My
friend/neighbor/deployment husband, Tricia, and I loaded up her minivan (2
moms, 5 kids) and hit the road for Albuquerque and then Santa Fe for a few
days. It was such a nice break from the daily grind and I realize now how
much we all needed some time away – time dedicated to fun and relaxing only.
And someone else made the beds and cooked dinner! Yippee!
As a side note, it was
impressive (and exhausting at times) how much energy my kids had during this
trip. They did not and could not stop until they dropped and somehow bounced
right back up at the early hour of 6 am. I did my best to keep up but – wow –
just wow! Thank God for coffee!
Anyway, Albuquerque is about
4 hours north of us and Santa Fe is about an hour further north. It was a
relatively easy and uneventful drive (well, for me!) and all the kids did
great! The landscape was desert, of course, but it was a pretty desert view
with patches of green farmlands, a few mountains and big, blue open skies.
We stopped at Albuquerque
first and then Santa Fe but I want to tell you about Santa Fe first because I
kinda fell in love with this city, to the point that I added it to my “where we
might want to live when we retire” list. The Plaza area had a European feel;
there were lots of niche little stores (Amethyst cleansing, anyone?), bookstores and shops; local artists and
products options; street musicians playing soothing music of harps, guitars and
windpipes; an AWESOME Saturday morning Farmer’s Market; and best of all, a
gazillion pilates and yoga studios.
On our first night, we
explored The Plaza area. There are so many restaurants with rooftop dinning –
how fancy! – and lots of little boutique shops. We found a cute local
bookstore, called Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse. A lady at the
bookstore recommended a “family friendly” restaurant to us (no guessing why?!) and so we walked
about a mile (maybe longer because I kept taking us in the wrong direction!),
in the rain, only to find out it was a “reservations only” restaurant. Argh!
Can you imagine turning away two wet Moms with five hungry kids?! I was
furious. So back we trekked into the rain to find a place to eat. We ended up at
a Subway, it was the only place not crowded and we were getting desperately
hungry. Surprisingly, it had a little outside patio area so I got my rooftop
dining experience at half the price! And
I wasn’t the least bit embarrassed when the kids sang VBS songs the entire
time!
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| Storm's a brewing... |
The next day we visited El
Rancho de las Golondrinas, a historical “living museum” rancho. The kids had
fun exploring the adobe buildings and Sienna liked seeing “Josefina’s house.” I'm still not sure how to pronounce the name, though.
We ended our trip with a
super delicious dinner at Blue Corn Café. Don't Google the menu...you'll start to drool.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn and really liked it. It was a clean hotel, great service, hot breakfast in the morning and an indoor pool. We were happy campers.
Local friends, Santa Fe is
definitely worth a trip to visit! :)
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