But BEFORE all of the heart-wrenching and soul-crushing cancellations ... I went to New Mexico with my wonderful friends and 14-year travel partners, Aimee and Alicia. They are so much fun to travel with, talk with, be with - we could go anywhere and it would be fun, as evidenced by our hit or miss trip. The hits were really hits, and the misses were really misses!
Day One -
Rattlesnake Museum
Old Town Albuquerque
Duran's Pharmacy
Boxing Bear Brewery
I flew into Albuquerque and hit up the Rattlesnake Museum in Old Town, which was more of a rattlesnake zoo. I liked seeing the snakes, the owner was super friendly, but it turns out that your $7 just lets you look at the snakes with information ... exactly like the name of it said. Afterward I wasn't sure what more I was hoping for. Snakes doing tricks? Dead snakes? Snakes curating the museum? You can just peek in here and say hi.
I walked around Old Town looking at the turquoise jewelry and an adobe church, and I ate at Duran's Pharmacy, which I loved. This is where I ate my first of many burritos with green chile on my trip. They really loved green chile here and I can see why. I met up with my friends and we went to Boxing Bear, which had a good selection and friendly people too.
Something funny we noticed in Albuquerque and New Mexico in general. There were so few people everywhere we went! It's not that there are giant open spaces ... but also just walking around and going out. This is a very uncrowded place!
Day Two -
Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument
White Sands National Park
Bosque Brewery in Las Cruces
Truth or Consequences hot springs
We stayed in a nice Airbnb house in Albuquerque, and from there we drove to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, which was built in the 1635. We did a quick walkthrough of the ruins - there were a total of eight other people there - and Alicia said, "I've seen older." Ha! It's always interesting to see ruins, but I could have skipped this one.
We drove down to White Sands, and you could see it shining like a beacon in the distance! Suddenly, in the middle of the desert, was an improbable white sand dune oasis. It was incredible. The sand was so white, and it was powdery - not like sand I'm used to on a beach.
There's a North Carolinian artist named Amber Share who made national park posters based on visitors' 1-star reviews. They are so funny, and we kept referencing them. Her one on White Sands said 'Literally Miles of White Sand.' It is. But I liked it. We went on a 'hike', which was marked off by poles, but we could have walked anywhere ... it's sand. I liked the way it looked and how it was in the middle of nothing.
We stopped in Las Cruces, home of New Mexico State University, to eat at the brewery and watch Michigan State win...not knowing it would be the last game of the season due to mass hysteria of fun-things-cancellation. (Weep.)
We went to Truth or Consequences based on the cool name and the fact that it's known for natural hot springs. They had a brochure of about 14 different places you could go. We went to the first one and Alicia went in to check it out. She came out and declared it creepy and she didn't want to go there and they didn't have any room anyway. Hooray! We went to the second choice - Riverbend - just a quarter mile down the road and it was ... gorgeous. The attendant gave us a tour before we bought a ticket and whispered the whole time, because it's a whisper zone. There were six pools of varying temperatures, and best of all, it was right on the Rio Grande, with mountains in the background! The attendant came around and kept refilling our water cups, the other people in the tubs whispered or talked right out loud to us, breaking the rules, and they even had a sauna. It was $16 each, and it was totally worth it.
We were hungry, and we went to the University of New Mexico-area Frontier Restaurant. Why there? Because it was the only place open at 9:30 p.m. at night. Everything else was closed - even if it said it was open! But my green chile burrito was once again delicious.
Day three -
Sandia Peak tram
Tent Rocks National Monument
Santa Fe rooftop
Aimee and I went running in Albuquerque to the Rio Grande ... but here, it was not. It was much like a drainage ditch, with a lot of trash alongside it. It was not the river of the night before!
We took the tram up Sandia Mountain, and it was incredible. The view, the ride, the elevation, the entire experience was super beautiful.
We thought maybe we'd take the tram up and then walk down, but when we asked they said, "No. It's 10 miles, you probably would want to prepare for that, plus it's really snowy and icy." Okay! So noted. Up on the top, we stood on the melty snow, climbed over a fence to get a good picture, and went to the little restaurant - because why not? Quite the view.
We drove to Tent Rocks and this - THIS was the favorite was all of us. The tent rocks were so impressive and so different. The hike is a 1.5 mile that takes you to the highest point in the park. You walk through caverns, you scramble a little, and all the time you're looking at the incredible views. Go, go, go here! I can't say enough good things about it.
We got our Airbnb in Santa Fe and walked downtown to a rooftop bar that said it was known for its sunsets. There was no way you could see the sunset from it - there were buildings right in the way! We joked about it and went in where it was much warmer. We went a few more places - even with people in them - until we walked back home.
Day four -
Santa Fe Capitol
Cathedral Basilica
Bandelier National Monument
Puye Cave Dwellings
Turquoise Trail
Musical Highway
Aimee and I ran in the morning and checked out the Capitol building. (No one was there and we looked right in the windows and at the unusual art face in the yard, staring not out, but right into the grass. Aimee stayed longer and told me the next day it was turned outward. What?!) We also walked through the Cathedral, which was definitely decorated in a southwestern style.
I should mention here that there is so, so much public art in New Mexico. It's like people said 'Just decorate here.' There are sculptures everywhere. The overpasses and walls along the highway are decorated with art. It was so fun to see it all, everywhere you go.
We ate breakfast burritos at Santafamous Street Eatz, a food truck. Oh my gosh. It was hard to find, (note: really hard) but totally worth it.
We went to Bandelier National Monument, which is where the Pubelos lived in about 1600 AD. There were ruins, petroglyphs, and most amazingly, cave dwellings! We went on a hike that had several ladders you could climb into cave dwellings, and then if you went to the end of the hike, a series of four ladders that took you into a really high room. At the visitor's center, they gave us a guide that went along with numbers along the path, so we had our own tour. This was our second favorite place, because it was so different, interesting, and beautiful!
We liked these so much that we decided to stop at Puye Cave Dwellings on the way back to Albuquerque. They only allowed you to go by tour, the tour didn't take you into the dwellings because it was too late in the day, and there were no exceptions. So we looked at them from the path and said ... "Looks a lot like the other ones." Feel free to skip this.
Aimee suggested we drive on the Turquoise Trail, which was a beautiful drive that took us through lots of little, pretty towns. I suggested we end at the Musical Highway, which was on the Turquoise Trail map we had, because I really wanted to drive over it and hear it play 'American the Beautiful.'
When we got where GPS said it was ... we drove back and forth on the highway three times. There was no sign. There was no music. There was nothing. Turns out it's not there any more. The only evidence it ever was there was a spot on the highway that was a different color. SKIP.
We went back into Albuquerque to check out the nightlife. We watched UNC play (remember when there was college basketball?!) on Aimee's phone in a Boese Brothers and I ate my last green chile burrito. I already miss them.
No one knows what's going to happen ... everything is crazy now ... but I hope it's all over soon so it can all get back to normal - and I can go on another trip with these girls!
Adios -
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