My weekend in Santa Fe didn’t go as planned, mainly because I didn’t do any planning. I’d been under deadline, trying to finish a book-length editing job. So I went to New Mexico without expectations, having relinquished all programming decisions to my husband. Here’s what happened.

We visited the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument: desolate, eerie, and reminiscent of Cappadocia. I was unprepared to do any hiking, so I ended up scrambling over miles of rocky trails while wearing a dress. It was a fun surprise.

Then we went to The House of Eternal Return at Meow Wolf. Set inside an old bowling alley, Eternal Return looks like a normal Victorian haunted house, until you crawl through the fireplace and find yourself meandering through dungeons of eldritch horrors (including a phantasmagorical Baba Yaga’s hut, complete with chicken feet), from which you can escape only by returning through the door of the refrigerator. Also a fun surprise.

After being wowed by Meow Wolf, we sat down to hear the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. I half-expected a collection of beautiful art songs, having previously enjoyed these virtuoso performers during the Christmas season. Instead, we got the great-granddaddy of all sacred a cappella pieces: Rachmaninoff’s masterful All-Night Vigil. I can’t say the vespers were fun, since they required considerable stamina, but they were brilliantly executed, surprisingly moving, and quite a treat.

Upon returning home, we went hiking up to Long Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, where we spotted a reclusive pine marten. He was long and ferret-like, nearly the size of a cat, and I am very sorry that this is the best photo I could get.

The mountains were less difficult to photograph, and they made me very happy. No surprise there.