It was bound to happen, but we had a rain day today in Santa Fe. It did not stop us from heading downtown to take in some of the museums and shops that are unique to the city.

Our first stop is a beautiful Catholic Church built in the 1600s to serve as an outpost for the folks attempting to get the Indians some religion.

There is a beautiful statue in the courtyard...

The second stop was a real rip off. It was the Institute of American Indian Art Museum. $5 per adult...to view three rooms of paintings that were all done in the last 30 years. You would have thought that they would have had some older era exhibits or more than three rooms worth of stuff for $5 per person. It took us about 20 minutes to go through the 40 paintings or so and then 20 minutes to go through the even more interesting gift shop. Unanimously, we vote this venue as the biggest tourist trap we have encountered so far.

We then spent a few hours hitting some of the art galleries and shops that surround the town square. Most of these shops contain high end southwestern inspired sculptures and paintings. There are also a number of (ahem) less than high end shops....

There is a large shop filled with nothing but skeleton art...

One that had nothing but sun bleached steer skulls....$45!!!

And this...a Mexican Mask...on sale today!

We made it back to the camp and are preparing for a long day tomorrow as we head to the Grand Canyon!

Ms Pepper wanted to add some of her thoughts but she is now curled up sleeping...as usual.

E