New Mexico - Part 4

From A:

This is the final installment of the New Mexico series of blog posts!  After my group's journey along the Turquoise Trail, we arrived in Santa Fe.  As we learned from our tour guide, Santa Fe allows three different types of architecture:

1. Pueblo Style - this is the traditional New Mexico architecture style that looks like the Acoma Pueblos explained in New Mexico - Part 2. 

2. Territorial Style - this mostly looks like the Pueblo Style, but a brick detailing is added around the top of the building.

3. Northern New Mexico Style - this style has a slanted metal roof and dormer windows (typically).  The reasoning for the change in roof style is because there is more snow in Northern New Mexico, which would just sit on top of the flat roofs of Pueblo and Territorial Style homes.  With the slanted roof, the snow can slide off the roof (and melting snow can flow off).

Now that I've explained about Santa Fe architecture, back to our tour.  We went to Old Town in Santa Fe, which is really charming (and has great shopping).

We also toured Loretto Chapel, which has been featured on the television series Unsolved Mysteries.

If you're interested in reading more about Loretto Chapel and its "Miraculous Spiral Staircase," there is a good Wikipedia article here.  The abridged version is as follows:

"Needing a way to get up to the choir loft the nuns prayed for St. Joseph's intercession for nine straight days. On the day after their novena ended a shabby looking stranger appeared at their door. He told the nuns he would build them a staircase but that he needed total privacy and locked himself in the chapel for three months. He used a small number of primitive tools including a square, a saw and some warm water and constructed a spiral staircase entirely of non-native wood. The identity of the carpenter is not known for as soon as the staircase was finally finished he was gone. Many witnesses, upon seeing the staircase, feel it was a miraculous occurrence."

As for the interior of the chapel, it is absolutely beautiful.

After an afternoon of exploring Old Town, my group made it back to our tour bus just as it started raining.  J and I must have brought the rain with us from Florida, because it rained twice while we were in New Mexico, an area with 300 days of sunshine each year.

Speaking of Florida, on a completely unrelated side note, the University of Florida football team broke our three game losing streak with a win over Georgia yesterday.  Go Gators!  And Go Chas Henry!