Santa Fe - Day 2

We were close to wrapping up our visit in Santa Fe so we decided to go back to the historic district for another visit.  Uh-oh, did Mother Nature have other plans for us?

We decided we'd wait for things to warm up a bit and then we were on our way.

Last fall when we were in Santa Fe we had breakfast at The Burrito Company - there's nothing better than a breakfast burrito!  So we decided we'd eat there even though breakfast hours were over.

Imagine my surprise when I learned they serve breakfast burritos All. Day. Long.  Woo Hoo!

With our tummies full we started checking out some of the shops.  We'd never been in here before but quickly decided it was one of our favorites.

So pretty with the snow

The Rainbow Man has been open since 1945 and carries authentic Native American and Hispanic arts and crafts.  The young man who helped us with our purchase (one of the hot air balloons above) shared some of the history with us as his grandparents were the individuals who originally opened the store.

When you need to be dropped off at a top-secret research facility that does not exist, what address do you give the driver?  For two decades that address was 109 East Palace in Santa Fe.

This unremarkable building served as the first stop for many scientists working on the top secret Manhattan Project in nearby Los Alamos.  Scientists, technicians, and other workers would arrive each day to be ferried to where work on the atomic bomb (and possibly other secret science projects) actually took place.

According to Voices of the Manhattan Project, the primary contact person who greeted arrivals at the site was Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin, who became nearly as vital to the Project as any of the scientists.  She would process each of the arrivals and keep the overwhelming secretarial work in order, essentially making sure that the top-secret trains ran on time.  She stayed in Los Alamos after the Project was dissolved and became a bit of a local celebrity, earning the nickname "The First Lady of Los Alamos".  The building at 109 East Palace ceased acting as a receiving station for Los Alamos in 1963.

Everything was so pretty with the snow.

We stopped at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which is right in the historic plaza.

The door is absolutely beautiful.

And in the courtyard was a statue of Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), the first Indian of North America to be promoted a Saint.  The statue was made even more beautiful by the snow.

And then we went on to the Capitol.  By now the snow was starting to melt.

And that was it and it was time to go back "home".  As usual, we loved everything about Santa Fe.