Albuquerque is New Mexico’s largest city and is known for its annual balloon fiesta. Although we missed the balloons by a few weeks, we did enjoy this desert oasis that’s full of history and culture.
On Thursday, Nov 8th, we headed south to Albuquerque via I-25. It was the shortest driving day ever–only about an hour from Santa Fe! It was nice to get checked in early in the day at our campground, Enchanted Trails RV Park, just west of town. We were looking forward to meeting up with many family and friends for our niece Sarah’s wedding to KC Lucas.
Besides getting good at spelling Albuquerque, we visited some cool sights. We toured Old Town and saw beautiful southwestern architecture and art. We also had to stop in at the Rattlesnake Museum.
Mike’s sister, Kim, joined us for hiking along the Petroglyph National Monument trails (photo captions are my interpretation). This is one of the largest petgroglyph sites in North America and features many symbols carved into the volcanic rocks by Native American and Spanish settlers over 500 years ago.
We also visited the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. The Indian center is run by the 19 Pueblos or tribes and does a great job of displaying history and art from the area people. I particularly loved how museum employee picks were displayed along with the stories about why these picks meant something special to them.
Although the Sandia Peak Tramway was closed for maintenance the week we were there, we did hike up some trails and have dinner at the restaurant. We had a beautiful view of the city and sunset. We had some cold weather here, but luckily avoided the snow in our area.
We also were able to have a free Veteran’s Day meal at BJ’s Brewhouse along with a delicious Pizookie dessert. We appreciate all the businesses who support our veterans!
You’ve probably seen the zia picture on New Mexico license plates or in other places. I thought this sign was helpful in understanding the meaning of the state symbol.
Beautiful nieces! I know you enjoyed seeing Kim and the rest of the family!
It was fun and great to see so many family members we hadn’t seen in years!
Beautiful pictures, glad y’all had good weather, we got snow when we got back home with the cold temperatures. Beautiful pictures of the wedding too.