We started our day with breakfast at a diner called Weck’s, the food was cheap and plentiful but I only ordered a side of biscuits and gravy and only had half of that because my stomach still felt funky. If you want average, cheap food then Weck’s is a good place to get it.
Today we went on a bit of a hunt for good things to do. I really wanted to go to Meowwolf, which is known to be an immersive art exhibit but the ‘immersive’ part wasn’t exactly my mom’s thing, especially considering that there were supposedly things you had to crawl through or slide down to move through the attraction. So instead we visited a glass gallery called Liquid Light Glass which featured a lot of unique glass work inspired by bees and women. There were headless, limbless statues made of glass in a woman's image that had a delicate butterfly and bee wings springing forth from their backs as they flitted about a large glass shelf in the shape of honeycomb with glass honey oozing from within. I had never seen realism such as this achieved in glass, which is a difficult medium to start with. It didn’t attempt to compete with works such as Chihuly’s gorgeous blown glass sculptures that dominate the Pacific Northwest glasswork scene but rather lent glass to a completely different style.
We stopped at Camino Real on our way back into town, it was an eye-catching shop on the side of the Cerrillos Road that could hardly be missed. It had hundreds of everything, wandering through the masses of garden sculptures, rugs, pottery, painted ceramic tiles, jewelry, and more, you could imagine coming here and finding absolutely everything you might need.
After that, we drove to the Prescott Gallery and Sculpture Garden, which is a bit sketchy to drive up to but is well worth the visit. It’s in a part of town that’s a bit out of the way and industrial but it’s the only gallery where you get to interact with the fine art. Prescott made giant metal pendulum sculptures, some were images, like a coral reef with swimming fish, or a boxing match with the players knocking each other back with each swing, and others were animals with heads that bobbed up and down with the wind. He had a 30-foot tall giraffe in his backyard zoo that wasn’t complete when we visited but might be complete the next time we go or whenever you go. It’s so large that you can walk under its legs. Prescott also included a lot of neon lights in his statues, making them come to life not only in dimension and movement but also in the play with light. If you ever get the chance I strongly recommend going.
We went back to the Plaza because it’s a scenic relaxing space, but this time we ate at la Plazuela at la Fonda which was one of the best restaurants we visited during the entire trip. We ate fajitas, I had steak and my mom had chicken and they were both delicious. We were well attended and the food was spectacular and affordable. The atmosphere was serene with sunlight pouring in through the large skylight over a central fountain with trees growing beside it. The room was encircled by painted glass panes and the ceiling soared above our heads.
We walked from the Plaza to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, a gorgeous Roman Catholic cathedral in the Romanesque Revival style but which also features traditional adobe in other segments of the building. It is dominated by a large rosary window towering over the pavilion and inspires awe. It reminded me of gothic cathedrals I had visited in Washington DC and New York City. In places like this, you can’t help but feel you have to sit down and take it all in. I don’t know whether God exists or whether they are with me when I’m in a place of worship like this, but I can’t help but feel that it takes something great to inspire a group of people to come together and create something so beautiful.
By this point we were looking for things to do, we visited an old bookstore on the edge of town, visited a couple more galleries on Canyon Road and then ate cheeseburgers at Del Charro, an old-west style saloon. It was average, the burgers were a bit dry and the lighting was dark but it was fine.