Saturday drive

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=22 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="097000d2egerdp.gif"> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=145 BGCOLOR="#333399" TEXT="#080000" background="096a2c00erkjzj.gif"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=458 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336600" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>Weekend in New Mexico</I></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#663399" FACE="Times New Roman" >    </FONT> |    <A HREF="http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/vegas/779/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/vegas/7"><U><B> </B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/vegas/779/index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/vegas/7"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Saturday drive</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Northbound on Sunday"><U>Northbound on Sunday</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Canyon Road Galleries"><U>Canyon Road Galleries</U></A></div> <div> <IMG SRC="09807040.gif" border=0 width="263" height="4" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Saturday drive</B></div> <div> <B>Photos:</B> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Winery"><U> Winery</U></A>  |  <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Road shots"><U>Road shots</U></A>  |  <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Battleship Rock"><U>Battleship Rock</U></A></div> <bR> <div> My friend Alfredo and I go back to our New York City days, when I was living uptown near Lincoln Center.  We've stayed in touch, and we've gotten together several times when he's traveled to conferences and I've joined him for a weekend here and there.  Well, this time he was going to Santa Fe, and suggested I join him as I'd been there twice before.  So we arranged to rendezvous in Albuquerque Saturday midday, and then go exploring.  My flight on Southwest out of Oakland, through LAX, was early, but so was his flight.  We picked up a rental car, and headed up towards Santa Fe.  Taking an alternate route, we veered west after Bernadillo and drove through the Zia pueblo.  Not much to see there, with no focus towards visitors on the reservation.  Continuing on highway 44 to San Ysidro, we turned north on the Jemez Trail.  Scenery improved as we began climbing hills, with small canyons off in the distance which had been etched out by the Jemez Creek.  We were getting hungry, and saw signs for a Ponderosa Bar and Grill in so we took the turnoff.  About 5 miles later, we went past a winery, and continued looking for the eatery.  We came upon it after another 2 miles, and were told that there was no cook or food.  So we turned around and stopped at the Ponderosa Valley Winery.  Mary, the owner, was handling the hospitality, and poured us tastes of her husband's efforts, while entertaining us with the specifics of New Mexican wine making.  She also explained that the cook at the Bar & Grill had gone off on a vacation about 2 weeks previously, and decided not to return.  She sent us on, with a split of port for me and a bottle of red for Alfredo, to <A HREF="http://www.discovernewmexico.com/listings/jemez_springs/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.discovernewmexico.com/listing"><U>Jemez Springs</U></A> where we stopped and had lunch.</div> <bR> <div> The Leaping Lizard was interesting.  My companion ate lightly, having a bowl of soup, while I had a raspberry chipolte chicken burrito.  Yummy!  We had a glass of Jemez Red with our meal, since we'd tried it just moments earlier and found it acceptable.  We then got back in the car, heading over the mountain towards the Rio Grande.  It was quite a climb, and went on for much longer than I'd expected, although the scenery was spectacular.  We stopped several times, including at Battleship Rock, for pictures, which are linked to above.  We got to the entrance of Bandolier about 30 minutes before sunset, so as we continued to the highway, we saw the Sangre de Cristos Mountains in front of us turn a deep pink hue, hence the name.  We got into Santa Fe at dusk, maneuvering through the city and found our hotel, La Honda after several wrong turns.  It seems that the City Fathers have decided to ban all vehicular traffic on the roads around the central plaza.  With the rest of the streets in the vicinity being one way, it took some exploration to find the hotel's parking garage.</div> <bR> <div> We had a small room on the third floor, an easy climb/decent of two flights.  After settling in, we opened a bottle of red that I'd brought from California, and caught up on what had been happening in our lives since we'd seen one another last.  About 8, we decided to find dinner, and I dug out my notes from my last visit and we headed to L'Osteria for dinner.  That short walk took us past both the Inn of the Anasazi and the Santa Cafe, which looked quite busy.  We had about a 5 minute wait for a table, and were handed glasses of wine - a cab/sangiovese blend and a merlot, which we carried to our table in the corner of the front room.  Our waitress was a character, and approved of our selections for starters and mains.  We began with carpaccio and a dish of calamari in a light tomato sauce.  Both were good, and the squid was a surprise presentation for me - I'd probably only had it breaded and fried previously.</div> <bR> <div> For main courses we went with the chicken special, with onions and garlic, and a lamb stew with porcini mushrooms and polenta.  We needed more wine, so tried glasses of a Barolo and Chianti Classico, switching to European wines.  As the restaurant was not filling up for a late seating, we took our time and enjoyed the food and wine.  We were full from our meal, but our waitress brought us a delightful glass of Mourvedre to finish off the evening, and I took the fruit tart home for breakfast.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>