Thursday was our ‘wild card’ day, we had decided, before we left for our trip, that we couldn’t be so close to a State Capitol building without stopping by, so, Col and I hopped in the Suburban and headed on the two hour road trip back to Santa Fe for the day.
We started by having the most disgusting lunch known to man at the local KFC *shivers* I’m still having nightmares! Followed by mapping the city, translation, our SatNav got us a bit confuddled and we ended up looping back a few times. But we found some free ‘State Capitol’ parking where we could leave the car while we took a dander over to the State Capitol building.
This State Capitol building, makes Capitol number four on our ‘done’ list, following Austin, TX, Olympia, WA, Sacramento, CA. The Capitol was understated, not a miniature version of the White House like some of the other Capitols we have been to.
It was brown, not white, and it was smack-bang in the heart of the Capital city, unlike an hour or more drive outside a ‘main’ city.
The law-makers had just finished up when we arrived, so there was bustling, TV crews and a business air. Normally we go and it’s pretty quiet. We did some dandering around, had a look at the art, took some pictures and decided it was high time for some hot chocolate.
In my research on Santa Fe, I stumbled upon a Chocolate House. Kakawa Chocolate House, it’s an adorable little building at the side of the road and, those in the know had recommended that we try the Jeffersonian and the Marie Antoinette.
The Jeffersonian, they had on hand for me to sample. Ingredients: 73.5% Chocolate, Raw Unprocessed Cane Sugar, Nutmeg, Mexican Vanilla.
They didn’t have the Marie Antoinette, but it sounded yummy, and intense. Ingredients: 70% Chocolate, Almond Milk, Orange Blossom Water, Raw Unprocessed Cane Sugar, Ceylon Cinnamon, Mexican Vanilla and Culinary Orange Blossom Essential Oil.
I guess Col and I have boring palettes, as we both went with the American (also known as the most bland drink they had) as everything else way way too strong and over-powering for our tastes. I went with a small, as even the plain ole American was verging on too strong for me!
Ingredients: 80% Chocolate, Evaporated Cane Juice, Mexican Vanilla.
It’s as plain as it sounds, but it was still too strong!
After we’d done with our hot chocolates (which were actually luke-warm) we went to Walmart. Yes, Walmart!
The same Walmart that we’d picked up groceries from on the first day, Col made the awful mistake of telling me that it was the ‘best Walmart ever’, so of course, I had to go! We came out with a whole trolley of stuff, mostly clearance valentines day bake stuff, pjs and presents for people. It took us a while, but it was worth it (well, for me it was anyway, I’m not so sure about Col! LOL!)
We headed back to Angel Fire after 3pm, we were trying to make it home before dark, however, en route, we passed a ‘Gas pump’ museum. Which, yes, sounds completely bizarre, I know, but it perked our interest, so we thought we’d take a look.
We spent a while here, it was a fascinating place to visit. Just a lone guy, who’d started a collection, that grew and grew.
He has a ‘donation’ jar at the entrance and the proceeds are donated to the local (or, as local as you get out in the middle of nowhere) animal shelter once a year.
He was a nice guy, friendly, chatty and took pride in his collection of odds and ends. I was completely sucked in by the bright shiny lights, I could have spent hours in there, but we had to get up the mountain before it got too dark.
The second part of the journey was a lot more time consuming, it gets dark, fast up there and with such an icy and snowy climate, it was definitely the ‘softly softly approach’ kind of place.
At home, Magz and Sophie had thrown together a delicious dinner of chicken satay skewers accompanied by pre-bed time Eve cuddles, a game of dominoes and, what had been christened a ”Soph-arita” made for a very enjoyable way to finish off the day!
