Our Life enrichment coordinator, Laura Leehan is an avid collector of thrift shop art and her office has literally been transformed into a small art gallery. Two years ago she purchased an original painting of wild pink roses at the Salvation Army for $17. Several weeks ago Laura took notice of a painting in a residents apartment that bore a striking resemblance to her pink roses.
Upon closer inspection she realized that the signature in the lower right corner of the painting, “Julie 79” was identical to the signature on her painting. She rushed to her office, grabbed the painting off the wall and could not wait to show Julie! Julie was thrilled to see her long lost art work and told us that in 1979 she began painting flowers. It was a brief but prolific season for her as an artist and most of her work was sold or given away. I would not be surprised if there are more pieces out there that may just catch your eye at the neighborhood second hand store or garage sale! It was such a joy to see Julie reunited with her beautiful painting and when Laura offered to return it to her, she declined and insisted that Laura keep it.

* As of this advisory, there are 447,393 (115 new today) cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma.
* 238 is today’s 7-day rolling average for the number of new cases reported.
* Today’s Provisional Death Count (CDC/NCHS): 8,230
* Additional hospitalization data can be found in the Hospital Tiers report, published evenings Monday through Friday.
* Register online to receive a notification when you’re eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment at vaccinate.oklahoma.gov, or locate other vaccine opportunities at vaccinefinder.org.
* For more information, visit https://oklahoma.gov/covid19.html.

*The total includes laboratory information provided to OSDH at the time of the report. As a result, counts are subject to change. Total counts may not reflect unique individuals.
***The purpose of publishing aggregated statistical COVID-19 data through the OSDH Dashboard, the Executive Order Report, and the Weekly Epidemiology and Surveillance Report is to support the needs of the general public in receiving important and necessary information regarding the state of the health and safety of the citizens of Oklahoma. These resources may be used only for statistical purposes and may not be used in any way that would determine the identity of any reported cases.
Data Source: Acute Disease Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health. *As of 2021-04-27 at 7:00 a.m.

Covid-Delayed World Premiere of Choral and Orchestral Piece Inspires Community Collaborations, Multimedia Event on May 16

Canterbury Voices, Oklahoma’s largest and oldest community chorus, will present an original commission, Of Perpetual Solace, featuring soloist-cantor Lisa Reagan Love and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, on Sunday, May 16, at 3:00 PM, at the Civic Center Music Hall in Oklahoma City.
The 45-minute work – in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the Murrah Building Bombing – was written by Oklahoma composer Edward Knight and librettist M.J. Alexander for full orchestra, cantor, large chorus, chamber choir and children’s chorus. The husband-and-wife team, who live within walking distance of the bombing site, drew inspiration from conversations with survivors.
Originally scheduled to premiere in March 2020, Of Perpetual Solace was postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and has been rescheduled for Sunday, May 16, 2021, at 3:00 PM. Canterbury, led by artistic director Dr. Randi Von Ellefson, reimagined rehearsals and performances in light of the pandemic and found a way to sing again through the innovative use of specialized singers’ masks developed by the Broadway Relief Project; socially-distanced rehearsals and safety protocols; a pared-down chorus; the OKC Philharmonic orchestra; and the power of video production, featuring clips from the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. Sibling audio/video team Matt and Pat Horton of Norman are the production team for this monumental project and helped Canterbury create this special presentation.
A large-scale, multimedia concert event, Of Perpetual Solace will also feature a 47-voice children’s chorus and 18-member adult ensemble. “I feel I’ve been preparing my entire life to write this music,” said composer Edward Knight. “It has been years in the making, and demanded that I tap deep into our shared human spirit to bring out the essence of what is good and important and lasting.”
Due to strict health and safety protocols, six hundred socially-distanced audience members will be allowed into the Civic Center Music Hall, one-third of the normally 2,400 seats. The performance will also be offered as an on-demand streaming event from May 23 to June 20, 2021.
Of Perpetual Solace progresses from darkness into light – toward an embrace of comfort, hope, and serenity. “This is the most ambitious commission we have undertaken in our 51-year history,” Pam Mowry, Canterbury’s Executive Director, said. “It is an epic work that has a profound meaning to so many of us. It was written by Oklahomans for Oklahomans, and offered to all who have dealt with grief, mourning, and recovery.”

