The aspens have begun to change on the mountain displaying their brilliant oranges and yellows. The temperatures have settled into the 50’s and kiva fireplaces are ablaze with our native pinon wood. The fragrance of pinion wood, especially when burned, is unmistakable.

Bundled up with a scarf securely around my neck and latte in hand, I walk down Guadalupe Street while enjoying the magical fragrance of pinon as it wafts in the air over the village of Santa Fe. I stop for a second, close my eyes and let it seep in. There is no other place I would rather be.

Pinon pine is a small, slow growing evergreen tree, usually only 10-30 feet in height. The seeds are edible and important for wildlife.  For more than 2,000 years Pinon nuts have been used by Native American peoples of the Southwest, including Pueblo, Navajo, Ute, Shoshone, Cahuilla and Paiute. The fall harvest of these nuts was an occasion for great festivity. Surpluses were stored for winter food supply. The pine nuts you buy in the store are usually from pinon pine trees.

This dense, slow growing southwestern pinewood is a favorite among wood burners. Well known for its wonderful fragrance, pinon wood has become a must for those looking to enjoy the warmth and aroma of a wood burning fire.

Visit Santa Fe, and you’ll see why fall has it all: perfect climate, lots to do, lighter crowds. Autumn is the perfect time to start making travel plans to Santa Fe for the coming months

Santa Fe Dreamin’ ……… On a Fall Day

Indian lore is lovely, mystical and often proves to be true. One bit of lore in the GLBT community has it that if you visit Santa Fe, then go home and dream about it, you will return and stay forever. It happens. In fact, it happens a lot. Countless Gay Texans, New Yorkers, Californians, etc., will say this is exactly what they experienced. One Houstonian said, she drove in through the Plaza, down San Francisco, turned on Water St. then again on Don Gaspar and was hooked. She admits she actually said aloud, “I will one day live here”. Returning home, she had the dream and five years later she bought her home and now calls herself a Santa Fean.

In Santa Fe, the lure of Indian spirit is felt by gay couples on every street, dirt road and mountaintop. Sunsets and rainbows take on a new reverence. Clean, mountain air becomes a deal breaker. One big intake fills your lungs with a life force that can’t be compromised ever again. Once bitten by the assurance of “another day in paradise”, every day, no one can go back. Everyone wants more and more. Everyone seems to be in a constant state of awe. Grateful residents will advise you to grab your own spot and stay forever.

For gay singles and couples, it’s strange, the hold this little place can have on you. When you first arrive, you look up approximately 75% of the time. Stumbling over moss rocks, tumble weeds and something called, Chamisa happens to everyone. You just can’t look down to see where you are going because the sky above is in flames. Purple mountain majesty is no longer just a phrase from a 5th grade song. It is real and right in front of you. Sometimes the sky is hot pink causing the views and the light to take on an almost eerie, chilling effect. It takes hold of a place inside you didn’t even know you had. And, that dream of moving here and taking possession of this grandeur slides back into your consciousness and all that’s left is to give thanks.

New flights provide three daily links to Dallas

Expansion of American Eagle airline service between Santa Fe and Dallas/Fort Worth takes off this weekend.

Starting Friday, a new early departure — leaving Santa Fe Municipal Airport at 8:15 a.m. and arriving at DFW at 10:55 a.m. local time — is expected to prove especially popular with businesspeople looking to make connections for flights to the East Coast and elsewhere, Santa Fe airport manager Jim Montman said.  

“I’ve checked on the flight,” he said, “and it appears to have been full for quite some time.”

Starting Thursday, an evening flight from the American Airlines hub at DFW will also make it easier for westbound passengers to reach Santa Fe. The flight will depart DFW at 7:40 p.m. and arrive in Santa Fe at 8:30 p.m. local time. The crew overnights in Santa Fe and then makes the early flight back to DFW.

The expanded service, which was announced in mid-December, will use the same 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140 regional jets that provide American Eagle’s other three daily flights in and out of Santa Fe.

Fares are affected by how far in advance you book. A check of the airline Web site on Tuesday evening showed that a last-minute booking for a roundtrip departing Santa Fe early Friday and returning from Dallas on Sunday evening would cost about $599. A similar itinerary in late March was available for about $403.

Valerie Alarid, officer manager of Wings Travel, said American Eagle is becoming more popular with her clients as the airline adds more flights.

“We have clients who want to leave the East Coast in the afternoon,” she said. “With this new flight (leaving Dallas at 7:40 p.m.), they can be back in Santa Fe the same day.”

Alarid also said American Eagle’s daily connection with Los Angeles is “nice for clients who are traveling to Asia. I think it will become more and more popular.”

The start of the third daily link between Dallas and Santa Fe comes as the embattled airline industry begins to show some signs of life.

On Tuesday, shares of U.S. airlines rose strongly after United, one of the largest, reported strong January traffic. According to Reuters, United said earlier in the week that its unit revenue from its planes rose between 9.5 percent and 11.5 percent for January.

Other major airlines’ shares were also higher, with American Airlines rising 9.3 percent.

“If unit revenues are rising at United, that’s generally an indication that demand is improving in general,” Standard & Poors analyst Jim Corridore told Reuters.

American Eagle flights to and from Santa Fe resulted in 19,653 enplanements and deplanements during the last seven months of 2009, which works out to an average of little more than 2,800 a month.

The number that is expected to grow as service expands and more travelers become familiar with the alternative to using Albuquerque International Sunport. During the first month of 2010, there were 4,634 enplanements and deplanements in Santa Fe.

