How lucky I am. Before starting out for Santa Fe, New Mexico I drove up to one of my most favorite places in California - Nevada City. It is a precious old gold mining town that sits in the foothills of the Sierras. The people are friendly and happy and helpful to tourists. I had planned to spend 3 days but it rained and was miserable that 3rd day so I started on my trip to Santa Fe. But I did get a great walk in with the Nevada City Walking Group headed up by Mary Cahill the day before.
On my trip I stopped at Williams, Arizona which was all decked out with Christmas lights and horse drawn wagons and a huge tree.  And an stop in Needles where I took a short walk along the Colorado River.



Santa Fe is pretty town.  The sand colored buildings stand out against the clear blue sky. The art galleries seem endless and there are lots of shops to browse. I have done quite a bit of walking since I arrived on Friday, getting the lay of the land. I actually have only gone in one shop so far. There was a big snow storm yesterday, Sunday and I barely made it back to my rental. In fact I could not make it up the last part of the road and walked the rest of the way. Later my more experienced land lord was kind enough to walk down in the heavy snow and managed  to  get the car up to his driveway. Today I am snowed in but the beautiful view I have makes it okay. I did miss the lighting of the Posadas last night and that was disappointing, but I never would have been to make it back to my place if I had waited any longer. Besides I got lots of great pictures of the snow coming down and also a cold.
It was 18 degrees this morning so I don't really feel the need to go outside anyway. I did get to do the Museum of Art Sunday which was free as part of the Christmas Festivities. It is small but good, there was also a free concert. I am looking forward to getting out  to tomorrow.