By Nick Thomas

While some entertainers are renowned for their personal and professional demands while working, Ruta Lee never aspired to be a diva. Acting nonstop in film, TV, and theater since the early 1950s, she tackled projects with professionalism.
“There was no time to throw fits because you had to work quickly as you rapidly went from job to job,” recalled Lee from Los Angeles.
Off-screen tasks were also approached with her trademark zeal. In 1964, she called the office of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to secure the release of her 90-year-old Lithuanian grandmother held since World War II in a Siberian internment camp.
A decade earlier, Lee approached her first film role as one of the brides in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” with similar resolve. “During the dance audition, the producers and director asked me to show them something folksy. Because of my Lithuanian descent, I danced up a storm with a polka and got the role.”
She was paired with gifted dance partner Matt Mattox in the beloved MGM musical and remembers one rehearsal.
“He lifted me high off a bench and I sprained my ankle when I landed. So I learned most of the choreography from a sitting position, but still managed to do most of the dancing in the big barn-raising number.”
Many stories from the actress’s career and life can be found in her April 5 autobiography “Consider Your Ass Kissed,” the edgy-sounding title merely reflecting the genuine gratitude she feels for the people she worked with. She also celebrates a birthday this month, turning 86 on May 30.
A quick study, Lee learned an early valuable lesson in on-set protocol when she boogied her way into one of her first TV roles – a 1953 episode of “The Adventures of Superman.”
“It was a short dance scene in a café and I decided to rehearse during lunch hour,” she explained. “But when I plugged in the record player, someone grabbed me and said, ‘you can’t do that, you don’t belong to the electrician’s union!’”
Lee went on to make hundreds of appearances in TV series as well as games shows such as “Hollywood Squares” and “High Rollers” (as Alex Trebek’s dice roller), but westerns were a favorite (see www.rutalee.com). And while many cowboys chased her, only one came close to catching her off-screen.
“Most of the dating I did was for publicity purposes and never had any real romances with actors except Eric Fleming from ‘Rawhide.’ What a darling man, but the most he got was a goodnight kiss!”
Her serious relationships were always with businessmen, she says, not show business men. In the midst of her rising career, Lee met Texas restaurant executive Webster B. Lowe, Jr., and the couple soon married. They were together for 46 years until his death last year.
Lee has also been a tireless voice for charitable organizations such as the Thalians raising millions of dollars through her leadership role to support people with mental health problems, including returning veterans (see www.thalians.org).
And then there was that phone call to Khrushchev’s office to rescue her Siberia-bound grandmother.
“Within 48 hours we were flying over to bring her back to America. So I’ve had an interesting life and I’m always involved with something. It’s been a long, wonderful, and fruitful career.”
Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 850 magazines and newspapers and is the author of “Raised by the Stars: Interviews with 29 Children of Hollywood Actors.” See www.getnickt.org.

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 850 newspapers and magazines. See www.getnickt.org.

During my music therapy internship at a state facility for teens and adults with mental illnesses, I learned that many of the adults we served within the facility, who were there largely because they had been charged with crimes, shared the foster care experience of my teens.
Most of my teens had been through about 14 different placements by the time they got to our facility and had developed negative coping mechanisms due to their life experiences. No one had taught them how to process their emotions or trauma, which would come out in explosive tantrums. Like my adult patients, they also had no one in their lives who was there just for them, but only staff who went home at the end of each shift. Can you imagine what being raised in an institution instead of a family and not having even one consistent parent could do to a person’s psyche? It turns out, it gives you no way to learn about love and respect for others.
I decided I wanted to make a difference and break this cycle. I saw that trying to understand the “why” behind their coping mechanisms, connecting and showing unconditional love (especially after behaviors meant to drive you away) brought about significant changes, even healing. As soon as I learned about Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC), I knew I wanted to be involved.
TFC serves children in loving home settings instead of institutions, equipping foster parents to help children work through the trauma they’ve experienced. TFC homes receive more intensive services – weekly family and individual therapy for the child, an on-call team of therapists to help in times of crisis, monthly respite to give tired foster parents time to rejuvenate, and trauma-based trainings to help parents understand why children have developed these negative coping mechanisms and help reframe them in a more positive way.
As a TFC parent, I have seen my house walls torn apart because something I did unknowingly triggered memories of past abuse. As anger shifted to tears, I’ve had children melt into my arms and let me hug them as they deescalated from their meltdowns. I’ve seen them work hard to pay me back for damages after I didn’t kick them out like so many had done before, and start to develop personal responsibility and a mutual respect for others.
As a TFC parent, I’ve seen kids and teens learn to identify the feelings underlying all of their anger. This has often been fear and sadness, which, when allowed to fester, become depression and anxiety. I’ve gotten to know my kids for who they really were and found them to be sweet, incredibly loving children who were just hidden underneath the walls they’d built to protect themselves. I got to truly connect to them in a way no one else had, and watch them learn to trust others.
Being raised in a home instead of a hospital or group home taught them what being a part of a family is like. They learned how to care about others and how their actions can hurt someone. They learned self-worth because someone was willing to love them instead of just focusing on their behaviors. I saw them excel in school, work and activities and start to make healthy relationships. These are things that don’t readily happen in institutions.
If we want to make our society a safer place, we need to teach kids how to love. As a TFC parent, you can teach by example and be a part of truly changing the world, one child at a time.
It takes all kinds of people to serve children and help them become healthy and whole again. Why not you?
Amanda Martindale is a Therapeutic Foster Parent with Choices for Life Counseling and Foster Care in Oklahoma. To learn more about Therapeutic Foster Care or apply to become a certified TFC foster family, visit beaneighbor.ok.gov, or call 1-800-376-9729.

