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Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2014

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Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2014 (Photo by Len Radin, New Mexico Magazine)

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Photo by Len Radin, New Mexico Magazine)

Park A. Van Tassel, a local saloon owner, launched Albuquerque’s first hot-air balloon in 1882… Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF), the largest celebration of its kind, offers a full nine days to explore ballooning from every perspective. No visitor should miss the iconic on-field experience, where some 500 orbs inflate to sizes of 80 feet before gliding skyward.. (New Mexico Magazine)

In an inspiring and decidedly lofty article in the recent edition of New Mexico Magazine Ashley M. Biggers offers up five “off the beaten path… fresh ways to take in the drama of the skies” during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF):

  1. Toast the Ascent “At the AIBF viewing parties held at the award-winning Gruet Winery, sparkling-wine enthusiasts can forgo the ride and get straight to the toast. Attendees sip mimosas and snack on scones, fruit, and other breakfast fare while watching the balloons drift over the vineyards… Viewing parties take place on Oct. 4, 10, and 11, beginning at 7 a.m. Tickets: $10 and up. 8400 Pan American Freeway NE; (505) 821-0055; gruetwinery.com“
  2. Crew a Balloon “To get an insider’s look at all that it takes to fly a hot-air balloon, visitors can volunteer as crew members… simply come to Balloon Fiesta Park on the Wednesday through Friday prior to the fiesta to sign up… Volunteers receive a pass to attend the remaining fiesta events for free… Fill out the crew registration form found at registration.balloonfiesta.com, or call (505) 821-1000.”
  3. Float the Fiesta Enjoy an “early-morning kayak trip with Quiet Waters Paddling Adventures. Tours depart before daybreak… Away from the crowds, the only noise is the gentle flow of the current, paddles dipping into the water, and burners firing as the candycolored envelopes glide overhead.” (505) 771-1234; quietwaterspaddling.com
  4. VIP Breakfast Pamper yourself with traffic-free access, and a catered breakfast at the Diamond Club (Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum Foundation). “As the sun rises, visitors may choose to stay inside, viewing the festivities from floor-to-ceiling windows, or step out on the field-facing balcony to watch the balloons inflate and take off.” (505) 880-0500; balloonmuseum.com
  5. Pedal to Paseo del Bosque “The Bikes & Balloons tour… begins at 5:30 a.m. at Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm, where Routes owners Josh Arnold and Heather Wess fit riders with bikes and helmets. Josh proves a worthy leader, carting breakfast burritos behind him to entice riders along Río Grande and Montaño boulevards to the Paseo del Bosque trail… there’s little to break the predawn calm other than the thrum of bike tires against the pavement… After watching the balloons take flight, riders set off on a leisurely return leg, marked by scenic views of the autumnal bosque and hot-air balloons dotting Albuquerque’s robin’s-egg-blue skies.” (505) 933-5667; routesrentals.com

All five options sound incredible! We missed the Balloon Fiesta this fall by a week, but we’re hoping to make it next year. What about you? It’s not too early to make plans since accommodations and many venues fill up early…

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What is a Kiva Fireplace?

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Adobe Oasis, Master Bathroom (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)
Kiva fireplace in the Adobe Oasis master bedroom (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)

Kiva fireplace in the Adobe Oasis master bedroom (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)

What is a kiva fireplace (aka “beehive fireplace”, “pueblo fireplace”, etc.) and why is it unique?

In my twenties I found something exotic and slightly intoxicating about all of the differences I encountered when I moved to Santa Fe from the Northeast. Adobe everything. Sunlight everyday. Food bliss. Ski bliss. Some of the most unusual, most interesting and most friendly people I’ve ever encountered… And lots of new words!

Vigas, Bancos, Nichos and Kiva Fireplaces

Living in Santa Fe, Spanish is part of every day life. (And Spanglish. Check out the entertaining “Growing Up Spanglish” series for a look at the incredibly common New Mexican mixing of English and Spanish.) But not just Spanish. For the first time in my life I began hearing native languages like Navajo being used on a regular basis. While that was exotic in and of itself, it was cross-language vocabulary borrowing that most fascinated me most. Mañana, arroyo, banco, chile, lunchear, vigas, penitentes, parquear, nicho, pueblo,..

One of the new words I discovered was kiva.

