New Mexico was amazing! The Land of Enchantment!!… this state truly got its nickname for a reason! I’ve never seen so much history and pride in a land or people as I’ve seen in New Mexico. I have totally fallen in love. This was my second trip to New Mexico this year, but this time I had to take my husband and friend. I mean… what good is it to love something so much if you do not have anyone to share it with.
So day two continued… To read part 1 of our second day in New Mexico, click here. After we left Old Town New Mexico, Meagan, Scott, and I set off in search of some place to eat lunch. We drove around for a bit and got lost, but along the way we found this amazing orange bush that was being used as a hedge, and we also found this fabulous abandoned house.
After stopping to take a few shots of this place, we realized that we looked like total tourists. Everyone that passed by us slowed down and looked at us like we were idiots. So we thought we would move on. The funny thing about this is… we thought this was a total score when we were shooting it. We thought this because we had no way of knowing what else we were in store for during the remainder of our trip. And as beautiful as I would like to think the above pictures are, it is nothing in comparison to what came during the rest of our trip. Just wait… you’ll see. I’m trying to go in order here.
We left the abandoned house and orange bush to continue our search for something to eat. We finally found a main road in Albuquerque where I recognized a pizza joint that I remembered having a FABULOUS salad! If you’ve never eaten a pizza or salad from Dion’s, then I suggest you don’t ever! Because if you do, you will be hooked. Thank God we don’t have a Dion’s in Tennessee or I would be 200 pounds! DELICIOUS!!
And we’re off!!!… What to do next? We couldn’t take off too far because we had to be back in Albuquerque by 4:00 in order to make it into the park to see the final balloon glow of the season! So we decided to just get on Historic Route 66 and drive until we needed to turn around and head back. As we were driving, we stumbled upon a little wagon (that I didn’t even shoot) that caught Meagan and Scott’s attention, so they decided to stop and grab a few shots. As they were shooting this wagon, I walked to the back of the parking lot that we were in and noticed this little wooden fence with the beautiful Sandia Mountains in the distance. This called to me, and I couldn’t stop shooting.
After grabbing a few fabulous landscapes, we hopped back in the car and we happen to just stumble upon this fabulous state monument in Bernalillo called Coronado. These ruins were from a village of American Indians who settled here on the Rio Grande in AD 1300. The history of this place is amazing! Coronado provides a paved trail that winds around the kiva and village walls as well as down to the Rio Grande River where we took beautiful shots with the mountains in the background. I can only imagine what the view must have been like for these people who lived here over 700 years ago. It was breathtaking!
And if you haven’t already noticed by now… fall was showing its full glory while we were in New Mexico. The trees were so beautiful with their yellow leaves! I was a little bummed when I left Tennessee because it just so happened that Tennessee was at its peak leaf season, but New Mexico made that all okay!
After walking around Coronado State Monument, it was time to head to the park to see the balloon glow. We were so excited about this. As a matter of fact, our entire day had pretty much been planned around this hot air balloon fiesta because it was the last day of the fiesta, and our last chance to see it. Unfortunately we were let down. The wind was blowing so hard at the balloon fiesta that they had to cancel the balloon glow before we had a chance to get the full effect.
We were very disappointed, but this is what we get for sleeping through our first night in New Mexico. This is what we get for waiting until the last opportunity to get these shots. This was a travel lesson learned!
Back to the hotel! Much needed sleep! Plugged in our batteries to charge… dumped our memory cards… and CRASHED. And Meagan said that Scott and I didn’t even snore that much! WOO HOO!
Day three coming soon!
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