Wow. Well, we recently returned from one of our best trips since we've been out in New Mexico. Unfortunately, it just means that we're ready to travel some more. :) But, this will hold us over until Thanksgiving (going to Asheville this year...definitely very excited).
Our friends Nate and Susan had a two-week trip planned this fall, including Vegas and Cancun. However, they chose to include us since we're relatively close to Las Vegas. They arrived on a Friday at the beginning of October, the last weekend of the Balloon Fiesta. It was great to see them both again after way too much time. We spent part of the evening catching up, and then crashed so we could get up early for the Balloon Fiesta. It was an early and VERY cold morning (the Sandias had their first snow of the year the night before), but the Fiesta was, as always, stunning. The usual breakfast burritos, cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate, and tons of pictures made for a great morning. After coming back to shower off and take some power naps, we headed to the Frontier for lunch. Old Town and wine flights at St. Clairs followed, and we ended the day with a great dinner at sunset at Sandiago's. I think Nate and Susan got their fill of New Mexican food. ;)
The next day we got up fairly early and packed the car to go the Grand Canyon. We wanted to take our new Subaru because of the gas mileage, and we managed to get all of Nate and Susan's luggage (2 weeks worth), Cari and my bags, and camping gear in the car. We drove the 6 hour trip to the Grand Canyon, stopping at a great pizza place in Flagstaff on the way. Once we arrived, we set up our campsite (which was very homey) and then went to find the Canyon itself. The views from Mather Overlook were amazing, and we hiked down the Rim trail, taking tons of pictures along the way. We eventually decided to go to a lookout point to watch the sunset, but couldn't find parking (apparently everyone else had the same idea as we did), so we went back to the campsite and had a great dinner of sausage, veggies, potatoes, beer/wine, and some incredible reese's s'mores! After a night of sleeping at about 30 degrees, we woke up early to watch the sunrise and hike a bit. The early hour was worth it -- one of the most incredible sunrises I've ever seen. It also gave a lot of depth to the canyon, which made for some good pictures. We packed up after a brief hike down Bright Angel Trail and hit the road again.
Next stop...Las Vegas!! We arrived early afternoon and checked into our rooms at the Planet Hollywood Towers at Westgate. We finally got to shower off and rest for a bit before getting dressed up and hitting the town. Our evening in Vegas was a blast -- we started with drinks/appetizers at the top of the Stratosphere while watching the sunset and the city lights turn on. We then spent a few hours just walking around - went to see the lobbies and walk through the Wynn, the Venetian, Ceasar's Palace, and the Bellagio. We had some pretty good "Mexican" food at the Venetian and watched the water show a few times at the Bellagio. The next morning, we ate a great brunch at Mon Ami Gabi before Cari and I headed home. We wished we could have spent more time with Nate and Susan in Vegas relaxing, but work (and a lack of vacation time) called! Overall, it was a great trip!
In addition to the fun road trip, Cari and I also got a chance to get away for the evening to Santa Fe. We got a groupon for a night's stay at the Lodge at Santa Fe, so we packed up the car and Belle, and went up north for an evening. We ate at Tomasitas, hung out in our Kiva suite, woke up to snow the next morning, went for a fun drive in the mountains (had to turn back because of the snow), and came home. It was short but sweet! We are definitely looking forward to seeing family in less than 3 weeks back east for Thanksgiving, and then going back again for Christmas. Check back for updates soon!
It's been an incredible summer. Cari and I have had the opportunity to not only travel back to the east coast for a week and a half, but we been able to enjoy spending lots of time getting to know our friends better here, playing indoor and outdoor soccer, and even got to see Gavin DeGraw, Train, and Maroon 5 in concert!
Cari has been amazing during the summer at cleaning, doing laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, etc etc. since she hasn't been working. To express my gratitude, and to enjoy her last weekend before work, I surprised her with a trip to Breckenridge, CO. Breckenridge is one of our favorite places out here that we've visited (having been once, almost a year ago), so I thought it only fitting to go again. We woke up Friday morning and I let her know why I hadn't gotten up for work several hours earlier. Needless to say, she was extremely excited. After spending a morning with her good friend Lindsey (visiting for work), we took off and headed north! We arrived in Breckenridge around dinner time and checked into our hotel, the Skiway Lodge (where we stayed last time, but too good of a deal/location to pass up!). We enjoyed a later dinner at the Motherloaded Tavern downtown and went back to relax in the hot tub and hang out.