  • Origin The word kiva originally referred to a round underground meeting place used for religious rituals, spiritual ceremonies and other gatherings by male Pueblo Indians of the southwest… Kiva fireplaces trace their long history back to the 8th century. Kiva fireplaces were first used in the underground sacred chambers… These characteristically Southwestern home fixtures have evolved from simple holes in the ground to full-featured fireplaces, often known as “beehive fireplaces” due to their distinctive shape. (adapted/paraphrased from eHow)
  • Features The characteristic broad base of a kiva fireplace allows more heat to radiate around the bottom, making it more energy efficient. The narrow top allows fumes to exit out the upper flume opening. Conventional features of the kiva fireplace include nichos and bancos. A nicho is a recessed shelf cut out of an adobe wall. Small art objects, pictures or other decorative items can be displayed here. A banco is a bench built on one or both sides of the kiva fireplace. (eHow)

So there you have it. The kiva fireplace has become a signature design element in southwestern architecture. And while the iterations are diverse, form the most organic, flowing adobe mounds to the most geometric, modern reinterpretations, it quickly becomes easy to identify a kiva fireplace.

Known for its beehive appearance… Originally crafted from adobe, a Spanish term meaning mud bricks… Conventionally placed in the corner, a kiva’s adobe walls radiate heat and provide cozy warmth to a room. (eHow)

You can see in the photograph above of the master bedroom at Adobe Oasis that the corner situated kiva fireplace is clean and minimalist, offering a contemporary twist on the timeless tradition. A small, curved banco serves as hearth, and a smaller similarly curved shelf or “mantel” provides storage space while aeshteicially balancing the banco. This stepped design vernacular reappears throughout pueblo-inspired architecture.

Reserve Adobe Oasis for Summer 2014

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Casas de Santa Fe
Rear Courtyard at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe (Prior to 2014 Redesign)

Rear Courtyard at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe

Reserve Adobe Oasis while there’s still availability this summer. May and July are already almost totally booked. A week in August is also reserved, but June and August still look good if you’re thinking of heading to Santa Fe this summer.

We’ve partnered with Casas de Santa Fe, the premier Santa Fe vacation rental agency, to ensure your that your travel experience is perfect. Their expertise will make reserving Adobe Oasis quick, convenient and professional. And their on-site management and concierge service is second to none in the City Different! In their own words:

We offer the finest selection of beautifully furnished, fully equipped, and amenity rich vacation rental homes in the heart of Santa Fe and the surrounding areas. We specialize in homes that provide the comfort and privacy of authentic Santa Fe living… At Casas de Santa Fe, we are dedicated to providing superior customer service… From the moment you step through the front door up until your final departure, our first priority is making sure that you are fully satisfied. We are devoted to offering homes of the highest quality in great locations that are well-maintained and flawlessly presented. (Casas de Santa Fe)

We’ve worked with Casas as renters and as property owners, and we can personally vouch for their professionalism all the way around! You will not be disappointed.

How to Reserve Adobe Oasis

It’s simple to reserve Adobo Oasis through Casas de Santa Fe over the internet or by telephone.

Loved The Love Apple

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The Love Apple in Taos
The Love Apple in Taos, NM

The Love Apple in Taos, NM (Image by virtualDavis)

My best dinner in Taos during a three day ski? Hands downs, the best food and service was at The Love Apple, handily edging out another good meal at Martyrs.

La Pomme D’Amour (The Love Apple), the name the French adoringly gave the tomato in the 16th Century, is a Northern New Mexico Restaurant emphasizing Regional, Organic Home Cooking. We believe in providing our community with a comforting space to share natural whole sustenance. All products are organic in nature, regional in source & prepared from scratch with intention. We are your local source for affordable, unpretentious, inventive good food. (The Love Apple)

The space, a resurrected pueblo style chapel/church, is understated but charming. And cold weather entrance almost literally through the kitchen set the down-home, pretense free stage for a memorable supper. The hostess and my waitress were friendly, knowledgable and attentive…

The Love Apple in Taos, NM

The Love Apple in Taos, NM

Wild Boar Tenderloin : Citrus marinated and grilled wild boar tenderloin with a stew of local bolita beans and tomatoes, topped with oregano roasted winter squash with feta cheese and chimichurri sauce

The Love Apple is a small thirteen table restaurant. Our food is nonlinear, inspired by northern New Mexican farmers’ fare and slow summer sunsets. We live in an old chapel replete with thick adobe walls and a crooked steeple. Our food is farm to table northern New Mexican. Our service is casual fine dining. (About The Love Apple)

Intrigued? Take a look at The Love Apple’s philosophy…

Or make a reservation and take the empirical path to sublime sustenance. Call (575) 751-0050 to reserve a table, or take your chances dropping by The Live Apple’s culinary chapel which is located at 803 Paseo del Pueblo Norte in Taos, NM.

