Sleeper Car to New Mexico

 

Ever on the lookout for new adventures, I was thrilled to read about the 1898 Fred Harvey hotel, La Castañeda, that reopened in Las Vegas, NM, last year. I immediately contacted our friends Suzanne and Mike, who I knew were attending a conference in Albuquerque in February, to see if they'd like to meet us in Las Vegas. I then reserved a room for Tim and me at the hotel.

Now we love traveling by rail, but had never taken an overnight sleeper car. Some of our friends love sleeping on the train, while others swear "never again!" As it turns out the train from Los Angeles to Chicago stops in Las Vegas, NM—thus, the perfect opportunity for us to experience an overnight train ride ourselves. I booked a "bedroom:" bunk beds with our own combination toilet/shower bathroom. "Should be fun!" I told Tim.

The train was leaving at 6PM, so we arrived at Union Station more than an hour early. One of our train-buff friends told us our sleeper car tickets entitled us to wait in Amtrak's "exclusive" Metropolitan Lounge, which is hidden away on the second floor of the station. There we found free snacks and clean bathrooms—already worth the price of the tickets! At around 5:30PM, a "red cap" took us and our luggage to the train on a small open-air shuttle. Not luxurious, but much better than lugging our bags ourselves. We then boarded the train.

 

Our special pre-train lounge at Union Station—not at all

exclusive, but at least it was quiet and clean

 On the red-cap "shuttle" with our luggage

 

City Hall and the L.A. skyline as we left

Our "sofa" pulled out to become the bottom bunk, while the top bunk was tucked away until bedtime. As soon as the train started moving, a hostess came by to make our dinner reservations. All meals were included in our ticket, though seating was communal in the shared dining car. Dinner, breakfast and lunch were all fresh-cooked, plus we got to meet and chat with different tablemates each time. Highly enjoyable.

 

Our tiny "bedroom." The sofa folds out to

become the bottom bunk. The top bunk is

tucked away above until bedtime.

 

 Our private combo toilet/shower bathroom

 

Sleeper car hallway—rooms on the left

 Shared dining car

Not so enjoyable was the bunk beds, which were not exactly uncomfortable, but the train's constant movement made it very difficult to sleep. I honestly don't know why people love traveling like this. We were both exhausted by the time we arrived in Las Vegas, NM, at 2:50PM the next day. Still, we were happy for the experience—one more thing to check-off our bucket list, even if we never take a sleeper car again!

Mirror-selfie: resting on the final leg of our 21-hour ride

 

Short leg-stretching stop in Albuquerque, 2 hours from 

Las Vegas, NM

Las Vegas, New Mexico

 

Our hotel

Located about 120 miles northeast of Albuquerque, Las Vegas, NM, was at one time the gateway to the Wild West and largest city on the Santa Fe Trail. Today, it's a remarkably well-preserved example of an Old West town with some 900 homes, hotels, schools, and churches on the National Historic Register—making Las Vegas, of course, the perfect spot to film contemporary westerns, like the TV show Longmire and Academy Award-winning movie No Country for Old Men. The town may be old, but it's also certainly hip.

 Old City Hall (1892), no longer in use and 

in need of repair, but still impressive

 

Refurbished old buildings downtown

 

Tim strolling by an assortment of old buildings in various states of repair

 

Original brick-and-masonry wall

I became intrigued by Las Vegas after reading an L.A. Times article about the recently renovated La Castañeda, a hotel built in 1898 by Fred Harvey as part of his nationwide chain of hospitality "houses." Abandoned for 70 years, the mission-style Castañeda was eventually purchased by entrepreneur Allan Affeldt and his artist wife Tina Mion after successfully renovating another famous Harvey hotel, La Paloma, in Winslow, AZ. Although we knew little about Las Vegas, we decided to book three nights at La Castañeda so we could fully experience the hotel and its town. For such a small town (pop. 13,000), there was plenty to do.

 

Winter gloom: view of La Castañeda from the train

 

Hotel lobby

 

Original mural above the hotel bar

Las Vegas train station

Situated right next to the railroad track, our large corner bedroom—with a huge four-poster bed—ended up being very quiet, even though the original wood floors did creak whenever anyone walked by. In addition, the hotel restaurant, which is just about the only place to eat in this part of town, was excellent: exceptional modern food in a 19th-century setting. Extremely charming and, quite frankly, completely unexpected.

