When we moved up here a year and a half ago, we didn't take a break between the last job and this one. Since Christina and I both had a couple of days off from work and school, and since it was Christina's brithday on Thanksgiving, we decided to visit someplace we've always wanted to go: New Mexico.

 

I wasn't quite sure about travelling over the holiday, since the airlines aren't always really good with crowds. We got out of Seattle with no problems at all, just a half hour or so late. But when we got to our transfer point in Denver, our flight had been cancelled and there wasn't another available until the next night. So we got a room and headed into Denver - I was just there a month or so ago and wanted to show it to the family anyway. We had a great time and saw a lot of the older buildings in a single day.

 

That evening we headed back to the aiport, and after a slight delay we made it to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We had booked a room at the Tamaya resort in Bernalillo, which is about 30 miles away. The resort is amazing - it is located just below the Sandia mountain range, on the resevation of the Santa Ana Natvie Amercian tribe. It has miles of walking trails, several pools, a greatroom, and is built and shaped in the adobe style.

   

   

We made full use of every facility. It is a very restful place, and has everything you could want to relax. I read for hours at a time, something I love to do. Christina and Marjorie rented some horses and climbed rattlesnake mountain. We also hiked a lot and rode bikes on the trails.   

 

   

 

 

On Friday we woke up to two inches of snow!

 

We rented a car and headed back to Albuquerque, to the center of the city called "Old Town". It has many older buildings, with one of my favorites: a church built in 1709 that has been in continuous use since that day. It was absolutely beautiful.

 

We then turned around and headed a couple of hours north to Santa Fe. It sits about 7,000 feet up, so the snow was falling even more there. We visited the "hall of the governors" which is over a hundred years old, and walked around town and had some incredibly good Mexican food. We took off after that because the snow began to fall so heavily they were closing roads.

 

Since we were leaving the next morning at 3:00am, we just stayed up all night and made it back to Seattle on Saturday afternoon. We had a fantastic time, and Christina had a great birthday. This one will be hard to top!