Visit The Love Apple

Hours: 5:00pm-9:00pm, Tuesday through Sunday.
Phone: 575.751.0050
Website: theloveapple.net

The Love Apple is located at 803 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico in what was once the Placitas Chapel dating back to the 1800s. Find it on the map below.


View Larger Map

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Welcome to New Mexico

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Welcome to New Mexico (Source: Geo Davis)
Welcome to New Mexico (Source: Geo Davis)

Welcome to New Mexico (Source: Geo Davis)

At least twice a year (and some years even more often) we drive cross-country from the Adirondacks to Santa Fe and back again. We tend to poke along, stopping to explore our wide, wonderful, and sometimes slightly weird country. We visit family and friends along the way. And we chauffeur our Labrador retriever—who is unfit to fly (according to his overly protective dog-momma, my bride)—in comfort door-to-door, acquainting him with canine acquaintances new and old all along the way.

It’s an enjoyable journey. We listen talk and listen to music and audio books. We eat. We discover. We hike and sometimes I bike. It’s a thoroughly memorable adventure each and every time. But there are certain recurring highlights like the moment we first enter New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. Butterflies in the stomach. The good kind. And a quickening of the heartbeat as we talk excitedly about everything we plan to do as soon as we arrive in Santa Fe…

Walnut Banco Seat Progress

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Walnut banco seat during construction, ready for cushion top. (Credit: Robert Schutz)

Walnut banco seat during construction, ready for cushion top. (Credit: Robert Schutz)

Traditional banco seating is a familiar part of pueblo style architecture you see in the American Southwest. Often formed out of adobe or concrete and following the same organic “form meets function” tradition of pueblo and pueblo revival construction, bancos offer efficient, comfortable indoor and outdoor bench-like seating. Often referred to as banquette or bench seating in other parts of the world, many iterations exist.

Ancient Meets Modern

We wanted to create standalone furniture in the master bedroom that reinterpreted the traditional pueblo vernacular with modern, minimalist materials and lines. Page Kelleher from Santa Fe Modern Home was the perfect designer/fabricator partner. Two walnut side tables and the walnut banco seat in Adobe Oasis’s master bedroom are the result. We doff our hats to Page for her perennial enthusiasm and solution-driven design collaborations and to Robert Schutz, an able (and gentle) woodworker with both the communication and cabinetry skills to transform our visions into handsome, functional heirlooms. Robert sent us that photograph above to show us his progress. Almost done!

The rich hue and texture of walnut will interact with the viga ceiling and the darker-than-normal custom saltillo tile floors once this bench is installed. The rugged steel and leather elements balance practical, functional needs with an unadorned, organic aesthetic. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the leather drawer pulls – designed by Steve Roberts in Barnstaple, England – echo the handles of old steamer trunks, a subtle paean to the golden age of travel and adventure.

When the cushion is finished and the walnut banco seat is installed in the Adobe Oasis master bedroom, I’ll add a new post with some finished photos.

Walnut Banco Seat, er, Dresser…

There was actually a fourth beautiful piece, a walnut and steel dresser, in this collection that we developed with Santa Fe Modern Home. But once installed we realized that we had underestimated the impact such a tall, dominant piece would have in the bedroom. We also underestimated the impact it would have of sight lines of the beautiful kiva fireplace. Fortunately experimenting with the dresser in the master bedroom helped us come up with the walnut banco seat with drawer storage as a more suitable alternative for the space. It offers ample storage, but is low enough that it blends with the profile of the king bed. And it’s the perfect place to sit and watch the fire before bed.

Historic + Modern Vacation Rental in Santa Fe

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Adobe Oasis, Living Room (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)
Historic + Modern Living Room (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)

Historic + Modern Living Room (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)

Adobe Oasis’s Historic Eastside property (new location opening summer 2018!) offers authentic Santa Fe charm with century-old Pueblo Revival architecture and quintessential New Mexican design elements such as wood burning kiva fireplaces, viga ceilings, private courtyards with soothing fountains, and a traditional portal-covered patio.

Historic + Modern Vacation Rental

Totally renovated three times since 2008, Adobe Oasis is a modern vacation rental featuring lofty, natural light-filled rooms and an open floor plan with plenty of space for cooking, dining and entertaining. Luxurious green design (eco-friendly, nontoxic materials and furnishings) and user friendly amenities throughout the home pamper the most discriminating travelers.

Antique and contemporary décor mingle in a whimsical marriage of design and adventure. The owners offset original design+built furnishings (many commissioned by local Santa Fe artists and designers) and tastefully restored midcentury modern furniture with a meticulously curated collection of art and artifacts from all around the world.

