New Mexico

I got to go on a little road trip to Albuquerque the first week in  October to visit Baron, Cecily and Madison.  It was a lot of fun to spend time with them and see New Mexico for the first time.  The first full day I was there I drove around the west side of Albuquerque(a very important distinction) and stopped at a sculpture garden on the edge of the Rio Grande river.  I wandered around the garden and then into "backwoods" on some kind of trail till I saw a spider the size of my hand and decided to head back.  New Mexico is also referred to as the land of bugs as there are tons of bugs everywhere.  When I was out hiking I had to watch my feet constantly so as not to step on any bugs.

We went to dinner a El Brunos, a "New Mexican" food restaurant and then stopped at the temple grounds to end the evening.

The flowers above were in the "back woods" and here are some other photos from the first day.


The second day we headed out to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.  We spent the afternoon hiking around and scaling the mountain.  It was a beautiful day and the hike was awesome.  I think the favorite parts were the slot canyons.  Also on the loop we hiked was a "cave" or rather a small indent in the mountain which was a bit anti-climatic but humorous.  On the way home we stopped by a Mormon Battalion Mounment and then went over to Cecily's parents to have her dad's famous Chili stew...which was awesome.

 Day 2: More Tent Rock photos.

The next day we got up at 5am to go see the hot air balloons at the Balloon Fiesta.  Unfortunately the wind was too strong so the balloons did not go up but they did do a "static inflation" where they inflated the balloons temporarily so we still got to see them...which was pretty cool.  We also went down to "Old Town" and walked around for a bit which was a lot of fun.

Photos of Balloons and Old town.

My last full day in Albuquerque I went to the Botanical Gardens which was amazing...but I really love gardens.  There were lots of different kinds of Gardens including the native desert gardens, Spanish garden, rose garden, Mediterranean garden, Japanese garden, citrus and animal farms, childrens garden and a butterfly enclosure.  Of course I went crazy with the photos and took about 500 pictures...here are 118 that I narrowed it down too (eeesh!)

After the gardens I met up with Cecily and Baron and we went...shooting.  That's right I held and fired a 9mm hand gun.  Now, I don't plan on applying for my concealed firearm permit or donning camo and becoming a hunter any time soon but I admit it was fun.  Cecily also got to try a first that night when we went out for sushi for dinner.  Here's the photos from shooting, sushi and two from the drive home the next day.

A big thanks to Baron Cecily and Madison for the fun times in New Mexico, I definitely want to visit again and see y'all soon!