Month: January 2018

The New Mexico History Museum has an exhibit on the history of the Fred Harvey Company. The exhibit details greatly enhanced our knowledge and enjoyment of our Harvey House tours.  “Artifacts in the exhibit include: the original Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway track sign for Albuquerque’s Alvarado Hotel; Harvey Girl uniforms (including the unique embroidered blouse worn by La Fonda waitresses in the 1950s); furniture designed by famed architect and interior decorator Mary Colter; hand-stamped Navajo spoons; Fred Harvey’s original datebook and an iconic painting of the man behind the empire. Other artifacts include a gong similar to ones that rang travelers to their meals (this one hung in the company’s Chicago office) and an original Doris Lee painting while helping to plan MGM’s The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland. The image Lee created was adopted by the Harvey Company and used on menus at El Navajo in Gallup and El Tovar at the Grand Canyon.”

Our house is out in the desert about 12 miles southeast of Santa Fe.  The houses are on 2 to 5 acre lots so there is a lot of open land.  We both enjoy long walks throughout the neighborhood.

After a brief return to California for visits with family and friends we headed to our next home outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We traveled along old Route 66 and made a few stops along the way.  We especially enjoyed another night’s stay at La Posada, the old restored Harvey House in Winslow, Arizona.  Now we’re settled into New Mexico for the winter.

Tiana’s mother, Marilyn, took us to the Basque Block in downtown Boise.  Marilyn is of Basque descent and shared a lot about Basque culture and history.  We started with lunch at a lively Basque restaurant bustling with the lunch crowd, Bar Gernika, with an interesting list of taps:

Firestone Walker Sticky Monkey Quad
Deschutes The Abyss 2018 Imp Stout
Barley Brown’s Handtruck Pale
Kostritzer Schwartzbier
New Belgium Trippel
Sockeye Christmas Kriek (Sour)
Boulevard American Kolsch                                                                                                  Lost Grove First Sight IPA

After lunch we went to the Basque Museum and the associated boarding house next door.  There is a large Basque community in Idaho and Northern Nevada and you see their influence throughout the region.