Santa Fe leaves an impression of one extended cozy and clean arts & shopping mall.

At least this is the view from the city center. It would probably be nice to just hang around the city for a day or two, dropping into various stores and then sitting on balconies of street bars at happy hours with live music...  Don't see many more potential activities there for... travelers with no commitments :) But as 3/4 of our gang were non-drinkers this time, and Von Zobel would not allow us all to suffer live music on a balcony of a bar just for his sake, we had to adapt our travel program.

One thing I started admiring Santa Fe and the near suburbs for right from the start is the well preserved and perfectly maintained style of architecture. I don't think I saw just nearly as many adobe buildings and houses in AZ; nor did I have a chance to see such good examples of Spanish colonial architecture yet (or something a little more unusual).

Even though we managed to visit a museum or see a sight during every 1/2 day: either before or after lunch - it still feels like we did not see much. Maybe because we're spoiled by Denver and local museums and botanical garden looked bigger and more existing on the internet when I was making the trip agenda. Or maybe - the reason they were not too big was that we managed to visit at least one point of interest in 1/2 day. :)
El Rancho de las Golondrinas though was a nice exception - we came there for a Civil War event, and despite the heat and large distances we had to cover without stroller (yes, it's great to have sportive husband!) we did not want to leave.

"Dad, cover your ears, aim, fire!"

And of course we all found the mill to be the coolest place at El Rancho! Dr Chill wanted to come back there 3 times:

Another thing that was literally knocking me off my feet in Santa Fe was lilac. It's abundance, the lush bunches of flowers in various colours and smell! I haven't smelled lilac so flavorful since probably my childhood, and  now couldn't walk past it: the smell seemed to have its very own body and texture, soothing and relaxing. Too bad no one came up with a digital smell picture technology yet :)