Santa Fe and Sandia Tramway

This is a ‘Catch Up’ post.  Rewind to our 7 days in Albuquerque.

Midway through our week with brothers and wives, we scheduled an overnight trip to Santa Fe for some more memories and golf.  Brad, Reid and I “grew up” in Santa Fe having spent our elementary, junior and senior high school years there.  

That was where I found my life long passion with golf.  Reid and I both worked at the Santa Fe Country Club growing up and it’s where the three of us played high school golf.  Eldest brother Marty was already off to college and the Navy by then but he visited often and had not been back in a while.  Pam and I had visited Santa Fe quite a few times during our full-timing years.

For now it was a short 60 mile overnight trip.  First the guys drove up to make our 10 AM tee time at Santa Fe Country Club.  I regained my composure from our Monday outing and smoked those boys.  I had a good golf day.  

I have since played 3 more times in our travels and have been suitably humbled once again.  Golf is like that.

We finished our 18 holes and hung around a bit on the porch where the girls joined us.  They drove up after us and went to lunch before meeting us at the golf course.  We stayed for a little while then went over to our AirBnB rental.  It was only about a mile away from the golf course.

When we were growing up in the late 60’s and 70’s there were no houses out near the golf course.  It was now completely built up with many different neighborhoods.  Our rental house had a small yard but big bedrooms and was quite nice. 

For dinner that night we went to the Pantry Restuarant which is a local favorite and it was simply fantastic.  I did a face plant in my combination platter of New Mexican food.  It was so yummy.

Even better, there was a guy there playing in the restaurant.  I wish I had gotten his picture and name.  He did all the 60’s and 70’s songs which was a fun touch.  A table in the back had us singing and hand waving and tapping to the music.  It was a little out of character but good fun and just made for an enjoyable evening.

We returned to the house and hung out for the rest of the night and told stories and chilled before going to bed. 

Thursday morning we went to Rio Pantry, a sister restaurant near the downtown Plaza in Santa Fe and enjoyed breakfast and conversation outside.  

Then we played tourist on the Plaza and did some shopping and strolling around.  It was a beautiful morning for it.

At lunch we found a table at the famous La Fonda Hotel dining room and enjoyed some more local cuisine.

We took our time wandering around the grounds of the Cathedral of St Francis.  It is such an interesting and important place in the region.

Before too long it was time to head back to Albuquerque so we could go see the Sandia Tramway and have dinner at the Ten 3 Restaurant at the top.  We went back to Reid and Amy’s got ready and drove over to the base of the Sandia Mountains to catch the tramway to the top.  By this time, Pam had tapped out and decided to have some time to herself.  

The boarding station at the tramway was impressive.  I think I had a date here once in high school and Pam and I had been up with the kids once when we were stationed in Abuquerque at Kirkland AFB 1988-1992.

The operators were terrific.  They told us more facts than we could absorb and answered everyones questions.  It was about a 15 minute ride to the top and covered about 2.7 miles.  The view was quite amazing.  It you have trouble with heights, this is the wrong excursion for you.

Once at the top we were able to get a couple table for the 7 of us.  Brad and Sue and Elena got the corner view of the ski basin which was pretty cool.

Reid and Amy and I were seated nearby but a little ways back from the window.

The view quickly disappeared as the clouds rolled in the and the visibility was pretty much gone. I felt bad for the folks on the other side of the restaurant with the reservations and high priced seats.  What can you do?

After dinner (of some great hummus and pita bread) we descended the 10,300 ft Sandia Peak and the tram car went through the fog.

It was a fun couple of days and we were ready to get to Reid’s house and relax some.  That pretty much sum’s up a couple of days in our Coast-to-Coast road trip.  Thanks for joining us today.  And thanks for all the comments! We love ‘em.