfandel blend at her aunt's house, bought two bottles of a 2007 Stag's Leap Sauvignon Blanc for the dinner we cooked and then had some Chardonnay that was already open. I must say the Sauvignon Blanc was quite wonderful and went well with the dinner we cooked and the delicious Italian cheese we bought.

I'd love to make it back out there someday, and who knows, maybe I'll spend 6 weeks in the area teaching middle schoolers math and science stuff. Who knows.