 

 Real room key on original hotel keyring (cool!)

Each room is named after an endangered NM animal

and is decorated in furniture salvaged from other old-time hotels

As much as we enjoyed the Castañeda, we absolutely fell in love with Affeldt's other property, the Plaza Hotel, located in the old downtown area called the Plaza. Built in 1882, the hotel stands three stories high and is an lovely example of Renaissance Revival architecture. Plus they serve an excellent breakfast. The only drawback is that it's a mile from the train and no shuttle service going to-and-fro, so I'm not sure how we'd get there the next time we're in town. (We walked everywhere and didn't need a car.) But I'm determined to go back and spend at least one night in late 19th-century luxury.

 

Plaza Hotel

 

Staircase and tin ceilings inside the Plaza Hotel

 

Door to fictitious sheriff Longmire's office (exciting!)

 

Plaza Hotel on right and Longmire's office building

at end of street

 

Inside historic Plaza Drugs and soda fountain (1919)

 

With our friends Mike and Suzanne

 

Lunch at Charlie's Spic and Span, home to good old-fashioned

American and Mexican cuisine

 

Charlie's specialty: homemade cream puffs, which we marveled at

but resisted

 

Santa Fe Trail remains the main road through town 

Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Las Vegas is home to the only surviving Carnegie library in New Mexico. Built in 1903 and modeled after Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, the library could use some loving restoration, but is still faithfully serving its community.

 

Carnegie Library

 

Front door

 

Original, ornate doorknob 

We awoke to snow our last morning in Las Vegas, but were able to drive down to the Albuquerque airport with no problem. We promise to return during warmer weather . . .

Our last morning: snow on the ground

Modernism Week 2020

 

In Palm Springs

 

We’ve attended Modernism Week in Palm Springs (PS) pretty regularly since we first started going in 2012. In the past, we were all about architectural tours. But this year we went for the lectures, Charles Phoenix, ceramic dinnerware, and Nancy Sinatra. Highlights follow below.

10AM, Saturday, and our first event was Charles Phoenix’s latest slide show extravaganza, “The Midcentury is My Muse.” Oddly enough, the show was more about Catalina Island than Palm Springs, but fun nonetheless. Plus we got to zip through the Palm Springs Museum of Art, where the event was held. New orange cushions enliven the museum steps, so we took a load off before taking an obligatory walk around town, including an homage visit to our favorite artist SHAG’s gallery. The weather was glorious.  We then attended a lecture on “The Kitchen of Tomorrow,” featuring Sarah Archer, author of The Midcentury Kitchen. It may be time to renovate our kitchen . . .

 

 On the museum steps

Palm Springs Museum of Art

 

SHAG store

 

We spent Sunday morning at a sold-out lecture and slide show about the fabulous TWA Hotel at JFK airport. We, of course, stayed there a year ago when it first opened and so felt like we were seeing an old friend. Wished we could go back soon, but instead visited the “Atomic Age Tablescapes” exhibit at the Welwood Murray Memorial Library in downtown PS. Amazing private collection.

 

 "Crazy Rhythm" by Red Wing Pottery

 

"Hopscotch" by Salem Pottery

 

 

"CA Aztec" by Metlox Potteries

 

"Aqua Marine" by Roselane Pottery

 

 

 

"CA Contempora" by Metlox Potteries

  

And finally . . . One of the things that originally brought Tim and me together was a mutual love of all things Sinatra: the music, the Rat Pack movies and, most of all, the oh-so-cool style. So naturally, we just had to attend a fundraiser event featuring Frank’s daughter Nancy. She brought along her daughters, their godfather James Darren (Vic Fontaine from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!), and various musicians, who showed slides of the former Sinatra compound and reminisced about the good ol’ days in Palm Springs. Loved it all, especially when Nancy brought the house down by singing “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” Perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

 

 Tim and Frank in the Hyatt lobby

 Fundraiser to restore the Plaza Theatre

 Nancy Sinatra singing "Boots"