Santa Fe was the first city I fell in love with. Although the suburbs had much to be desired, the downtown area was amazing. I fell in love almost immediately! The first thing I did was go to Loretto Chapel where they have the staircase above. What's so special about the spiral staircase? Notice how there are no supports! The whole staircase makes a complete circle and there is no support beam down the middle. It's very well engineered and can be used although in order to protect it they no longer let anyone on it. No one knows who built it, but it's an amazing piece of architecture.
Of course while in Santa Fe I had to visit the Capitol building! This was apparently their 5th capitol building. The tour guide was horrendous. She couldn't answer any of the questions I had so I don't know much about the building. She also thought that the 1st 'state capitol' was built in the 1600's in New Mexico which is exciting considering New Mexico wasn't even a state at the time... Talk about time travel! Other than her not knowing anything, the building was quite fascinating. It was very gorgeous and had amazing artwork all around it.
Of course you can't come to Santa Fe and not pick up something! I had a 'Marie Antoinette' which is 70% dark chocolate with almond milk, orange blossom, cane sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. It was soooo yummy. I almost went back for seconds. I also had their pomegranate macaroon which was to die for. After having dessert I figured I should have dinner so I headed off to Tomasitas. Everyone said it was supposed to be excellent, but it wasn't as good as Sadie's in Albuquerque so I left slightly disappointed.