On Saturday, we got up with the plan to explore a little bit. We took a free gondola ride from the town to the base of the ski resort. There was a lot of stuff to do for kids, but since it was a beautiful day, we opted to take a hike up the mountain. We ended up hiking up one of the ski slopes on a switchback trail, totaling 3.5 miles and 1500 feet in elevation gain. We were exhausted when we made it, but felt accomplished. Luckily, we got to take the ski lift down instead of having to hike (although the lift ride was a little scary!). After enjoying a BBQ lunch, we took naps/read back at our lodge before getting dressed and heading downtown. We took a nice walk by the river before enjoying an amazing Mexican meal (and Margaritas). Finally, we wrapped up the night with another trip to the hot tub and a movie!
We woke up somewhat depressed and sad to leave on Sunday, but still enjoyed breakfast at the Blue Moose and a walk around the farmer's market before departing. Overall, it was a great getaway...yet another fantastic adventure. We're looking forward to Cari's mom coming in for Labor Day weekend, a couple friends coming for the Balloon Fiesta, Grand Canyon camping, and Las Vegas, and of course, going home later in the year for the holidays. More updates to come!!
Well, after a week of "back to reality," I thought it would be best to get the details of our most recent adventure in writing so I didn't forget. Our travels this time around weren't out west, but back east with family and friends! Cari and I had the opportunity to take some time off of work and away from Albuquerque to travel "home" and spend time with many people near and dear to our hearts. It started with a fantastic wedding in southern VA (Martinsville). Cari flew home mid-week on Wednesday and spent a couple days with her best friend Amanda and a few other ladies getting ready for Amanda's wedding. I flew into Raleigh the next day and spent the evening/next morning with my family before driving to Martinsville to join Cari. Friday was the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, and both went great. The dinner was lots of fun, as we enjoyed stories about Amanda and Nic from their friends, gift giving, and a great performance by Reverend Rat L. Snake! Afterwards, we hung out in the parking lot of our hotel, playing cornhole and drinking beer. True southern fashion. The wedding seemed to go off without a hitch, with the only exception being the long rainstorm that happened after the ceremony (during outdoor picture time!). Otherwise, the reception was great, including some amazing BBQ and great conversation/dancing with friends and family. Afterwards, Cari and I hung out with a couple good friends at our hotel, had breakfast with some MORE friends the next morning, and then left for Harrisonburg.
We spent the next 3 days in Harrisonburg with Cari's family. Sunday afternoon was spent hanging out, catching up, and enjoying some good food. On Monday, Cari and I went to spend time with Cari's grandparents (and great grandmother). It was at their house that we saw Cari's uncle and two cousins (5 and 7 yrs old) and informed them of our plans to go camping that night. They thought it sounded fun and decided to join. Monday afternoon, we packed up the cars and went out to Natural Chimneys to camp. The afternoon was spent setting up the campsite, playing cornhole, playing by the river, and hanging out. As night fell, we started a fire and made some burgers, dogs, and corn on the grill. Cari's aunt and one of her cousins started getting more and more nervous the darker it got, and when a bobcat screeched in the middle of the night, they made Sean take them home. I slept through most of it, but apparently it was pretty entertaining. We packed up camp Tuesday morning, went to the pool when we got home in the afternoon, and then took a walking tour of JMU before enjoying some Anthony's pizza Tuesday night. It's amazing to see how many changes the campus has gone through, especially the quad and the football stadium!
On Wednesday, Cari and I spent some more time with her grandparents and ate lunch at El Charro before heading down to Richmond, VA. We planned to stay the night with Jon and Megan, and met them at their house Wednesday afternoon. We ate dinner at Asian Galaxy, then came back to hang out, watch soccer and Toy Story 3, and enjoy some tasty wine! We got up too early Thursday and drove through Wake Forest, NC en route to Chapel Hill and got to see our good friends Jill and Seth (and their newest addition, the sweet Airlie).
