Smiles For Many Miles: The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Part 2~Santa Fe, A Museum & More

In addition to visiting The Loretto Chapel and The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe as posted in Part 1, we took a stroll through the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.

A bit of Ms. O'Keefe's art is below.
Abstraction White Rose, 1927

Calla Lily in Tall Glass - No 2

Gerald's Tree, 1937

Church Bell, Ward, Colorado, 1917

Black Cross with Red Sky, 1929

Church Steeple, 1930

Horse Skull with White Rose, 1931

Thigh Bone on Black Stripe, 1930

The two descriptions in the case read:
Cow Bones and Horse Skull

Blue-Headed Indian Doll, 1935

These two pieces are

Paul's Kachina, 1931

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As I said in Part 1, there are a lot of shops, museums and other things to do in downtown. We barely scratched the surface with only a day and a half spent in the downtown area, and I didn't take a lot of photos.

Here are some side street sights.

A weekend fiesta was beginning!

Fiestas and other events are held on the Plaza.

We hope to visit Santa Fe again in the future. In addition to exploring more of downtown, we'd like to drive the Turquoise Trail, a national scenic drive that's off-the-beaten path. It runs from Santa Fe to Albuquerque with pretty views along the way, and stops can be made in old mining towns where arts and crafts, museums, restaurants and more can be enjoyed.

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We stayed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park conveniently located just off I-25 and has mostly all pull-through sites. A 3/4 of a mile walking trail circles the park, and our dogs relished in walks on it.

Santa Fe Skies tall evening
shadows on the walking trail.

Our Mini Schnauzer, Elmer, is in

the middle but you can't see

Chihuhua Chewy's shadow.

He's off to the side

sniffing the ground!

Evening view out of the RV back window.

For more info on the park,
click the tab "2018 RV Trips"
at the top of this blog
or
click here.

Up next, amazing Lake Tahoe!

Smiles,
D~~~~

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Part 1~Santa Fe Churches

On the way home from Colorado, we spent a few nights in Santa Fe, New Mexico. With two full days to explore, we opted to spend them both at the Plaza and surrounding areas in historic downtown. It's a quaint, artsy locale that's rich in history. We found a lot to do and see--museums, art galleries, churches, stores, restaurants and more.

We visited two churches:

The Loretto Chapel

and

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

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The Loretto Chapel

It's quite beautiful!

The chapel houses a spiral staircase

with a miraculous story behind it.

The staircase as it appears today.
It looks quite different than when it was built.

For one thing, the architect died before

the stairs to the choir loft were built.

After lots of prayer by the sisters,

the staircase was built by a

mysterious man.

How about you read a very

short article about it here.

I think it's pretty amazing!

The writing in the photo below reads:

"This picture is a simulation of how the Staircase looked between 1879 and 1887 before Phillip August Hesch installed the banisters at the Sisters' request."

The staircase when it was built.

According to the short article

on The Loretto Chapel website,

"The staircase has been the subject of many articles, TV specials, and movies including 'Unsolved Mysteries' and the full-length movie titled The Staircase starring William Petersen and Barbara Hershey.

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St. Francis of Assisi