Santa Fe: The Land of Adobe {Road Trip to Texas Part 2}

As we exited I-25 for Santa Fe, Jen and I noticed something.  

Everything was adobe.  

Like, seriously.  Everything.

Once we got over the adobe, we found our hotel downtown.  (Well, let's be honest.  We never really got past the adobe.  For the duration of our stay, we said, "Holy crap, what is WITH the adobe?!" about once every thirty minutes.) 

We felt like pimps rolling up into the El Dorado Hotel and Spa, our destination for the night.

It was beautiful!

Our initial plan was to walk around downtown for awhile and then find somewhere for dinner.  But we soon realized the steakhouse attached to the hotel looked pretty awesome AND we were starving... despite the fact that it was 5pm.

It was absolutely EMPTY that early in the evening!  

Jen's 31st birthday was the next day, so we decided to go all out.  She went with her staple lemon drop martini, and I branched out a bit with a pomegranate martini.

As our waiter brought out the bread, he also brought our amuse-bouche.  We were informed that an amuse-bouche is a single, bite-sized appetizer.  Our amuse-bouche was a slice of beef tenderloin, carmelized onions, and asparagus sauce.  YUM!  Jen and I felt very cultured eating it.

We then ordered crab cakes, and we both had the beef tenderloin for our entree. By the time we left, the old folks had all arrived to also partake in the early bird special.

After dinner, we were ready to walk around downtown.  However, as soon as we walked outside, we realized it had started raining, and it was FREEZING!

So.

We stayed in and made lemon drop martinis in our room.  

We made one more attempt to go outside that night and check out the rooftop pool/hot tub.  To our surprise, the hot tub was super cold....

So.

We went back to the room, made more martinis, watched a movie, and ordered chocolate cake!

The next morning, we woke up bright eyed, bushy tailed, and ready to use my self-timed camera for some selfies (or doublies and we began calling them).  Jen hadn't put on her eye make up yet, so she requested to wear her sunglasses.

We then decided to put on the hotel robes... and I couldn't leave Jen alone wearing her sunglasses.  I like to call this next series of pictures, "Blind Mental Patients Get Down".

We ventured out, and were happy to see beautiful weather!  Our first stop was the toy store, so that Jen could get some souvenirs for her kids.

More of the sights of Santa Fe...

Jen got a pretty Santa Fe Christmas ornament, and I got this bracelet:

After shopping, we decided we were definitely hungry and DEFINITELY ready to celebrate Jen's birthday with a fun, rooftop lunch!

After lunch, we bid adieu to Santa Fe.  Not only had we hit our adobe and turquoise quota (quite possibly for life).... we had some aliens awaiting us in Roswell.  

It was time to hit the road.

Note to self: Do not leave "walking" directions programmed in your phone unless you want to seriously confuse yourself.