Hasta luego Santa Fe!

Well, that's it. My summer session at Santa Fe is finished. I got back to Gunnison last night, talked to a sleep-deprived Kassie, and saw the Otten clan before bed. I've had an excellent adventure. Before I left Santa Fe, however, I did some more fun things that need reporting.
The last week of Bread Loaf was really low key. Mostly we hung around at night and talked. Wednesday was graduation and most everyone cleared out that day. But, there were five stragglers who were waiting around to either stay in Santa Fe a bit longer or who were waiting to drive home. We went out for dinner and frozen yogurt. It rained most of the night, but we came back to St. John's College and swapped teacher stories until late arrived.
I got up the next morning, packed my car, picked up a friend and headed to Albuquerque. I dropped my friend off at a hostel and I went to the ABQ temple. I was by myself, but the session was small enough that I got extra attention from the temple ladies. You can see it's a beautiful temple.

After that I picked up my mom from the airport, and we drove back to Santa Fe. It was fun to show my mom some of the stuff in Santa Fe. We spent most of Friday downtown walking in and out of galleries, shopping for souvenirs, eating good food, and people watching on the plaza. It was a good day. We went to see "Dinner for Schmucks" that night. It was funny and awful at the same time. The next morning we went to the Farmer's Market, toured St. John's campus, and left Santa Fe for good. I can't describe the feeling I had driving out of town. I looked in the rearview mirror and realized I wasn't just going on another field trip. I wouldn't be back for quite some time. I got sad. But I was also really anxious to get home. We stopped at Taos Pueblo on the way out and took a tour. I love the rich and long history of the people of New Mexico. They have some incredible stories and traditions. Pictures are available in the slide show of the pueblo.

The drive was beautiful. I don't know if I've ever seen anything as incredible as a stormy Northern New Mexico/Southern Colorado. We drove through lightning and thunder and torrential down pours the whole way. It was off and on, but the storm system was either huge enough to cover all three states or followed us along the way.

But, that's it. I had my first school dream last night, well more like a nightmare. I hope yearbook isn't that bad . . . But maybe I'll see people before school starts up again. Though I am looking forward to staying home for a while. I sure missed Gunnison.