Story by Darl Devault, Feature Writer

When Kara Sanders, 72, heard about a local program from her daughter Michele offering to weatherize their home for free in South Oklahoma City she wondered how much they would do to her home since 1968.
When the Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian Counties’ Weatherization Program was through she was impressed. She now offers the best testimonial by saying she is strongly recommending to her sister, Janelle Jones, 82, to apply for the free service for her home only a few blocks away.
Sanders is delighted with the completeness of the weatherization every time she turns on her hot water. “Before the workers put an insulating blanket around my hot water tank, I needed to run the hot water a while before it became hot,” Sanders said. “Now my daughter and I are making the adjustment in the last few days to that wonderful feeling of instant hot water.”
After the recent frigid cold snap in Oklahoma City where residents saw 17 and 14 degree below zero mornings, seniors have many reasons to consider applying for free help to weatherize their homes.
“Every program our organization offers strives to create permanent solutions for those in our community,” said Jessie Thompson, executive director of Community Action Agency. “Weatherization is no different. These changes create lasting effects for our clients, including lower utility bills, eliminating health, safety and sanitary hazards to offer peace of mind to homeowners and renters alike.”
Thompson was named executive director of the nonprofit, Community Action Agency (CAA) of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian Counties, Inc., in January 2020, after a 14-year tenure with the organization.
Mark Hall headed up the five-worker crew spending three days making sure the Sanders’ home complies with national standards as the agency’s weatherization coordinator. The work is evident, even on the outside, where the workers replaced a big part of the rotting south exterior wall cladding to help close air leaks.
Hall emphasized they use computerized blower doors to detect all air leakage in the home. Then they decided which were the most cost-effective repairs.
For the Sanders home they added extra insulation in the attic. The licensed workers drilled and filled the walls with insulation. To seal a major air leak they also rebuilt the water heater closet to national standards and provided more insulation.
The workers installed new features in the home. They put in a bathroom ceiling vent and a kitchen ducted range hood that vents outside the home. Workers added tubing and a vent to allow the dryer to vent to the outside. To address health and safety concerns they also installed carbon monoxide sensors and smoke detectors.
The agency uses the national standard National Energy Audit Tool (NEAT) energy audit to guide how much work to perform on each home. This audit and compliance with standards are supported by two agency assessors visiting the home before the work and two inspectors visiting the home upon the work’s completion. They coordinate to make sure the home is repaired to comply with national standards.
“I feel blessed, now my daughter and I don’t have to worry about our home not being healthy and safe because we know it is sealed from any gas leaks.” Sanders said. “The workmen were professional in showing respect for my daughters’ privacy while they worked, since she is on oxygen with COPD while almost homebound here.”
Now, multi-family homes, quads and duplexes are eligible to receive services, something CAA was not able to do in the past. CAA offers this program for homes and residents with disabilities and households with children under the age of 12. There is an income requirement to apply. This program has proven to be extremely beneficial for senior residents in need in Oklahoma, Canadian, or Cleveland counties.
In the big picture weatherization can lead to fewer hospitalizations and trips to the emergency room, especially for those with asthma. By sealing, caulking, and adding door and window installation insulation, Hall says the home is often twice as energy efficient. These efforts offer residents permanent solutions to help save money by increasing energy efficiency. On average, residents save $40 per month on utility bills after CAA’s Weatherization program.
For information about the program see Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City & OK/CN Counties, Inc. (caaofokc.org)
If you are interested in receiving Weatherization Assistance, please complete this brief application. For more information or if you have questions, please call (405) 232.0199 to ask for Home Weatherization, or email [email protected].

