Three Days in Santa Fe

As are my fellow bloggers, I'm still trying to regain my equilibrium. I had planned to fly to Santa Fe last Wednesday to do some research for my next Lizzie Stuart mystery. A friend who had some vacation days left and wanted a getaway came along with me. It says something about our shared state of mind that neither one of us even mentioned the election when we met at the airport on Wednesday morning. In fact, it was Thursday afternoon before we got around to acknowledging what had happened.

But the trip itself was wonderful. I had never been to Santa Fe and by the time I left on Saturday morning, I was ready to move there. 

On the other hand, Lizzie, my protagonist, will be distracted and anxious to get home to Gallagher, Virginia. The disappearance and murder that she has on her mind happened in Gallagher, not Santa Fe. In spite of my own enjoyment of the city, I tried to see it all through Lizzie's eyes.

I also spent some time thinking about what she would actually have the time to see and do on a Thanksgiving visit with her future-in-laws – people she'll be meeting for the first time and who she hopes will like her. But they would suggest that Quinn, Lizzie's fiance, show her around the city. Aside from the question of what would have been open during the Thanksgiving holiday, I also need to know what buildings and businesses were there in November 2004. I read everything I could access before I left, asked questions while I was there, need to dig down and do newspaper research now that I'm back.

Meantime, here are photos from the Santa Fe, November 2012:

Outside a state building

Rotunda dome in capitol with flags on display

Also in the capitol, wonderful leather furniture 

– and an odd sign asking not to put ice in the plants.

Downtown plaza with Native American artists and artisans
selling their work to browsing tourists

I have lots of other photos. I need to sort through what I have in my camera and cell phone and decide which are useful. What would have caught Lizzie's eye and what would she have thought?

I need to make sure the trip to Santa Fe is not an interesting but pointless detour on the journey to solving the murder. But now I have been to Canyon Road and I have a model for the art galley that Quinn's half-sister owns. I've seen the neighborhood where she and her family live. I know more about her husband's work as an archeologist. More important I know how a conversation in Santa Fe will lead to the solution to my mystery back in Gallagher.

It was a good trip and a welcome time-out.