Santa Fe 2007

For 15 years now the LaVigna girls have taken the trek down south to Santa Fe, New Mexico for some fun togetherness. This year we saw some amazing artwork by Denver artist Dave Ryan at the gallery: In Art Santa Fe, on Delgado. Dave uses the pour and flow method with his paints and has taken this technique to a new level.

In addition to seeing some nice paintings and buying some nice jewelry, and having some great meals we:

1) ....were almost run out of town by the wait staff at "Trattoria Nostrani" for apparently wearing fragrance at their table. Funny thing is that this girl reminded all the other girls that we mustn't wear perfumes of any kind before dining there. We were so careful....we thought we were CLEAN of fragrance and poised to create an excellent example. But, being the snobs that they are, we were told shortly after arriving that one of us had on fragrance and they proceeded to leave a warm cloth for said person to wipe off said fragrance. Being completely appalled by the mere suggestion that we would do such a thing as wear fragrance to their restaurant and after having had dined there many times in the past and being way too familiar with their incessant request, we protested LOUDLY, that it was "IMPOSSIBLE!" and "NO WAY!", did any of us come wearing perfume. Then, I did it. I smelled my sweater. And there it was. Fragrance. How could this be??? And then I remembered, when packing for the trip I had the lovely, but fatal thought to add a light fragrant sachet to my luggage to freshen it up a bit. Evidently it had saturated my sweater and low and behold, we had a culprit. I ended up wearing my coat for the entire food gig and we were in the clear.

2) ....witnessed double standards at above snobby restaurant....that's right folks....the good people of Trattoria Nostrani made the mistake of seating a party of 4 right next to us that was wreaking with, you guessed it, perfume. This lady must have taken a bath in it just before arriving, it was VERY strong. But, wait, it gets better. They said NOTHING to her about said fragrance! Not a word. We kept waiting, watching for the moment when they would confront her. It didn't happen. Nada. We watched in utter amazement while they even kibitzed with her. She was SOMEBODY, but we couldn't figure it out. Was she Julia Robert's mother? The wife of a congressman? A Texas oil heiress? Icky, yucky, double standards. Our waiter was embarrassed. You could sense his discomfort in this unfortunate situation. But we had to admit, to be caught up in such a mindless scandal was all very exciting indeed.

3) ....indulged our soft spot for good bakeries and Sage Bakehouse on Cerillos has by far the best pastries in Santa Fe (probably the best in the whole of New Mexico, and Arizona, and Colorado for that matter). We had their pecan raisin wreath and almond croissant with a cup of French roast. Those pastries left me itching to go back for more. Someday I may just be crazy enough to take the 6 hr. drive there (and back!) just to pick up a dozen of my favorites from their case.

4) ....we watched the Rockies crush the Phillie's on Saturday night. I mean, how often can a grown woman (me?) and her grown sister (she is?) lay in bed with grown sister's daughter, and our mother to watch a ball game on TV?!!

The little paintings above are from my mail-able art collection and are, from left to right: "The Shepherd's Friends", "French Patriot", and "French Dream". All available at "Willow, An Artisans Market", in downtown historic Littleton, Colorado.