Stephen M. Prescott, M.D., who led the largest expansion in the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation’s history, will retire as president.
Prescott, 73, made the announcement Tuesday at a meeting of OMRF’s board of directors. Prescott was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and said he was stepping down for health reasons. Since 2006, he has led the Oklahoma City-based nonprofit, which will mark its 75th anniversary later this year.
“The time I’ve spent at OMRF has been the capstone to a scientific career that has been immensely rewarding,” said Prescott, a physician and medical researcher. “I’ve been lucky enough to help guide this wonderful institution for 15 years. And nothing makes me happier than knowing the scientists of OMRF will continue the tradition of biomedical research excellence long after I’ve gone.”
Under Prescott, OMRF has three times earned designation by the National Institutes of Health as an Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, one of only 10 in the nation. Three life-changing drugs born at OMRF have earned FDA approval, including the first treatment for pain crises caused by sickle cell disease.
With the addition of a 186,000-square-foot research tower that included a multiple sclerosis clinic in 2011, Prescott engineered the largest campus expansion ever at OMRF. He also successfully completed a $100 million fundraising initiative that paid for that growth, then spearheaded the recruitment of more than 30 new principal scientists to fill the new labs and clinic space.
In rankings based on employee surveys, OMRF has earned a designation as one of Oklahoma’s Top Workplaces every year since the contest began in 2013. That includes a pair of blue ribbons among large employers in 2017 and 2019. During Prescot’s tenure, the foundation also received more than a dozen four-star rankings – the highest possible – from Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest evaluator of nonprofits.
“Dr. Steve Prescott’s leadership of OMRF has been transformative,” said Len Cason, chair of OMRF’s board of directors. “As a scientist and as a person, he dared not just to think big, but to transform those ideas into action. He challenged everyone at OMRF to reach new standards of excellence, and then he followed through and made sure it happened.”
Prescott was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2020. In his acceptance speech, he recalled how he’d been recruited to Oklahoma from the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute, where he’d served as executive director. “Len Cason told me that OMRF was the right place for me. He was right.”
The executive committee of OMRF’s board of directors will name an acting successor to Prescott soon. A nationwide search for a permanent replacement will follow.
“I’ve had the great fortune to live a charmed life. I’ve spent each day immersed in medical research,” said Prescott. “When you do something you love, you don’t work a day in your life.”

