Taos Pueblo & Santa Fe

Taos Pueblo is a village of traditional pueblo buildings that is still inhabited today by the Taos Indians. The pueblos are considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the US! The original structures were built about 1,000 years ago. They have been continually updated and expanded as needed with traditional adobe construction. Some of the homes have been converted to stores for tourists, but they have been sticklers about not allowing in modern conveniences like electricity or running water. It was cool to see some well maintained adobe structures after touring so many ruins. The whole village is a living time capsule. 

Unfortunately, that day it was a cold, rainy time capsule.

Outside the Church

Our tour guide was a girl who grew up partially in a pueblo home and partially in a modern home in the nearby town. 

The Pueblos were 4 stories tall in some places! They have doors now, but historically the only entrances were on the roof. Those ladder climbers must have had massive leg muscles. 

The tarps covering the traditional adobe stoves only slightly diminished the experience

Many many drums in one of the stores we checked out

We would have spent a lot more time exploring if it wasn't raining. 

Our next stop was to rendezvous with the Hays at the Silver Saddle Motel in Santa Fe. It was a whimsical place to stay. They had an outdoor dining area for the breakfast buffet that was filled with all sorts of interesting junk. There were some seriously impressing flower gardens around the parking lot as well. All in all it was a great stop. With beds!

The bandaged thumb

Smelling the flowers

We warmed up some soup and ate it on their picnic tables #classy

That night we sat outside the motel rooms on these little benches after we put the kids to bed. It started raining pretty hard, which made us extra grateful to be out of tents for the night. Night talks with the Hays were some of the best parts of the trip.

The next morning I ate 3 hard boiled eggs at the breakfast buffet. Annie hadn't been feeling that great, so she wanted to nurse a lot. This was bad because I forgot about that whole egg allergy thing that we suspected. Well the egg allergy was confirmed when Annie broke out in hives all over her body. Poor baby! I felt terrible. We gave her some benedryl and it gradually went away. But not until after she puked at the silver saddle breakfast area. She had a good rest in the car and was acting more herself by the time we got to Carlsbad.