Albuquerque Trip

Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico

Friday, April 14, 2017 :
Remy only found out on Wednesday that her sister, Lucy, had died of a heart attack this week. We considered driving directly from Houston on arrival on Thursday to Albuquerque, but we needed to repack and restock on our prescription drugs, so we drove home first.

I mowed the lawn, packed and then we started off for Albuquerque around 2:30. We made it to San Angelo by dark and stayed at a Quality Inn. I got a $10 discount with my AARP card.

Saturday, April 15, 2017 :
We arrived at the Days Inn in Albuquerque around 4 pm. After questioning the girl at the desk, we decided to eat dinner at the Standard Dinner down the block. Since this was Holy Saturday and that requires abstinence from meat, we ordered the Seared Salmon & Caramelized Fennel Linguine. It was pretty good, not exactly what you expect from a diner.

Sunday April 16, 2017 :
We went to Easter mass at San Ignacio church a few blocks away. It seemed like a neighborhood church and I think a lot of the parishioners walked to the Mass. The service was in English, but the songs mostly in Spanish. It was nice.

Remy wanted to do something special for lunch. We found the Cooperate on Lomas street and it was rather nice. I'm not used to munching on an elaborate salad bar so I couldn't finish the steak.

We picked up Geneviv, Penny and Ron at the train station and brought them to their Days Inn near the airport, as opposed to the one we got near the train station. Dudoy and his family came to our Days Inn, where we talked for an hour or so, then chose to go to the Route 66 Diner I had seen the other day for dinner. I still wasn't too hungry yet so I only ordered desert. It turned out to be a gigantic banana split. Fortunately Cerita helped me finish it.

Route 66 Diner

Monday, April 17, 2017 :

There were a lot of e-mails back and forth between Remy and Vengie pertaining to the funeral services. Vengie didn't want to do the normal Catholic burial rites of a Christian Funeral, Rosary, etc. It ended up we did a viewing before the normal viewing period at the Direct Funeral Services site. We had 9 to 10 at which time we said a Rosary and a Chaplet of the Divine Mercy prayers. We spent our alotted hour there then left to go to Santa Fe.

First we went to El Santuario Chimayo. A few years ago when we went to the Loretto Chapel Richard Alaniz asked if we also went to the Chimayo site. I hadn't been aware of it, so noted that next time we were in the area I would check it out.

The story of the miracles relates to an apparition in the Chimayo area. Don Bernardo Abeyta saw a light on one of the hills near the Santa Cruz River. He went to the spot, dug and found a crucifix.

Fr. Sebastian carried the cross in procession to the parish church where it was placed in the main altar. The next morning, the Crucifix was gone, only to be found in its original location.

A second procession returned the Crucifix to Santa Cruz, but once again disappeared. The same thing happened a third time. A small chapel was built which contains the hole with dirt, called "el pocito" (the little well). I missed the exit from Hwy 285 North of Santa Fe, but Geneviv has some kind of GPS app on her phone that got us to the shrine. Not having had researched this trip to my normal detail, we just started up the path to the Chapel and took in the displays along the way.

The dirt pit chapel and the church do not allow photography so I included an image of the pit from their web site. The visitor center sells a little container for taking some of the dirt with you. There are many testimonial letters of the miracles attributed to the area. In addition we saw some Madonna Statues and other religious art.

El Santuario Chimayo

Geneviv's GPS then helped us find a short route to the Loretto Chapel. Two mysteries surround the spiral staircase in the Loretto Chapel: the identity of its builder and the construction.

When the Loretto Chapel was built there was no way to access the choir. Local carpenters were not able to design a staircase for such a small chapel..

The Sisters made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. When the circular staircase was completed, the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. Legend has it that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself who answered the sisters' prayers.

The staircase has two 360 degree turns and no visible means of support. It was built without nails. The type of wood used is not native to the area. There are probably some other unexplained items to it, check out their web site link below.

We entered the chapel and took several pictures of the staircase, statues and stained glass windows. Two of the altar area windows depict the 4 evangelists. A couple of models show what the staircase looked like at different times such as before the rails were added.