Museum seeks contractor to run cafe

The Museum of New Mexico is looking for a restaurateur to reopen the cafe on Santa Fe's Museum Hill by May.

Walter Burke Catering, which had operated the cafe since its opening in May 2002, decided against renewing its lease and closed the restaurant on Dec. 1.

Shelby Tisdale, director of the nearby Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, said the deadline for submitting applications to the state Purchasing Division is March 2 to enable the Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents to approve the contract at its March 18 meeting.

The 6,057-square-foot building has 2,800 square feet of indoor space, 2,280 square feet of outdoor space and 977 square feet of basement. It is equipped with cooking equipment, but not things like tables and chairs, dishes and utensils.

Procurement materials are available from Tisdale. Contact her by phone at 476-1251 or by e-mail at shelby.tisdale@state.nm.us by Wednesday. A pre-proposal site visit is set for 8 a.m. Thursday.

Ex-Santa Fe nurse continues adventure

Darrell Gardner, a former nurse at Christus St. Vincent Hospital turned adventurer, will give a slide show of his recent 1,400-mile solo paddle from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska by sea kayak on Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. at REI in Santa Fe. Admission is free.

The Seattle to Skagway excursion was one segment of his multi-summer plan to hike, kayak and canoe from the U.S.-Mexico border to Alaska's Arctic coast. He calls the expedition Under Human Power. Gardner began in 2004 by hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. He hiked to Canada, then paddled the Skagit River and kayaked to Alaska in subsequent summers.

Now a traveling nurse based in Seattle, Gardner will continue his journey in the summer by following the gold rush trail over Chilkoot Pass to the headwaters of the Yukon River and then paddling to the foot of the Brooks Range. His final segment will take him over the Brooks and down the Colville River to the Arctic Coast about 50 miles west of Prudhoe Bay.

He has chronicled his trip in photos and a blog at www.underhumanpower.com.