Santa Fe is also home to the Loretto Chapel, which is home to the “Miracle Staircase”.  If you’ve ever watched bad tv, you might have seen it featured on “Unsolved Mysteries” or one of the many made-for-tv movies about it.

Here’s the scoop: When the Loretto Chapel was completed in 1878, there was no way to access the choir loft 22 feet above.  Carpenters were called in, but they all concluded that access would have to be via ladder, as stairs would interfere with the small interior space.  Legend says that the Sisters of the Chapel prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters.  On the ninth and final day of prayer, a mysterious man appeared with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work.  Months later, a beautiful, circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks.

Whoever this guy was, he designed and built a staircase that was innovative for that time, and some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.  The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support.  It’s also said that the staircase was built without nails – only wooden pegs…

A railing was added sometime later –  but in a picture of an earlier picture, you can see how the staircase originally looked:

I like the mini staircase that one of the congregants built.  Can you find its picture?

Santa Fe prides itself on the nickname, “The City Different”.  It’s the 2nd oldest city in the US – can anyone name the oldest?  SunFlower friends??  You should know this…

Anyway, the city is home to a crazy number of art galleries, museums, and restaurants.  We (ok, I) was desperate to see the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum (I’m not even really sure why, I just was) – and once the girls realized that Marie had shown a book of O’Keeffe’s work in class last year, the girls were desperate to go too.  It’s a great museum, and they had a very interesting video describing the artist and her life.  There were lots of film clips of her, and audio clips of her reading letters that she had written to friends over the years.   She lived to be 98, and looked “exceedingly spry” in the videos, as Rachel so succinctly put it.

Santa Fe has lots of interesting shopping opportunities.  Peter was interested in an authentic Navajo blanket, but with a price tag of $10,000, that wasn’t happening.  I couldn’t risk getting taking a picture, I figured they might charge for the privilege.  Pictures of dead animal skulls appeared to be free.