The trip continued…
Friday morning we woke up and….It was my Birthday! woot woot! After receiving a few welcome “happy birthday!” texts from my sister and friends, we headed out to grab some coffee and breakfast. We happily returned to The Grove Café - just two short blocks from our hotel. Another great meal, delicious coffee and AGAIN the nicest people ever.
(source)
We spent much of breakfast reveling in the much better meal we were having than the night before and talking about some of the other trips we’ve taken together:
- Laguna Beach after xmas a couple years ago
- Lake Tahoe
- Michigan last summer
- And a trip to New Mexico once before (Taos and Angel Fire) for a music festival when we were in college. (Where I remember seeing a band of blonde dreadlocked folks from Vail play a reggae version of the Bee Gees classic “Staying Alive” and it was ridiculous and awesome and I can sing it now in my head)
After breakfast, it was time to head out and slowly make our way up to Santa Fe. It’s only an hour long drive by highway, but if you take the Turquoise Trail you can stretch it out into a day trip. And that is just what we did.
First stop: Sandia Peak Tramway
I might have mentioned this when I went to the Grand Canyon a few years ago, but did you know that I’m afraid of heights? Not always. But when it happens I can get myself pretty worked up about it. But I figured a birthday is a pretty good day to push yourself to do something like ride a tram through the air up to 10,000 feet. Do what scares you right? Well I did.
I barely saw anything on the ride up. And that it because I was mostly staring at the floor and trying not to panic. But I braved a moment to snap the photo above.
And here, where we passed over one mountainside still climbing to the top and could see the other tram heading back down. I mean, holy shit, look how high we are! Once we reached the top and 10,378 feet above sea level I started to relax between my much shallower breaths.
Initially I stayed a healthy 10-15 feet back from the edge, but after awhile I got a little braver and stepped a little closer.
Can you believe how freaking high this is?? That’s Albuquerque way down there!
We probably didn’t spend more than 25-30 minutes up top before climbing on the tram to head back down. This time I could actually look out the window.
I was psyched to get back down to the ground, but it was totally worth it.
On to the rest of the Turquoise trail…
(source)
The trail takes you up I –14 through the mountains between the Sandia and Ortiz mountain ranges. You wind through a handful of old mining towns and a whole lot of scrub brush and surprisingly few other cars. I was imagining a slow meander up this road following a line of other cars, but it just wasn’t so. I also thought we might stop at several of the towns, but we didn’t actually stop anywhere until we got up to Madrid, just past the halfway point. Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid, not Muh-DRID. This ain’t Spain) is a coal mining town-turned ghost town-turned artist/hippie/outlaw haven. It’s pretty funky. We stopped for lunch at The Hollar. It’s food cooked southern style in a little ramshackle looking place on the side of the road.
The service was pretty slow but the sun was warm and we weren’t in a hurry.
The view from our table.
The view of the burger (yes with a biscuit for a bun) just before I introduced it to my belly.
We took a brief walk up and back from The Hollar. There isn’t much to Madrid, but it is funky and pieced together in the way a mining town-turned ghost town-turned hippie/artist/outlaw haven should be.
The rest of the drive up to Santa Fe is much of same. Rolling hills of scrub brush, mountains in the distance on either side and funky little side of the road towns all along.
Santa Fe – Night 1
We pulled into Santa Fe around 4ish and checked into our hotel – The Inn on the Alameda. This hotel is awesome. Not right on the plaza, but within walking distance. The room was comfy with a private little balcony overlooking Alameda and the creek. Beth took off on a walk when we got there and I settled in on the balcony to read all my Facebook Birthday wishes. Seriously, it is the best. If you are on Facebook you are crazy if you do not make sure everyone knows when it’s your birthday. You are crazy.
I was tired from the day and wanted to find a restaurant nearby (after first stopping by the complimentary happy hour at our hotel – free booze!). Beth humored me and we ended up at a great little spot directly behind our hotel – Mucho Gusto. The restaurant is tucked behind the back of a little strip of shops and could easily be missed – but don’t let it! The food was fresh and delicious. I had the flautas and Beth had the Chalupas (which I thought would be fat fried doughy tortilla shells, but was really a lovely little salad with beans, cheese, veggies piled in two small tortilla shells) Again the staff was incredibly nice. There is something in the New Mexico water I think.
Part 3 tomorrow! (sorry this is taking me so long – it was just a weekend trip!)
