A Driving Day

Our activity of the day consisted of ---- Driving!  

We were going to just head back to our hotel, but then decided that it would be nice to visit the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, to see the famous floating circular staircase, one of our planned activities before we shortened our trip.  It would add up to 1 hour to our driving time so it seemed to be worth it.  And we'd see different parts of New Mexico. While the grasslands were green due to recent rains, we were amazed at how desolate this part of the state was! We drove miles without seeing any buildings. and often, with visibility of several miles, we could not even see another car on our road!  

The driving part went well, but things got interesting when we arrived at Santa Fe.  The area near the chapel was swarming with cars and people.  A large street market was in progress near the chapel, and to say parking was at a premium would be putting it mildly.  We drove around for 20+minutes, then found a semi-legal parking spot.  It turned out to be quite a ways from the chapel, so after fighting crowds for a few blocks we gave up and headed out of town.  

So now we are settled into our Fairfield Inn and will be taking it easy this evening.   We have a fairly early flight tomorrow morning and get back to DTW around 6:30 pm.