Offhand travel
The joy of getting away without a plan and letting someone else steer
When it comes to travel planning, I tend to vacillate between extremes. I’ve either picked a destination and am immersed in over-researching, fitting together an itinerary like a jigsaw puzzle (my natural state), or I’ve reached a frayed-nerve need for a getaway without an escape hatch lined up.
I was on the latter track a month or so ago as spring break approached. I definitely needed a change of scenery and to not squander the last few opportunities for captive family travel before our youngest child flies the coop. We had a generous offer from my cousin to stay with her in Santa Fe, but I had zero mental bandwidth to plan a single thing beyond getting in the car to drive there.1
This is my hometown, so not-planning isn’t such a big deal, to be fair. But I also didn’t want to simply default to the “favorite things” list. The solution? Assign someone else at least part of setting the vacay to-do list.
We gave our teen a mission: Pick at least one thing we should all do while in town. Thanks to his Googling and current appetite for manga, we ended up not only hiking around ancient petroglyphs I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever visited (despite being less than 20 miles from where I grew up) but also wandering through three new-to-me bookstores in the Railyard area. What a treat to explore a familiar place on the fly and through someone else’s eye.
Here’s our shortlist of unplanned, new-to-me discoveries in Santa Fe:
From the parking lot spur, the quickest access through the fence to the trails that lead around the cliffs where the petroglyphs are carved is to the right. We went to the left and were unsure of our route until we ran into a couple and their dog who assured us we could keep going until we found the other break in the fence, and that route took us to one of the densest collections of the ancient drawings.
Owned by author George R.R. Martin, this shop next to Jean Cocteau Cinema (also owned by Martin, who revived the beloved local indie film house in 2013) specializes in speculative fiction and has a cute little coffee counter. They don’t carry any manga, but we hit the quirky vending machine jackpot: the front window hosts a rocket-shaped gumball machine spitting out funky dice in plastic spheres for a quarter.
Across the street from Beastly, this spot offers tons of comics, including bins of vintage offerings, plus graphic novels, manga, games, D&D, and more.
Located in a house on the corner of Guadalupe and Garcia streets, Big Star is crammed with used books in many genres, as well as CDs. No manga for the teen, but a delightful spot for aimless browsing. Check out the tiny converted closet space of art books at the front.
Grab lunch, a loaf of fresh bread, or a box of Jacobsen Salty Black Licorice at Bread Shop on Lena Street (one of the city’s newer hip shopping streets). Both the ham sandwich with comté and dijon and the green olive and preserved lemon focaccia were delicious.
New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary
I’ve heard complaints that the Vladem is somewhat limited in scope, but I like a small museum and we spent a very pleasant hour or so here before crazy wind storms had all the state museums closing their doors for the afternoon. We spent almost as long in the delightful museum shop across the walkway, where I fell in love with a silver and spiny oyster shell necklace by local artist Wanda Lobito. (For another great Santa Fe museum pick, check out Jen’s post on the Wheelwright from last spring.)
Cheers to unplanned discoveries, and happy almost-weekend.
We made another lucky discovery on the drive out West when we stopped for lunch at The Toasted Goat in Kearney, Nebraska. Not only were the sandwiches world’s better than the fast-food alternatives, but we got to play a few rounds of pinball while we waited.
We often stop in Kearney. Thanks for the tip about this sandwich spot. That one is new to me. Great story. Thanks!