If you’re here, here’s what to do
I’m 68 and retired to Santa Fe four years ago, after my mother died and I no longer had to be the Oldest Daughter Taking Care of Mom. (Taking care of Mom and Dad as they age usually falls to the oldest daughter, as you may well know.) I moved here from Austin, Texas, after many happy ski trips here over the years, always feeling enchanted by the curved adobe walls when they gather snow on quiet afternoons, the inky-black night sky and the trickle of a waterway that gets to be named the Santa Fe River.
Why did I come here? The big, blue mountains silently invited me. They seemed to promise protection and company, no matter what the season or the weather.
The mountains have kept their promise to me.
I’ve gathered a few tips if you’re considering retiring to Santa Fe or have already made your move here and are settling in:
◆ Keep going to the spots you loved as a tourist. La Fonda bar, Ten Thousand Waves, Doodlet’s — you can go every day of the week if you like. Who’s to stop you? You loved these places as a tourist; you’ll love them even more as a local once the workers start greeting you by name. You belong!
◆ Join a mosque, synagogue, church or secular humanist society. You can spend your first year just shopping around. Santa Fe overflows with good congregations meeting in interesting buildings. I started by attending Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi just for the cultural experience. (I had no intention of becoming a Catholic.) I loved being there on Sunday morning, Saturday night, weekdays in the little chapel on the side of the cathedral at 5 p.m. Attending services in the cathedral is one of my favorite memories of my first year in Santa Fe. One summer evening, we all walked out of the chapel to see a rainbow arched over the mountains as a drizzle of rain kissed our faces. We all just started laughing.
◆ Go to the art museums, walk around and around, gaze at your favorite artworks there. On certain days, you can get in free with your New Mexico ID.
◆ Take advantage (once it opens back up) of the remarkable classical music scene in Santa Fe. You will not hear better performances in New York City. Some classical music organizations here let you attend rehearsals for free, where you can hear the musicians get mad at each other. This is not allowed in front of paying audiences.
◆ Volunteer at a homeless shelter, food pantry or food bank. You can get into this type of volunteer job more quickly than into a more complicated volunteer position that requires extensive training, so you can start helping less-fortunate locals right away. I cook for La Casa Familia. The residents and workers there are always sweet to me. But then who wouldn’t be nice when someone drops off giant aluminum pans of homemade meatloaf and macaroni and cheese? ◆ Hike in the mountains.
◆ Swim laps at Genoveva Chavez Community Center — the swimming pool there has lifted me up on many a depressing afternoon.
◆ Become a patron of the best public library ever, right by the Plaza.
◆ Make a garden with the help of one of the beautiful nurseries here, even if it’s just flowers in pots on your balcony, as I do.
◆ Tell your out-of-town friends that you’re really sorry, but you don’t have a guest room. Once they’re settled in their hotel room, pick them up and play the role of the local driving the tourists around. They’ll think you’re super groovy because you live in Santa Fe, just as they have always secretly wanted to.