Montman said the connections with DFW are the most popular flights, while the lilnk with LAX in Los Angeles is “coming along.”

American Eagle was forced to cancel a number of flights because of the recent stormy weather, Montman said.

Load factors, which give an accurate indication of how heavily particular flights are booked, aren’t made public, airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said. However, she said, “They are meeting expectations.”

Montman and Simon Brackley, president of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce, both expect heavier traffic as warmer weather approaches.

“All of this has been happening in the slowest part of the season,” Brackley said. “As spring and summer comes along, we anticipate even more growth. We would like to see other airlines as well.”

Delta Air Lines in mid-2007 said it also planned to offer regional jet service here, linking Santa Fe with Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, but later decided not to proceed with the plan because market conditions appeared not to warrant it.

As for Santa Fe’s efforts to bring other carriers to Santa Fe, Montman said this week, “We are talking to other airlines, but nothing is confirmed.”

You’ll find everything from hip hotels to budget bases in our collection from ever popular gay-friendly destinations like Gran Canaria, Sitges, Majorca, Tenerife and Ibiza to the iconic islands of Mykonos and Lesbos.

And this is just the beginning.

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Santa Fe may be the most popular gay destination in New Mexico!

In summer 2010, the swanky and fun Rouge Cat ((101 W. Marcy St., 505-983-6603) opened near the Plaza, and it is LGBT-owned and aiming to be more of a gay hangout, although it welcomes everybody. Run by longtime Santa Fe DJ Oona Bender, this eclectic spot has two distinct spaces. At street level, there’s a relatively cozy and somewhat swank cocktail bar, where you can also have light food. Head downstairs, and you’ll discover a mid-size dance floor and bar where some of the area’s top DJs (including Bender herself) spin tunes. Santa Fe had lacked a predominantly GLBT hangout for a few years until Rouge Cat opened, and its popularity has been huge right from the start.

It’s also just a short walk from Rize Nightclub at 135 West Palace Avenue (505-955-0400), which had previously been known as Fusion and before that Swig, both of which had significant gay followings. Rize opened in summer 2010 and seems to be drawing a mostly mainstream crowd, but it is very gay-friendly and you’ll generally find a mix of types and styles there.

A relatively less-known downtown Santa Fe bar called The Matador (at the corner of San Francisco and Galisteo Sts.) also has something of a gay scene. It’s a tiny basement space with a funky, dive-y, un-touristy vibe, and the scene seems to be especially on the gay side on Friday nights. It’s just off the Plaza, close to many of Santa Fe’s top restaurants – you may be surprised, once you check out this dark little haunt, that downtown Santa Fe has a bar that’s so happily anti-precious.

In the trendy Railyard District, a friendly restaurant and bar called Max’s Santa Fe (505-984-9104) has developed a considerable following the gay and lesbian community. It’s a full-service restaurant until 10 or 11 pm, depending on the evening, and the menu offers a mix of international tapas and larger plates. In the evening, this friendly and attractive little cafe is also a social hangout and bar, drawing an eclectic bunch. In warm weather, you can dine or hobnob on the charming patio.

Next to Max’s, Santa Fe saw the opening of a fun new bar and grill called Corazon early in 2009, and this festive place with live bands most evenings and affordable, tapas-style food is quite popular with the City Different’s GLBT set.

A short walk from Max’s you’ll find Santa Fe’s first branch of the Albuquerque-based, gay-friendly cafe, coffeehouse, and bar, Flying Star, which opened in the snazzy new Railyard District (at 500 Market Street).

On the south side of town, just off I-25, one nightlife option many visitors might not think of is the Silver Starlight Cabaret at RainbowVision Properties, the GLBT retirement community that opened here in 2005. At the center of this 13-acre residential community is a clubhouse, with the cabaret inside, and it’s open to both residents and the general public. The bar tends to be most popular earlier in the evening, and it’s a great spot to meet other gay Santa Fe locals. Silver Starlight has become so popular that Out Magazine ranked it in fall 2007 as one of the Greatest Gay Bars in the World.

Elsewhere in town, among the several mainstream bars you’ll find here, a few are especially charming and fun as well as being quite welcoming of gay visitors. Will you likely see other gay folks at any of these places? Maybe – maybe not. But you’re apt to have a good time, if all you’re looking for is a warm and inviting place for a cocktail. These establishments include El Farol, a historic Spanish tapas restaurant and live-music bar on art-gallery-lined Canyon Road; the Staab House, a swank lounge inside the snazzy La Posada de Santa Fe Resort; Secreto Bar (formerly the Artist’s Pub), a handsomely redesigned and renamed old-world bar and grill inside the venerable Hotel St. Francis; Vanessie Restaurant and Piano Bar, a gay-popular piano cabaret attached to a very good steakhouse; and the see-and-be-seen Dragon Room, a favorite gathering spot at the esteemed Pink Adobe Restaurant.

Other great bets include the rollicking Cowgirl (319 S. Guadalupe St., 505-982-2565), a rambling barbecue and New Mexican food restaurant and bar with live music most nights and a charming patio; and Harry’s Roadhouse (Old Las Vegas Hwy., 1 mi south of the Old Pecos Trail, 505-989-4629), a hugely popular locals’ hangout on the southeastern outskirts of town, where you’ll find outstanding and affordable food, super margaritas, and an eclectic, fun-loving crowd.