Shopping and Dining

Friday was shopping day. We went shopping at K-Mart and World Market for small empty glass jars. Found some really nice 1/2 cup ones at K-Mart and some really small ones at World Market. Then went shopping at an open air market close to The Plaza. I bought a beautiful Southwest style shawl with turquoise highlights that perfectly matched the shirt I was planning to wear to dinner that evening. Also found a gift for Brent and a couple of the grandkids.

Along the way Carol and I stopped at the Loretto Chapel to see the unsupported spiral staircase to the choir loft. The story goes that the church was the first Gothic style church built in New Mexico. In those days, most members of Catholic church choirs were men and they would climb ladders into the choir loft. But this chapel was staffed by nuns who had a mission to start a school for girls. So, they needed a staircase. Because the chapel was small, a conventional staircase was out of the question. So the nuns started a novena. Before they were finished with the novena, a mysterious stranger appeared and said he could build a staircase. He built a staircase that is still a marvel of engineering. It is only supported at the top and bottom; the sides are kept in place only by superior engineering and construction. After completion of the stairs, the mysterious stranger disappeared and never submitted a bill for the 6 months of his work.

We stopped at the gallery where Carol's nephew Jordan works on Canyon Road. We talked to both of his co-workers and an interesting woman named Eva who is planning to move to Santa Fe. The Meyer gallery had just acquired a new piece by a local Santa Fe artist who likes to paint rural scenes from around New Mexico. We left a bottle of ginger beer with the boys and headed home.

Jordan took us all (me, Carol, Gail, and Lisa) out to dinner at The Osteria, an Italian restaurant downtown where the owner still talks to the staff in Italian. It was superb northern Italian food. I had veal picatta, which was done perfectly. It is one of those few ingredient dishes that is surprisingly hard to cook well - but they did a fantastic job. The owner suggested a Valpolicella to go with the meal - and it was a perfect choice.