We finally made it back to Chapel Hill, NC on Thursday and enjoyed lunch at Allen Bros. BBQ (my favorite) with my family (including my sister and beautiful niece Stella!). After lunch, we hung out by the pool before enjoying a great home-cooked meal. On Friday, we went to Southpoint Mall, did a little shopping, ate lunch at the Cheesecake factory, saw X-Men, and again hung out at home for dinner. Saturday was BEACH DAY! We got up, packed the car, and left for Wrightsville Beach, NC. We arrived around lunch time and had some great seafood at the Oceanic, which offered amazing panoramic views of the water. Afterwards, we changed and hit the beach, where we stayed for a good four or five hours and just relaxed/read. We went into downtown Wilmington and ate dinner at Elijahs (more great seafood) before heading home. Finally, Sunday was spent simply relaxing. We went for a walk, watched tv, read, ate, and played Taboo.
Monday came too early, as we boarded our plane back to Albuquerque. The good part was that we got to see Belle again (for the first time in almost 2 weeks), but we already miss everyone back east. We're so grateful to get the opportunity to travel and extremely happy to get the chance to see as many people as we were able to. Other than a few day trips or fun experiences with friends around Albuquerque, our next tentatively planned trip is this fall to the Grand Canyon and southern Utah...so stay tuned!!
I really have a lot more to write about than just our most recent adventure. For the purposes of time, space, and (let's be honest) memory, I'll try and summarize what we've done recently. It has been an incredibly eventful Spring season. First, we had the joy of having Cari's cousin Becky come to Albuquerque and visit for Easter. She was in San Francisco this semester for school, so it was a quick flight over. We hung out for the weekend, involving Good Friday and Sunday Morning services at our church, a Real Matt Jones concert, a little shopping, and some Hinkle Family Fun Center putt-putt/arcade games! It was great to have some family come in for Easter. Cari then went out of town the next weekend to visit her family. It was a great time for her to take a break from school (since her spring break was cancelled due to the winter weather we got here). The NEXT weekend, we went up to Denver for a concert from one of my favorite bands, Alter Bridge. It was a short trip, driving up Saturday morning, going to the concert Saturday night, and coming back Sunday. We stopped on the way up in Co. Springs at a great diner for some lunch, before arriving in Denver and getting sketched out by some of the inner-city "regulars." The concert was amazing though, and well worth the 6 hour trip, even with driving half the way home in the snow (during the last weekend in April!). We stopped in Santa Fe and ate at a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives-reviewed location called Backroad Pizza (incredible) on the way home.
The following weekend (told you we've been busy), I had the opportunity to go home and visit MY family! It was a great trip: ate some incredible BBQ and drank amazing sweet tea (compliments of Alan Bros.), went to the movies twice, went to Concord to spend time with my sister and her friends and my beautiful niece, hung out around UNC, including a baseball game, was with my Mom on Mother's Day, etc. It was a great and very fulfilling time considering it had been almost 5 months since I saw my family. Finally, Cari went back for a bridal shower/bachelorette party in mid-May for her best friend, Amanda, who is getting married in a couple weeks.
To wrap ALL of that exciting travel up, Cari and I decided to take a long Memorial Day weekend and explore some more of New Mexico. Neither of have been south of the city, so driving almost all the way to Mexico promised to be an adventure. We started on Saturday by driving to Las Cruces where we stopped for lunch. We ate a hole-in-the-wall New Mexican restaurant (randomly selected while driving around) and were not disappointed. The food was great! We then drove from Cruces towards White Sands National Park, which was our first destination. I won't bore everyone with the details of how it's formed, but White Sands is a huge area (100 + sq miles?) of large white sand dunes. Being in the middle of New Mexico accentuates the beauty of this place. We watched an orientation video and then headed out. Unfortunately, it was extremely windy, which wasn't great for visibility, but we were able to drive around the dunes and get out for a good 2 mile hike. After thoroughly wearing ourselves out, we drove the short drive to Alamogordo, NM, where we stayed the night. Before turning in, we ate some amazing BBQ at a local joint. It was not as good as NC BBQ, but it was pretty close!
