I did some writing in the morning, then went to get lunch at the Counter Culture Cafe. There I met Penny and Palma, traveling to Santa Fe from Alpine, Texas. They were on a road trip and would be in town for a couple days. They were perfect travel companions for each other, and they knew it. I've done a lot of traveling with other people, and it's really hard to find a good travel companion. So I'm jealous of them. We had a nice lunch and they encouraged me to go to Alpine, Texas. They said that it's similar to Santa Fe but with less people.

After lunch I went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I'm a fan of hers and have long admired the way she lived her life. She worked hard and did what she wanted and lived where she wanted, but her art was always the focus. They had collected some nice pieces at the museum, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos. The 'Jimson Weed 1932' painting had recently been returned from a loan to President George W. Bush's dining room.

O'Keeffe first came to New Mexico in 1929, and fell in love with the place. She would return many times and eventually move there permanently. Her paintings of the New Mexico desert are iconic.

After the museum I went around the downtown plaza for awhile. It was a very busy Saturday and tourists were everywhere buying souvineirs and arts and crafts.

I went around taking many pictures of the plaza scene. I got a few good ones but they show peoples' faces and I'm not supposed to post them here. You can check them out on my site. After awhile a girl stepped into my path and asked me why I was taking photos. I was impressed because I'm pretty sneaky and usually no one notices me taking them. I explained that I enjoyed taking candid pictures and showed her some of them. Her name was Brandy and she was from Taos, New Mexico - an small mountain town northeast of Santa Fe. She was in town selling art and jewelry with her friend. She was staying with her sister for the weekend in Santa Fe. We got to talking and she convinced me to help carry everything across town to their van when it was time to close the booth. Free labor - I'm such a sucker. Then her sister, Kasey, showed up. She recently moved back to Santa Fe after living all over the country, and is training to be a pilot. I helped them carry the stuff to the car.

We got along pretty well and ended up running around together the rest of the night - meeting lots of people, going to bars, etc. It was a good night.