While traveling with a toddler meant that we missed out on much of Santa Fe's contemporary cultural contributions - art and food, (I didn't dare do more than peak into the most stroller-accessible galleries and we did get a dose of New Mexican cuisine, but often in the form of take-out to accommodate Oliver's bedtime) we explored as much of the city as Oliver could handle. Santa Fe is a small, walkable city (and otherwise stroller-friendly, except for some narrow sidewalks along the centuries-old streets) and we were able to reach most of the places we wanted to see within the city limits in a 30-minute walk or less. It looks so different from any city I've ever been to that even just walking through neighborhoods and looking at the adobe houses was interesting.
No matter how kid-friendly you try to be, some things just aren't meant for kids and kid and adult interests don't always mix. Chris and I split up at points throughout the trip so we could each do things we wanted to do without a kid in tow and so that we could be fair to Oliver. Because I wanted to see the (quiet and little-kid-free) Georgia O'Keefe Museum, (again, like the galleries, there are just some places not meant for young children) Chris took Oliver to Santa Fe's children's museum for the morning. Another day Oliver and I enjoyed a low-key day centered around his schedule so that Chris could going skiing in Taos.
I wasn't sure how Oliver would handle the new vacation schedule, but true to his personality, skipping his afternoon nap was non-negotiable. So we divided our sightseeing into chunks we could accomplish over a long morning or a short, late afternoon and then got back to the house we were renting in time for lunch and a nap. When he had trouble sleeping one afternoon, we decided last-minute that should be the afternoon we take the long drive to Bandelier National Monument and let Oliver sleep in the car. He did sleep, briefly, and after a pleasant hike on a beautiful afternoon, we thought we'd gotten away with an outing we wouldn't have had time for if Oliver had napped at home. Then he started crashing on the drive back to Santa Fe and by the time we made it home, our sweet child had morphed into the crankiest mess we had ever witnessed and he willingly went to bed an hour and a half early with no dinner. We felt so guilty. Even though we often underestimated how long we'd be away from home in the morning and pushed the limits of Oliver's nap time, after that afternoon at Bandelier, we made sure we made it back to the house to give him time for a quality nap in his pack 'n' play.
With Santa Fe as our base, we never ventured much beyond an hour's drive of the capitol, so there's still a lot of the state we didn't get to see. But what we saw was magnificent. Our favorite place was Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. We walked with Oliver a half a mile towards the trail that would take us 1.5 miles into the narrow Slot Canyon and culminate in a steep, 630-foot climb to the top of the mesa. We'd gain at least 1,200 feet in elevation during our hike. Because of the steep climb and uneven terrain, Oliver hitched a ride most of the way in the Ergo.
I thought the scenery was beautiful before we reached the canyon, but a few feet down the Canyon Trail and the canyon walls soared above us with cone-shaped tent rock formations perched against the deep blue New Mexico sky. Like I had experienced in Mount Rainier National Park where the beauty was overwhelming, I couldn't stop taking pictures.
We also really enjoyed Bandelier National Monument and Pecos National Historic Park. Because we wanted to do something that Oliver could manage, we limited ourselves to "hiking" the main 1.5-mile paved trails that looped around the visitor centers. We were surprised by how far he could walk, and although he could have cared less about the scenery or the historical markers that dotted the trails, (which I wanted to stop and read word-for-word) he loved the freedom of walking on his own.
Our time away in New Mexico was special because Oliver got to spend so much time with his dad. Chris is so busy right now with work travel and school and I hadn't realized until our vacation how much we needed time away as a family. It's rare when Chris has the opportunity to spend days on end with Oliver and I enjoyed having my other half around full time to split parenting duties.
The vacation was also bittersweet because I realized it would probably be the last time we'd spend that much quality time together as a family of three. We look forward to having another child and we know we won't be able to imagine life without him or her. Yet there's a sentimental part of me that doesn't want to forget what it was like when it was just the three of us.
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