The next day, we got up and drove southeast to Carlsbad Caverns. The first half of the drive was through Lincoln National Forest, and it was beautiful (i.e. NOT typical New Mexico). The second half of the drive was through nothingness, which was more what we expected. We arrived at the caverns, scarfed down our lunch, and headed into the cave. We opted for the Natural Entrance trail instead of the elevator and were not disappointed. The hike down was over a mile and tough on the knees, but the sites were phenomenal. We made it down in time for our previously-registered King's Palace tour, which was a ranger-led tour through some of the less-frequently seen caverns. Again, words cannot describe the beauty of this place. Pictures don't do it justice either. It's one of the few sites I've seen that I would recommend for everyone to see before they die (excuse the morbidity). Finally, we hiked the Big Room (another mile +) before standing in line for over an hour for the elevator back up. After eating a less-than-ideal cafeteria dinner, we stayed for the nightly bat flight. Unfortunately, Carlsbad hasn't gotten rain since last September, so no rain = no insects which = less bats. We probably saw about 200-300 fly out over a 20 minute period, which is nothing compared to the 300,000 - 700,000 that usually come out after there's been some rain! Oh well. We headed back to Carlsbad and stayed at the Trinity Hotel (very nice, very cool boutique hotel downtown) for the night. The drive home was pretty tortuous, with 50+ mph winds the whole time and extreeeemely straight roads (awful). However, driving through Roswell was a plus, and we got to see all of the stores downtown decorated with alien getup.
Overall, we've been busy, but things should settle down in July. Cari is finished with school now and has time during the day to get things done around here (I love it!!). We'll be going back home for about a week and a half for Amanda's wedding, and then splitting the next week between Cari's family and my family. Between that, a Yellowcard concert, my birthday, a Train/Maroon 5 concert, playing indoor/outdoor soccer, and spending lots of time with friends, it should be an extremely fun summer! We'll keep everyone posted (well, everyone who actually reads this, which is probably just us) if we do anything else new and fun! God bless!
After a long and cold winter (in the negatives for a week!) and an eventful Christmas of traveling to Virginia and North Carolina to visit family and meet our new niece, Cari and I enjoyed a great getaway over President's Day in beautiful Colorado (quickly becoming my favorite state) which hopefully you've seen pictures of an Facebook by now. We left on Friday around midday so we wouldn't have to drive in the dark. This was probably the best decision we made all weekend, because the drive up involved a lot of smaller back roads (took me back to Southside VA!). The cabin where we stayed was located outside of Cortez, CO, which is almost to the Utah/CO border, about 45 miles from Durango. We actually had to take a couple long "county" dirt roads to get to the cabin, but eventually arrived right before dinner time, and just in time for a beautiful sunset which we watched from our deck. The cabin was great, smelled "loggy," was fully stocked, and had great views. We brought dinners up with us and plenty of food for the weekend to save money, which was good decision #2 since we were 30 minutes from any sort of civilization. Friday night was taco night, which we enjoyed thoroughly before crashing.We woke up Saturday morning and checked the weather for the weekend. It was supposed to rain in Durango/Cortez, so we decided to spend the day inside and save our one day of skiing for Sunday. This was good decision #3, considering we got sheets of rain at our cabin during the day, and we also know someone who was skiing in Durango on Saturday and said they got caught in a thunderstorm on the mountain! So, we spent the day Saturday cooking breakfast, reading, eating lunch, watching Cold Mountain, taking naps/reading more, watching the UNC/BC game, playing some board games, and grilling steaks. It was a fantastically relaxing day.We got up a little earlier on Sunday and got dressed to go skiing. The road from Cortez to Durango and up to the slopes was awful, since it had rained/frozen/snowed the night before. Apparently, people in that area expect that everyone there can drive in the snow, so they don't spend money to plow that much. Needless to say, it took us an hour and a half to get to the slopes (which isn't too far off of what it would usually take, but much more stressful). Skiing was great...I've been to Santa Fe to ski out here, but this was better. The conditions were amazing...I've never skied anything like it before. The slopes are long, with fresh powder, and since there are more trails to ski, it doesn't seem as crowded. We were there for about 4 or 5 hours and only made 3 runs!! The first time down the mountain was a little rough for Cari since this was her second time skiing ever, but she progressively got better/more comfortable as the day went on, and by the last run, she didn't fall at all! (Not to mention, she had a great instructor..). We got back to the cabin before dinner and enjoyed a huge pan of nachos before turning in.Monday was our leaving day :(. We got up, packed, cleaned a little, and headed out. We had heard of Mesa Verde National Park and decided to check it out on the way home. It's probably better in the spring/summer when all the roads in the park are open and those that are open aren't slushy/wet, but we didn't think we'd be driving too far. Oops. The road into the park was the second scariest drive I've ever done in my life (second only to being driven up the Alps to Hilter's old hideout, the Eagle's Nest, by a bus doing 40 around hairpin turns with no guard-rails). At least I was in control this time, but cresting hills with previously mentioned hairpin turns and thousand-foot dropoffs, despite having foot-high guardrails was a little disconcerting. We made our way through the park (20 miles) at a leisurely 10 MPH until we got to the museum. There wasn't a ton to see there, but we got some maps and continued our drive. The Park contains a lot of cliff dwellings and other previously inhabited (some excavated) Native American homes. The views were incredible, and the history of the place was fascinating. After spending a few hours sight-seeing, we headed on home.It was a great trip overall...we're hoping to take a few more day trips this spring (finally getting down to White Sands and possibly Carlsbad Caverns), and one weekend trip to the Grand Canyon/southern Utah. We'll keep y'all updated! Thanks for tuning in!
