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President of Santa Fe Always On Line, Inc. Hello,
and welcome to Santa Fe Always OnLine. I'm Stan Evans, president
of this enterprise, and I'd like to extend personal greetings
and tell you something about our site. I'm glad you're interested in Santa Fe, but hardly surprised. After all, Conde Nast Traveler magazine not long ago named Santa Fe the number-one travel destination in all the world. Those of us who live here and love the place understand that distinction. If you come, you will too. They call this The City Different. I say it's The City Unique. Why? Well, where to begin? Without a doubt, no other American city of 65,000 people has the astonishing cultural richness of Santa Fe-with six major museums, 150 art galleries, the world-renowned Santa Fe Opera, a symphony orchestra, a variety of live theaters, several colleges and other institutions of learning, from cooking to ancient archaeology to cutting-edge physics, plus some of the finest dining to be found anywhere. But maybe I'm starting at the wrong place. Maybe I should tell you about the beauty of Santa Fe. It surrounds us, and sometimes takes visitors' breath away. The majestic, 12,000-foot Sangre de Cristo mountains gaze down upon Santa Fe, which rests at an altitude of 7,000 feet, where the high desert meets the foothills. Within an hour from the famed Plaza, visitors can be hiking a mountain trail, exploring a canyon, listening to a waterfall, rafting on the Rio Grande or just watching a magnificent sunset. Or perhaps I should start with Santa Fe's history, 400 years' worth and counting --and that's just after the first Europeans came. Before that, Santa Fe's story goes back to time immemorial. The native inhabitants called this place "the dancing ground of the sun." They knew it was special even then. In ways that are still visible, some things have changed little in the four centuries of recorded history. We're the oldest capital city in the nation, we have the oldest church and the oldest house still standing in the United States, and hundreds of streets pass adobe structures that have stood the test of time. It is said that coming to Santa Fe is a way to get out of the country without leaving the country. I like that. It is indeed another place here, and another time-of cowboys and Indians, of Hispanic pioneers, of conquistadors and proud Indians who forced them to flee in 1680, in the most dramatic native uprising in U.S. history. Yet for all its ancient look and ways, Santa Fe is now as modern as any other city. Well, almost. I could go on and on (and we will on this Web site), but let me tell you now about SantaFeAlwaysOnLine. Internet users seeking information about Santa Fe have many places to look, as a quick browse reveals. Our goal is to be the best of them all. To attain this goal, our enterprise has enlisted the services of award-winning writer Richard McCord, a 30-year resident of Santa Fe and founder of the city's nationally distinguished weekly newspaper. He in turn has lined up many other locally prominent writers to contribute their knowledge and experience. The third leg of this venture is computer expert Andrew Elliott. With years of Web-site know-how behind him, he brings award-winning graphics and organizational skills to SantaFeAlwaysOnLine. We want this site to be the most comprehensive, easiest-to-use, most interesting and most fun place to go for any Web user seeking information about Santa Fe. We hope in time—through link after link after link—to provide everything that anyone needs to know, without having to peruse other sites. We aren't there yet—lots of work to do—but now that we're up and running, we will constantly be adding to and upgrading the site. To see for yourself, just come back and check us out next week. Whether it's vacations, lodging, dining, sightseeing, history, statistics, lifestyle, culture, events, relocating here, or anything else that has you interested, we hope you'll find what you need on SantaFeAlwaysOnLine. We also hope—now that we've caught your attention—that you'll check out the link to our OnLine store, in which we feature an array of special, affordable items that reflect the uniqueness of this Different City. Well, that's my greeting. I hope it finds you eager and curious about Santa Fe. And then I hope that Santa Fe Always Online will answer all your questions. Enjoy. Stan Evans, President
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