new mexico | petroglyph national monument

On our last day in New Mexico we were up and out of the hotel early so we could try to squeeze in a little more sightseeing before catching our afternoon flight out of Albuquerque. We had breakfast in Santa Fe and walked down to the artisan market at the Palace of the Governors and to the cathedral one more time before hitting the road south to Petroglyph National Monument. We couldn't resist the opportunity to visit one more National Park Service landmark!

Petroglyph National Monument protects an estimated 24,000 images carved by Ancestral Pueblo people and early Spanish settlers. (And unfortunately some modern graffiti, too.) We stopped in the visitors' center to ask for a recommendation for a quick hike since we had limited time. We ended up checking out the petroglyphs along the Boca Negra Canyon trail. We saw carvings of animals, plants, people, and symbols. Archaeologists do not fully understand or agree on the meaning or purpose of the petroglyphs.






Petroglyph National Monument is a weird place. From the high point on the trail, you are granted a panoramic view of...sprawling suburban Albuquerque. Ugh.




In fact, the City of Albuquerque built a highway directly through the site, which evidently destroyed many petroglyphs. So disappointing.

It certainly wasn't the type of park you go visit to get away from it all, but it was an interesting stop on the way to the airport. And my favorite petroglyph was this one, which reminded me of an egg beater:

Turns out it's a yucca!

And with that, we hopped on a plane and flew back to Virginia - our last trip of 2014 was over and it was time to settle back into life at home for the next few months.

new mexico | driving around NM

Once the work week ended, Larry and I had free time to enjoy the weekend, hit the open road and explore New Mexico. On Saturday, after a delicious breakfast at Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe, we drove up to Taos. We didn't have a plan, just thought we'd wander around and check out the town. We parked the car and there was some sort of festival going on. We certainly weren't expecting to see these guys:


Turns out it was a WOOL festival and most of the tents were selling yarn. Other than checking out the alpacas and llamas, we had no interest in the wool festival, so we walked into town. We weren't really impressed. There wasn't much to Taos.

We got back in the car and tried to visit the Pueblo, but it was closed, and honestly it looked pretty depressing. So we headed down the road...

...in search of alcohol to save the day, of course! We found a brewery.

And promptly ordered up a flight of local beers.


Having sampled beer, it was time to move on to wine! Our next stop was Vivac Winery. The bartender at the Secreto Lounge had recommended their wines. We were honestly a little skeptical of New Mexico wines. I mean, everyone's heard of California wine, and Oregon wine, and Washington wine, and Virginia wine...but New Mexico wine? Can you even grow grapes in the desert? Yup! And the wine was phenomenal! Turns out New Mexico is the birthplace of U.S. wine - the first grape vines in the U.S. were planted in New Mexico in 1629. I think I liked every wine we tasted at Vivac - that never happens when we go to Virginia wineries.



On Sunday after the disappointment at the Balloon Fiesta and subsequent pouting, we decided to drive to the tiny western town of Madrid (pronounced mad-rid, not ma-drid, like the city in Spain) to grab some lunch and try and salvage the day.

It was an artsy place full of colorful old houses and little shops, and I finally found a few things I could afford - some turquoise earrings and a Christmas ornament. We almost bought a bell made from a salvaged oxygen tank, but really, where would we put that? It was cool, though. Always love the chile ristras, too:







The we headed back to Santa Fe so I could drown my Balloon Fiesta sorrows in a prickly pear margarita at the Hotel Santa Fe.

And while we may not have seen the hot air balloons take off...

...we did see a horse in the road on the drive home!

new mexico | albuquerque international balloon fiesta

Oh, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. With 600 hot air balloons, it's the largest balloon festival in the world, and photographing this event has been on my Life List for ages. Imagine the awesome photos you could take at an event like this! And what incredible luck that the annual fiesta just happened to be occurring the weekend after Larry's business trip to New Mexico.

Unfortunately, that is where my luck ended. The Balloon Fiesta may have been the biggest travel disappointment of my life. But let me start from the beginning:

We woke up at 3:45 am to drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. Yes, 3:45 am. Evidently I am even more dedicated to sacrificing my sleep and mental well-being for hot air balloons than for sunrises. (Though, bonus - I got to see the sunrise, too. Spoiler alert: that's pretty much all I got to see.) Once in Albuquerque, we waited in the dark in a mega line to get tickets and for the shuttle bus to take us to the fiesta grounds.

The shuttle bus was a school bus. Haven't ridden one of those in almost 20 years! Not only was it a school bus, but it was a school bus full of teenage girls wearing sweatpants and giggling. Flashback to high school, except Larry and I felt like the uncool parents. Yikes.

We arrived at the fiesta grounds and it was packed. Pitch black out and I've never seen so many people in my life.  By 6 am, the midway was packed with 100,000 people eating breakfast burritos and cinnamon rolls. It was like attending a carnival in the middle of the night. So bizarre.





We arrived in the middle of the night so we could see the Morning Glow (the balloons inflate and light up while sitting on the ground) and the Mass Ascension (all the balloon take flight!). We wandered the grounds as the crews prepped their balloons and the sun came up and I tried to scope out the best location for taking photos. It was looking to be a beautiful day with perfect weather - clear skies, the slightest of breezes, the sun shining...




But progress was slow. There seemed to be a delay that was preventing the balloons from inflating for the Morning Glow. The sun came up and not much was happening. But then finally, finally, some balloons started to inflate. Starting with the scary clown balloon. Happy Mardi Gras/sweet dreams:



Aaaaaannnd, that was as far as they got. Yup, that was it. After several weather delay announcements and waiting for hours, the Mass Ascension was cancelled. Yes, cancelled. What seemed like perfect weather to me was evidently just enough wind to make it dangerous for the balloons to take flight. Obviously, safety is the most important thing, but after getting up in the middle of the night to photograph something I'd been wanting to experience for years, it was a major disappointment. About half the balloons had inflated and sat on the ground so the hundreds of thousands of disappointed people would have something to look at, but then they started to deflate and shut the whole thing down. Such a bummer. Luckily enough time has passed at this point, that it's just a semi-funny story, but at the time I felt like a kid who woke up on Christmas only to find that Santa hadn't come.

We quickly grabbed a few pics of our favorite balloons (Yoda and Elvis) to prove that we were there:



And yes, we could've come back for the evening's activities and hoped that the weather conditions would change and the balloons would be able to ascend later in the day. But that was hours away and would've involved either finding somewhere to sit around in Albuquerque for ten hours, or driving back and forth to Santa Fe (an hour away), trying to find parking again, paying for parking/tickets/shuttle service again, etc - all without the guarantee that they would be able to take off.  (Turns out the weather did clear up and they did ascend that night. And yes, I did experience slight rage when I checked out all the photos on Instagram of hundreds of balloons taking flight.) But at the time, it didn't seem worth the risk or the time commitment, so we decided to cut our loses and try to recover what we could of the rest of the day...