We awoke to our first morning in Santa Fe with stiff backs in a church room that had been booked for another event. Lelah, our kind guide to the day's church service (see what we did there?) told us that we would be setting up chairs for a class. Little did we know, we would also get seven worksheets and a condensed lecture of the history of the middle east over the last 100 years from Mary Louise. As we crammed our sleeping bags to the walls, we all agreed that we needed to upgrade our sleep situation. Our voyage across town to Walmart was a cool look at Santa Fe during the daytime. It's a city of bright colors and earthy materials, with no buildings larger than 3 stories. We needed to balance out the big-brand purchases, so we went to the local artisan market. The majority of the group bought something from the free-trade, organic, local-made, quesadilla-acing coffee shop there. Emmitt even tried affagato, which is ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over it. Needless to say, he was insufferable all afternoon.
Our Sunday service at the church (still punny) continued by setting up chairs for a choir performance. After how many chairs we had moved, you could basically call us certified chair masters. Lelah told us that First Presbyterian Church is the oldest protestant church in New Mexico that's still in use, active since the 1860's. We thought that was pretty awesome, but we had to find something older than that. So we drove about an hour north through the gorgeous New Mexican Desert to Bandelier National Monument. We weren't there for more than five minutes before we heard an "M-I-Z" come roaring from the Taos, NM MAB group charging wildly at us. One mega-selfie and a few thousand hugs later, we went our separate ways to explore the park. Bandelier features indigenous homes from many centuries ago carved into the walls of canyons. Lucky for us, they're open to the public. Naturally, we found the smallest one we could and fit all 12 of us in there. But the journey wasn't over, for we had to venture forth into the wild unknown…of the well-maintained state park. Atop a 140-foot-high alcove that takes several ladders to reach, we were stunned by the beauty of the nature around us. It was a true case of "this is it," for us as we appreciated the breathtaking beauty of the park. And took some amazing soon-to-be profile pictures. So much for unplugging?
Our timing for the hike back was perfect, because we made it back to the top of the canyon just in time for a full sunset containing wild-west cliché colors. The drive home was way too long, but we got back for a delicious dinner cooked by Carly, Maryanne, and Gordon Ramsey (Lena). Our family dinner conversation was full of laughter and sly jabs at one another. "Wait, that only happened yesterday," was said more than a few times. It's hard for us to believe that we have this many inside jokes already after only a few days of being together. We can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us!
-Emmitt and Ali
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