One problem with visiting important places that are more than a few cubic meters in extent is that it is not clear what parts of the space you have to move through, doing what, to achieve successfully visiting.
You probably need to get out of the car. You probably don’t need to examine every fence post. But between those extremes, you are on your own (but for the voices of every fencepost urgently advertising the need for you to examine it, and to go on the fence post experience tour, and buy fencepost memorabilia).
And all the while you are uncomfortably wondering whether you are enjoying the Taj Mahal gift shop without realizing you should be stepping outside and seeing the Taj Mahal. Or whether you are enjoying the Taj Mahal, but would enjoy it so much more deeply, for some impossible to pin down reason, if you were just here at sunset on a Tuesday instead.
Along these lines, S suggested that a pilgrimage to Los Alamos might be more satisfying with some specific experiences one was meant to have along the way. So I tried making a scavenger hunt for our next real stop, Santa Fe, based on the internet’s views on what is important there.
Santa Fe is apparently interesting for its architecture—especially adobe and Greek revival style—its art, its food, its history. So we had to find canales and nichos and vigos, and white wood columns, brick copings, and double hung windows with divided sashes. And a turquoise stone depiction. And the state capitol building, and the oldest house in America. And something we hadn’t eaten before, and something delicious. And something we could read in Spanish. And so on.
(Hotel outside of town that would have ticked most of our adobe style boxes, and building in town that probably did.)
We probably found almost everything. We lost the piece of paper, and some of our patience for this kind of thing. I possibly learned more specific facts about architecture than in the rest of my life added together. I possibly paid more attention to my surroundings than, um, usual (..added together). I’m not sure that we found the proper experience of visiting Santa Fe. We did find a giant metal dog with a swing under it though, and who can really say which is better? Especially with the artist standing that close.
