Ciao Readers!  Happy back-from-the-long-weekend!!!

Boy, it has been a while, huh?  I’ve missed you (almost as much as I’ve missed doing things I thought were “blog-worthy”).  I think this past weekend’s excursion counts, so….

For the very first time in our lives we went to the opera! Specifically, La bohème, at the Santa Fe Opera. Now, in full disclosure – the two biggest reasons we went were for 1) the quirky and cool tradition of fancy tailgating before hand, and 2) the amazing scenery at the venue (which I had seen years before when I went there to see an Indigo Girls concert).

So, as to the tailgating – this is a major tradition (you can read more about here) – everyone dressed in their finery gets to the venue a few hours early and sets up for dinner (anywhere from a cooler to an all out banquet table) – there is champagne, h’orderves, fancy food, etc. (you can also order dinner from the venue, as we did). It is a unique site for sure. We went semi-all out and brought a little table, fake flowers and some fake (i.e. dollar store plastic) “crystal.” Steve even brought a lawn-looking rug and an umbrella (which we needed as it started raining shortly after the picture, below, was taken). Here’s also some other folks (picture from the opera’s website):

In the background (when you are tailgating, but also inside the open-air venue) are both the Jemez Mountains and the Sangre De Cristo’s (since you can’t really get the full effect from my photos as it was raining, I’ve also included a youtube video):

So, fun fancy food, beautiful scenery and…..then the opera. Ack, this is the part where I have to admit, that despite desperately wanting to feel cultured and all (and really appreciating that my friend Julie’s daughter is an opera singer) – I’m just not that into opera. I can appreciate the singing and the costumes and all of it, but for some reason it just doesn’t hold my attention like a broadway show or a concert. And, while I could use the excuse that it was raining and COLD (in the 50’s) for summer and late by the time intermission rolled around and that’s why we left…I realized on the drive home that if it had been a Green Day concert it could have been hailing and 2:00 a.m. and I would have toughed it out.  But – we have been talking about going back – specifically for the tailgating (is that weird?) – we are pretty sure there were some other folks doing that as they packed up and drove off after the tailgate part (or it could have been the rain). In any case, a unique experience well worth it, even if I had to discover I am uncultured in the process!