Story and photos by Darl DeVault

May 31st is Memorial Day and Oklahoma’s Commander Ernest E. Evans is in the news again 76 years after his heroism and death at the hands of one of the largest Japanese naval armadas put afloat during World War II. His valiant actions in the Battle off Samar against a vastly superior force earned the Shawnee-born native American the only Medal of Honor awarded for this rare surface-ship battle in the war.
Evans’ ship, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Johnston, was sunk in late October 1944 after he repeatedly hurled it against devastating firepower in the Philippine Sea. It was first found in 2019 after the deepest dive to a shipwreck in history. Only in the last month was it positively identified in a second dive by a different group of researchers.
Showing personal initiative, the brave commander was the first of a submarine screen of three destroyers defending six thin-hulled, lightly armed escort carriers loaded with planes. The Taffy 3 task force was attacked by an overwhelming 23-ship Japanese force coming to destroy the Leyte landing.
Upon first spotting the huge Japanese fleet and without orders, the Johnston threw out a smoke screen while sailing at flank speed against an enemy whose largest gun turret outweighed the U.S. destroyer. In a valiant action, Evans and his sailors were able to torpedo a Japanese cruiser while inspiring the other two destroyers to follow him against the enemy.
Evans received shrapnel wounds and lost two fingers when the bridge of his Fletcher-class destroyer was blown apart. The severely wounded U.S. Naval Academy graduate, who grew up in Oklahoma and graduated from Muskogee High School, continued to captain his damaged vessel in battle while shouting orders from the stern. The overwhelming Japanese force soon reduced the ship to dead in the water, and Evans and his sailors abandoned the sinking warship. The Johnston skipper was never found.
The Johnston crew’s bravery in this action, part of the wider-ranging Battle of Leyte Gulf, is credited with convincing the Japanese fleet that it was attacking a much larger force of aircraft carriers. The Japanese commander ordered an unnecessary withdrawal, saving the vital jeep carriers of the Taffy 3 force from certain annihilation.
The Japanese’s four battleships, including the super-battleship Yamato, eight cruisers and a dozen or more destroyers were in route to attack the 200,000 American soldiers of MacArthur’s 6th Army landing on the beaches of Leyte Island. The massive American armada assigned to defend this landing, the U. S. Third Fleet commanded by Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, had been lured away by empty Japanese carriers used as decoys.
In 2019, a few days past the 75th anniversary of the Battle off Samar, researchers from Vulcan Inc.’s research vessel R/V Petrel believed they had found wreckage from the engagement’s famed Fletcher-class destroyer, USS Johnston (DD-557).
Images of twisted metal, a destroyed deck gun, a propeller shaft, and other less recognizable debris were posted to Petrel’s Facebook page, with a video narrated by Rob Kraft, Vulcan’s director of subsea operations, and Paul Mayer a submersible pilot with the team started by the late billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen.
In late March of this year, a crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the wreckage of the Johnston off Samar Island on two eight-hour dives. A Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic made the identifying dive. Company founder Victor Vescovo, who piloted the submersible, released dramatic video of the shipwreck.
“Just completed the deepest wreck dive in history, to find the main wreckage of the destroyer USS Johnston,” tweeted Vescovo, a former Naval officer.
“We located the front two-thirds of the ship, upright and intact, at a depth of 6,456 meters (21,180 feet),” Vescovo reported. “Three of us across two dives surveyed the vessel and gave respects to her brave crew.”
The expedition found the bow, bridge and mid-section of the Johnston intact, along with two full gun turrets, twin torpedo racks, and multiple gun mounts. The ship’s hull number “557” is still visible, according to a statement by Caladan Oceanic.
The shipwreck is a well-preserved tomb. From Johnston’s complement of 327 officers and men, only 141 were saved. Of the 186 men lost, about 50 were killed by enemy action and 45 later died from wounds floating in the ocean. Ninety-two men—like Cmdr. Evans—got off before the boat sank in shark-infested waters and were never seen again.
Evans’ Medal of Honor citation reads in part: The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Commander Ernest Edwin “Chief” Evans (NSN: 0-70042), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. JOHNSTON (DD-557) in action against major units of the enemy Japanese fleet during the battle off Samar on 25 October 1944. The first to lay a smokescreen and to open fire as an enemy task force, vastly superior in number, firepower and armor, rapidly approached. Commander Evans gallantly diverted the powerful blasts of hostile guns from the lightly armed and armored carriers under his protection, launching the first torpedo attack when the JOHNSTON came under straddling Japanese shellfire. Seriously wounded early in the engagement, Commander Evans, by his indomitable courage and brilliant professional skill, aided materially in turning back the enemy during a critical phase of the action. His valiant fighting spirit throughout this historic battle will venture as an inspiration to all who served with him.
There were many other brave sailors and airmen from the escort carriers during those three hours of standing toe to toe with the biggest warships ever built. Besides the Johnston, the destroyer USS Hoel was also lost in the engagement. The captain of the USS Heermann, the only U.S. destroyer that remained afloat, became the first destroyer captain to survive engaging multiple battleships in a daylight battle. Only losing four sailors, Commander Amos Hathaway was awarded the Navy Cross for his skillful seamanship.
These actions by the destroyers and those of many other sailors and pilots of Taffy 3 saved the Navy from a near disaster. In addition to all earning Presidential Unit Citations, the sailors and pilots earned 22 Navy Crosses, two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars for valor in the battle.
Evans was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame in 2009. The following year the Oklahoma Historical Society published a long-overdue account of his life and heroics in a 2010 issue of the society’s historical journal, The Chronicles of Oklahoma.
Lt. Col. (ret.) Steve Reagan of Norman, Okla., has been raising funds for a memorial bust of Ernest Evans to commemorate this Native American naval hero from Oklahoma. The bust is planned to be located in Muskogee War Memorial Park. Anyone interested in information on these efforts or who would like to donate for this memorial should contact Steve Reagan at (405) 312-2270.