Inside + Outside Santa Fe

Unwind in two enclosed, private outdoor areas with gardens, fountains, dining, lounging and grilling. The portals, patio, seamless inside/outside flow and lofty ceiling heights create an open, expansive feeling yet ensure your total privacy.

2013 Photo Gallery

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Soothing fountain at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe, NM.

Enjoy this photo gallery of Adobe Oasis before the redesign which will be completed in early 2014. Most of these images were taken in the late summer of 2013, just prior to the purchase of our Santa Fe dream home. New photographs will be posted over the coming months to document our green design improvements and top-to-bottom refurnishing.

Click thumbnails below to see larger photo.

Street view of Adobe Oasis during the summer of 2013.
Street entrance to Adobe Oasis during the summer of 2013.
Master bedroom entrance from courtyard (summer 2013)
Front courtyard and fountain (summer 2013)
Adobe Oasis entrance doorway (summer 2013)
Living room (summer 2013)
Pre 2014 Adobe Oasis Dining Area
Pre 2014 Adobe Oasis Dining Area
Pre 2014 Master Bedroom at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe.
Master bathroom (summer 2013)
Guest bedroom (summer 2013)
Guest bathroom (summer 2013)
Kitchen (summer 2013)
Kitchen (summer 2013)
Rear fountain from dining area (summer 2013)
Soothing fountain at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe, NM.
Rear courtyard seating and fountain (summer 2013)
Rear Courtyard at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe (Prior to 2014 Redesign)

 

Your Pied-a-terre in Santa Fe

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Pre 2014 Master Bedroom at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe.

Pre 2014 Master Bedroom at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe.

A dream pied-a-terre in Santa Fe at last! Many months of searching for the ideal Santa Fe pied-a-terre finally yielded the spot we’ve fantasized about for so long, and we’ve named it Adobe Oasis. Or maybe it named itself! This handsome home is a high desert sanctuary as soothing as it is welcoming.

That’s last week’s good news. But it’s not the best news. I wanted to save that for today…

Adobe Oasis is Your Pied-a-terre in Santa Fe

Because we live and work far, far away from Santa Fe we are only able to enjoy the Adobe Oasis intermittently. But don’t feel sorry for us. Feel fortunate for yourself, because our absence is your opportunity to savor the Santa Fe lifestyle as a local.

Rear Courtyard at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe (Prior to 2014 Redesign)

Rear Courtyard at Adobe Oasis in Santa Fe (Prior to 2014 Redesign)

As soon as we finish redesigning Adobe Oasis we’ll be making it available for short term vacation rentals. If you’re interested, contact Casas de Santa Fe for information and availability.

You’ll love the folks at Casas not only because they offer exceptional service and represent the most extensive and luxurious portfolio of Santa Fe area rental properties. You’ll love them because they are 100% customer-centric. They will custom build the very best Santa Fe experience you can imagine! Whether that includes Adobe Oasis or another pied-a-terre in Santa Fe, we’re confident that the Casas team will meet (and probably exceed) your expectations.

What are you waiting for? Now you’ve got that perfect pied-a-terre in Santa Fe you’ve always dreamed about!

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Historic Eastside Location

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Adobe Oasis, Entrance (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)
Adobe Oasis, Entrance (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)

Adobe Oasis, Entrance (Photo: Peter Ogilvie)

Adobe Oasis is located in Santa Fe’s Historic Eastside (new location as of May 2016!) on a serene residential lane within easy walking distance of Canyon Road, the Historic Santa Fe Plaza, and the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This tranquil sanctuary – concealed behind ivy covered adobe walls ­– offers convenient access to world class galleries, museums, restaurants, spas, farmers’ market, skiing, mountain biking and much more without tourists and downtown bustle. Simply put, Adobe Oasis is paradise found!

Adobe Oasis is Moving

Update: There was sooo much to love about our original Historic Eastside location, but we after a few years we began to yearn for more sunlight, more views, more space, more privacy. As luck would have it, our dream came true when a magnificent property tucked high into the Sangre de Cristos became available. The panoramic vistas and the tranquility enchant us from the moment we first arrived. Though renovations were long overdue, we immediately recognized the potential for this unique Santa Fe property to become the next generation Adobe Oasis. The property was purchased and a top-to-bottom renovation begun in the spring of 2016. We anticipate approximately two years of construction, design, and landscaping will transform our new Adobe Oasis into your dream destination. Stay tuned!

(Note: The original Adobe Oasis, now renamed Adobe Arabella, is still available for short term rentals.)