Une Envie de Sel

 Perhaps my favorite part of our roadtrip, visually as well as sensually, Santa Fe's famed Ten Thousand Waves Japanese spa, where we stayed while in town.

 Dramatic weather over the plateaus to the north was just the preamble...

 Ahhhhh...now this is a vacation.

I could definitely get used to this...

 and the fact that the incredibly elegant lodgings are dog-friendly, well, that was the clincher.

 We stayed in Tsuki, the largest of the lodgings on offer (akin to a full-sized one-bedroom house), and if you've ever paid for a hotel room in New York, you will appreciate just how reasonable the rates are here.

 Free access to the spa (including exclusive early-morning hours) is no small incentive. The women's only communal tub, perched so high among the tree tops that one feels as if in a treehouse when the wind blows, is an experience like no other...and I have to say I became really addicted to the hot-pool/cold-pool routine, which is surprisingly pleasurable. Even Q was game for the cold pool at intervals, which impressed me no end. Pretty hard-core for a three-year-old!