Wednesday, October 4, 2017: Loretto Chapel, Lensic Performing Arts Center, Museum Hill

The Loretto Chapel, right next door to our hotel, has an amazing freestanding circular staircase completing two 360 turns which was constructed without the use of nails or glue.  This is usually a very busy place for photographers.  This is the trick.  They close at 5PM.  Arrive shortly before 5:00. They don't kick you out until 5:15.  Just wait until everyone else leaves and you can have the place entirely to yourself.  There were three other photographers there when I arrived doing the same thing.  I outwaited them.
An early dinner was necessitated by concert tickets this evening.  We had a very nice dinner in the hotel's Luminaria Restaurant.
Bev had tuna.
Bill had blue corn enchiladas and asparagus with filet mignon.  Delicious.  And to the health conscious, there was no fruit.
Tonight's concert was at the Lensic Performing Arts Center featuring ETHEL, a Grammy award-winning string quartet, and Mirabal, a locally renowned native American spiritual artist.  Much of the  music was original for this concert and featured (musical) water flowing in rivers to the sea.
Today (Wednesday) is spa day and museum day as rain has been forecast as an all day thing.  First we head for the spa on the spa-only elevator right outside our hotel room.  Bev has a facial while I have one of the best massages that I have had.  My PT has prescribed a massage for my back and I am only happy to oblige her.  Of course, there are no pictures from inside the spa.

Around mid-day we get out the car and head for Museum Hill, only about two miles away, and immediately have lunch at the Museum Hill Cafe
where Bev dines on house made mushroom taquitos
 and I eat healthy with a Cobb salad.
The grounds of museum hill ...
Our first museum is the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture (no photos allowed inside).
The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is next door.
In the museum shop I find my trip souvenir, an Indian themed blanket.  It will be perfect for wrapping up on the porch up north.
 After a little shopping around the Plaza and gelato
we head back to the hotel for some R&R.  Now as we are about to walk to dinner it has finally started to rain.  Hmm. What to do ...  Decided to don the rain jackets, take a house umbrella and walk to a restaurant.  When we arrived, it was a two and a half hour wait for a table!  Uh ... no.  This town is nuts.  We walked back to the hotel and ate in lobby bar
 with banana cream pie.
This is to prove that we did have a fruit course.
Tomorrow we have planned an excursion to Taos.



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