Archive for the 'New Mexico' Category
Santa Fe, N.M., celebrates its 400th birthday with music, art and more
September 26, 2009 5:57am
Residents of Santa Fe, N.M., are singing the praises of their city in honor of its 400th anniversary, and they plan to continue the celebration for the next 16 months. The commemoration, which kicked off this month, includes hundreds of special events.
The celebration will honor the city’s diverse cultures with an arts and lecture series, history programs, musical and theater presentations and special programs for children.
Among the events scheduled for October are a royal visit from the prince and princess of Asturias, an autonomous principality within the kingdom of Spain; and a Spanish presentation of “The Barber of Seville” as part of the Teatro Nuevo Mexico series.
Santa Fe, established as a seat of government by the Spanish in 1610, is one of the oldest capital cities in the U.S. But long before the Spanish moved in Native Americans settled in the area. And later, during the city’s development, it was home to many other cultures, including settlers of Mexican, European and African American descent.
Contact: Santa Fe 400th, (505) 986-1610
—Rosemary McClure, Special to The Los Angeles Times
Ilustration: “The Barber of Seville” will be staged in Spanish; Credit: Courtesy of Santa Fe 400th
Get your kicks with Route 66 itinerary from National Park Service
September 24, 2009 5:56am
Route 66 fans, rejoice. The National Park Service has put up a mother lode of info about the historic Mother Road that stretches across two-thirds of America, from Los Angeles to Chicago.
The nostalgic Route 66 microsite offers maps, essays, photos, histories of landmarks and an awesome resource list with hyperlinks to fan sites, museums, tourist bureaus, official documents and more.
It’s enough to make you pull off the road and open your laptop. You’ll learn about the quirky Aztec Hotel, one of the few Mayan-styled buildings left in the U.S., in Monrovia, Calif.; the Milk Bottle Grocery, a tiny shop improbably topped by a super-sized dairy bottle in Oklahoma City; the iconic Blue Swallow Motel, with its charming neon signs, in Tucumcari, N.M.; and other roadside nostalgia.
Santa Fe hotel is an art lover’s dream
August 28, 2009 5:59am
Colorful Santa Fe, N.M., has a new art gallery that isn’t a gallery at all: It’s a hotel.
La Posada de Santa Fe Resort & Spa recently hired an on-site art curator who organizes weekly meet-the-artist sessions for guests and can arrange lessons as well. In addition, the hotel houses 250 works of art from 22 artists.
Santa Fe, the nearly 400-year-old city and capital of New Mexico, has long been known as a center of art. Its stark scenery and undiffused sunlight have drawn artists and photographers from around the world, and dozens of galleries can be found in the city.
Be my guide: Sledding at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico
July 15, 2009 12:04pm
I had avoided many of the obvious tourist traps during my two-week cross-country road trip that concluded last week. When reader Dinh Lu suggested White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, I considered skipping it because of its touristy connotation — mainly because it has the words “national” and “monument” in its name.
But the tip came up again and again, with later suggestions from Rafael Delgado and @EvanWarner. So, on my drive from El Paso to Albuquerque, I decided to take the detour.
Be my guide: Las Vegas dance clubs don’t stray from pop
July 5, 2009 5:17pm
I’ve covered many types of music in my two-week, reader-driven road trip across the country. There was soul in New York, rock in Washington, D.C., blues in Chicago, folk-country in Nashville, jazz in New Orleans, weird dance rock in Austin, Texas, and weird circus music in Albuquerque.
One genre I have avoided like a pounding jackhammer to the chest is techno. I managed to dodge the hyper dance scene in El Paso, Texas, but in the Las Vegas Strip area, there’s nowhere to run. I would have to face my fear and fist-pump my way through the crowds.
Having received no reader tips for spots to go in Las Vegas, I took a shot in the dark. A single cover fee gains you entry to four large clubs at the Palms Casino Resort, just off the Strip. So I decided that’s where I would spend my night. Let the smoky, sweaty dancing ensue.
Sandal helps stamp out over-pronation (and looks great)
June 21, 2009 12:49pm
For summertime travel — not to mention wading across streams and scrambling over boulders — I’m a big fan of Chaco sandals from a feisty Colorado company run by Mark Paigen, a former whitewater-rafting guide.