I realized the other day that I'm several blog posts behind. I'll try to post a couple subsequent entries soon after this one, but if I recall, this is our most recent adventure after the Balloon Fiesta. This past fall, we decided to make a weekend trip to Red River, which is in northern New Mexico. According to numerous websites we visited, this area of the country has some of the most beautiful fall foliage around. Not only did we decide to go up for an evening, but I was able to convince Cari to go CAMPING!! I haven't been camping since my bachelor party, and Cari isn't a huge fan of being in the middle of nowhere in a tent all night, but she knows I love to be outdoors and agreed to humor me.
So, the planning began. I found a long list of all the state campgrounds around the Red River area. We also planned on bringing Belle, so in the event all the campsites were full (which I thought could be the case given the popularity of this area in the fall), I also got a list of 2 or 3 dog-friendly hotels. Finally, on Friday, I came home from work, packed up the car with food, camping gear, and clothes, and went by WalMart for some last minute essentials (firewood, chairs, etc.). I picked up Cari after work and we hit the road. The drive up was beautiful, going through Santa Fe and Taos. We arrived near one of the first of many campsites outside of Red River just after dark, so Cari was a little nervous about having to get settled and pitch the tent with no light. For some reason, the gates to the first campground were closed!! We drove down the road, stopping at each campsite, one by one, and to my dismay, each one was closed. Who would have thought that state campgrounds in northern New Mexico would be closed by mid-October? Not me. Guess we know now!
Given that the camping portion of the trip was no longer a possibility, we started making phone calls to the dog-friendly hotels that I had found previously (thank goodness). We ended up staying in a rustic lodge in the heart of Red River. It was relatively inexpensive, run by extremely friendly people, and could have been straight out of a horror movie. Not the best night's sleep, but after an evening of college football on our 20" TV, beer, pizza, and a happy wife (mainly because we weren't in a dark, cold tent), we were ready for the morning.
Our plan for the day was to do a little hiking, and also spend time in the car driving around and looking at/taking pictures of the fall colors. Using the information and maps given to us by the lodge owners, we drove to the Rio Grande Gorge recreation area. This area had many (OPEN!!!) campsites and numerous hiking trails. We chose one based on a map that would allow us to hike the bottom of the gorge, which looked like a tiny version of the Grand Canyon, and was one of the filming sites of Terminator: Salvation. The hiking expedition took a turn for the worst, however, when Cari saw that the trail was about 2 feet wide with a couple hundred feet vertical drop and no railing. I was ready to go, but couldn't get her to come (and I can't blame her, especially considering her fear of heights). So, we drove around for a while and headed out on the second part of our day, which was the Enchanted Circle.
This drive is especially popular in the fall, as it offers mountain views with beautiful colors throughout. The drive goes from Taos to Red River and then around through Eagle Nest and Angelfire (all ski locations). We took our time in each location, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. After we drove a full circle, we went back through Taos and back home! Overall, this adventure felt like "the one that wasn't," but looking back on it now, Cari and I did get to see some great scenery, as well as learn more about each other! I hope to go back in the spring for a camping trip with some guy friends, but will make sure to do more research this time!
Wow. Well, we recently returned from one of our best trips since we've been out in New Mexico. Unfortunately, it just means that we're ready to travel some more. :) But, this will hold us over until Thanksgiving (going to Asheville this year...definitely very excited).