The City of Del City and the Del City Chamber of Commerce are proud to announce the annual Armed Forces Day and Shriners Parade is returning on May 15. This long-standing tradition of nearly three decades is one of the largest of its kind in Oklahoma.
Dozens of parade entries have already signed up for what organizers are preparing as a record-breaking turnout. The parade will feature military vehicles, India Shriners, veteran groups, community organizations and more.
The parade will start at 10 a.m. at SE 15th and Sunnylane. It will travel south on Sunnylane to SE 29th, where it will turn east and proceed to Vickie Drive.
Oklahomans of all ages are invited to line the streets in honor and celebration of the men and women serving in our armed forces.
Anyone who would like to take part in the parade is encouraged to fill out the application online at cityofdelcity.com/armed-forces-day-parade.
If you would like to participate in this year’s parade or additional information, please contact Monica Cardin via 405-671-2815 or email [email protected].

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn [email protected]

Anytime you hear the word Santa Fe , it has to conjure up images. And if you have visited there it must illicit emotions and memories as well. With travel plans still up in the air a safe bet is a car trip, which at times can be cheaper and more reliable. My first visit to Santa Fe was in the late 1970s, when I was breaking in a new car and exploring the great American West.
Of course, I traveled a long day’s drive on I-40 West out of Oklahoma City , then took the highway 284 cut off at Clines Corners and entered Santa Fe on the Old Pecos Trail. That road soon turned into the Old Santa Fe Trail, where I drove along the narrow road with the old San Miguel Mission adobe church on my right and the famed Pink Adobe Restaurant on my left. The Old Santa Fe Trail offered a perfect first impression, as it was lined with atmospheric time worn structures, and not the modern franchise eateries and gas stations that hug the more traditional entry up north from Albuquerque, on Cerrillos Road.
I soon came into the parking lot of the relatively new, Inn at Loretto, replete in iconic Santa Fe adobe architecture. I was treated the next morning with a light dusting of snow and a hint of pinion in the air, as I pulled away from a town I’d hardly seen but ~ silently, subconsciously ~ vowed to see again. I have returned to Santa Fe many times since then and each time explored new venues with a salute to favorite places, which have become a traditional pilgrimage when visiting.
I can’t recall why I chose a one night stay at this particular hotel ~ must have been its appealing architecture and perhaps at that time availability. This time I found myself walking past the Spa and the aroma of relaxation made me regret my time on this visit was too short. My stay at the Inn at Loretto in the l970s, and in subsequent years has always been a pleasant tradition. This time was no exception.
Old traditional haunts include: the La Cantina Bar at La Sena Casa where waiters turn into opera and musical theatre singers about every ten minutes; the Pink Adobe Restaurant with its fine and sometimes spicy gourmet productions; Jackalope on Cerrillos road with its affordable southwestern flared garden and household offerings ~ along with the best and freshest string of red chili ristras in season; and the old haunts along the Plaza with its Indian jewelry market and a variety of upscale fashion shops.
New traditional offerings include the Balconies at the Plaza restaurant, which until a few years ago was the traditional Ore House Restaurant with the best and meatiest tasting salsa anywhere ~ needless to say I miss it; the Carol Kucera art gallery filled with expressive movement in colorful paintings from the personable artist; and an always must see at the top of Canyon Road the special 822 Gallery of bronzes by Joshua Tobey. These two galleries a have now moved out of Santa Fe, with others occupying their places.
Upon this recent trip I discovered the Santa Fe pickup, a free bus that circles the old town area, and is certainly a boon and must for those wanting to wander down Canyon Road as it will drop you off at the top. While my most recent autumn visit was blessed with perfect weather, I have climbed the road in scorching heat and can testify that the art is much more appealing starting at the top and meandering down.
Other must visits is the New Mexico Museum of Art and the New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors – both on the Plaza; and up on Museum Hill the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Museum of International Folk Art . Of course a road trip out to Tesuque with its sculpture garden and the near by glass blowing gallery can be broken up with a respite at Bishops Lodge for libations and food with a dose of historical luxury. A Santa Fe visit is not complete without a stop at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and a tasting at is elegant restaurant.
I’m not sure if it’s the upscale art and fashion shopping, the authentic New Mexican cuisine, the fresh atmosphere and the nearly unspoiled vistas, or the essence of its history that permeates the soul, which beckons a perpetual return. Probably it’s all, and yet some indescribable something else that all visitors try to describe when remembering, Santa Fe.
For more information contact:
The Inn at Loretto – https://www.hotelloretto.com/ Joshua Tobey Bronzes: https://www.joshuatobeystudios.com/ and, https://www.santafe.org

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
3110 N.W. 15 Street – Oklahoma City, OK 73107
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