Amphibious, durable and bearing the seal of the American Podiatric Medical Assn., Chaco’s BioCentric footbed, with its sculpted heel cup and arch support, was designed to combat muscular stress caused when the feet roll too far inward (known as over-pronation). As a result, the sandal can be worn comfortably all day while tramping across the old stones of the Roman Forum or over slickrock in southern Utah.
Be my guide: Building the ultimate iPod set list for a road trip from New York to Los Angeles
June 16, 2009 7:58am
Jack Kerouac and Hunter Thompson hit the road decades ago, each with little more than a car, a suitcase full of clothes and presumably another suitcase stocked with some fairly potent narcotics.
I will embark on a similar journey next week from New York to Los Angeles. In place of the copious amounts of drugs, however, I will be packing a laptop and an Internet-connected cellphone that will aid me in discovering this expansive nation, with its diverse inhabitants and culture.
As an amateur rock musician and enthusiastic consumer of such, music will be my guide. No, scratch that. How about you be my guide? To provide travel tips, send e-mails to mark.milian@latimes.com, leave comments on this blog or, for those on Twitter, send tweets to @mmilian.
I will post updates to the Daily Travel & Deal blog, snap photos of the scenery and Twitter my progress. Plus, of course, credit readers when I visit a place they suggested. Then I’ll write a story for the Los Angeles Times Travel Section about the trip.
Thanks to the ubiquity of wireless technology (well, we’ll see what happens deep in the countryside), I’ll be able to stay perpetually connected with readers and vice versa.
Free entry to national parks on three weekends
June 2, 2009 2:29pm
You’ll get free entry to Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and 144 other national parks on three weekends this summer: June 20-21, July 18-19 and Aug. 15-16. At Yosemite, for instance, that can save you $20 per car, or $10 per person if you arrive by foot, bicycle or motorcycle.
The offer was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who cited “these tough economic times.”
Besides free entry, some concessionaires will give away $5 vouchers and free tours, boat rides, shopping bags and other extras. But don’t expect to camp for free; the regular fees apply there.
Getaways for Dad: Golf in Britain, New Mexico fly-fishing
May 29, 2009 11:17am
Father’s Day, on June 21, is once again around the corner. He already has a closetful of unused neckties and a Magellan RoadMate might offend his direction-confident ego, so what to do? To really knock it out of the park this year, give Dad a getaway full of fun, rest and relaxation.
Crystal Cruises is advertising a “High Tea & Golf Tees” cruise, sailing Aug. 23 to Sept. 3, 2009, round-trip from London. The luxury liner will stop, over 11 days, at some of the most well-reputed golf courses in Britain and Ireland, including Gleneagles and the Royal Belfast Golf Club. Aboard the ship, golfers can tune in to PGA golf-pro instructions, guest lectures and TaylorMade demos.
Rates for this cruise start at $5,800 per person (including taxes and fees), based on double occupancy. Unfortunately this rate does not cover the optional golf outings, but it does come with a $1,000 per person shipboard spending credit, which can be used toward the golf excursions.
If your credit cards can’t quite handle that one, how’s this as an alternative: Read the rest of this entry »
American Eagle to fly nonstop from LAX to Roswell (yes, the ‘UFO’ Roswell in New Mexico)
May 20, 2009 12:00pm
Earlier this week, we learned that American Airlines affiliate American Eagle soon will be launching nonstop services from Los Angeles (LAX) to Roswell International Air Center (ROS). Yes, that’s southeastern New Mexico’s Roswell: population of around 50,000, home to the state’s oldest orchestra, and — oh, yes — a whole lot of commotion about the alien kind.
It all started in 1947 with the “Roswell Incident,” the crème de la crème of conspiracy-theory fodder. A mysterious crash of a flying object occurs in the desert during a thunderstorm. There are witnesses, military investigations, possible cover-ups, and enough unanswered questions to keep the world pondering for decades.
In Roswell today, sure, there are free art museums, fine restaurants and outdoors offerings. But if you go out of your way to visit, you’ve certainly got extraterrestrial interests. There’s the International UFO Museum and Research Center and the annual UFO Festival, which will take place July 2-5, 2009. Some go for fun and others to chew seriously on matters of the unknown.
Unfortunately the new nonstop flights won’t be underway by festival time. Read the rest of this entry »
