I got to Santa Fe in a bit of a frenzy last night, but man, this city has already gotten me into its slow groove. The art! The parks! The farmer’s market! The living is good here.

Yesterday, I spent the morning at the Taos Pueblo Reservation, where I saw ruins and walked through basically a craft market disguised as an actual village. But I bought an ocarina there. An ocarina is a small, round clay flute with a mouthpiece and 5 holes that vary in size. So I’ve been playing with that quite a lot today.

Then I had a bit of a mix-up about where I was supposed to be sleeping last night (not in the hotel I’d been in, apparently). But luckily, Laura Bixby came to my rescue and secured me a bed in her grandparents’ guest house in Santa Fe, my next destination. So I had a lovely sunset drive down to Santa Fe and arrived at Ann and Harry Bixby’s house, where I had great food and company. Ann was sporting a fantastic pair of peace sign earrings.

This morning, Harry advised me that I’d want to stop by the Santa Fe farmer’s market. So, I went. On the way in, there was a group playing these huge wooden xylophone-type instruments (I don’t pretend to know the difference between all those things). They were awesome, and then the first booth I got to in the market was giving away free home-grown iced tea! Woohoo market! I was looking for cherries, but I didn’t find any at all. Sad, but certainly a great time. There were so many people there, all looking for fresh produce, meat, dairy, etc. from the area on a Saturday morning. Glorious.

So I have another free day before my conference here starts. I suspect I’ll be writing, hiking, and hoping this big sky will keep raining down epiphanies.