Colorado and New Mexico - Part II ABQ

After our stay in Colorado, we thought it would be fun and easy to hop on a short and cheap flight down to Albuquerque, NM to visit the Bounds Family.  Plus Avery could see a new state she's never been to!

We happened to be visiting during the world renowned Balloon Fiesta...what good luck! We got up really early, bundled up and headed down. It was beautiful to see them light up before the sun rise. There were so many different shapes and designs. Some were advertisements, some were characters and some were just traditional hot air balloons. Avery really enjoyed the balloons and would point to each one and say "balloon, balloon!"



Family Shot Albuquerque Balloon Festival 2011



It's the largest hot air balloon launch in the world, over 700 take off at once!




Avery enjoying the view from Daddy's back

 

Balloons before sun rise

 Avery and Emerson loved playing together with all of the toys at the Bounds house! It was so fun to see how grown up Emerson now is.  We saw her when she was just starting to walk last summer at the beach and about 14 months old.  The Bounds Family also had a recent addition of a baby boy named Weston. We both loved our snuggle time with that adorable baby boy!  What fantastic hosts they were!

We took an afternoon and headed up to Santa Fe, NM.  We had always wanted to see that city and with it being a state capitol it is a potential for relocation in the future.  We found a roof top pizzaria right off of the town square with a outdoor deck.  They served pizza with a blue corn crust so of course we had to try it!

After dinner we got dessert and strolled through the streets to see some of the sights.

Since Colleen is in half marathon training mode, we had to continue long runs while on the trip.  This meant a 12 mile run while in NM.  She found online the Rio Grande Trail and so we set off on an afternoon to run it.  We were dissapointed that it didn't seem to actually offer any views of the Rio Grande...just of the irrigation canal.  After the run we realized that Abq is also at a mile high...no wonder the run felt tough (including no bathrooms or water along the way!)   Apparently Paula Radcliffe does training runs along this trail...we didn't see her though.

The beautiful Sandia Mountains are visable almost anywhere in Abq and Lindsay and Aaron have a great view of them from their backyard!

We decided to do the touristy thing and head up the Sandia Aerial Tramway. It's the longest aerial tramway in the world. It was a really neat ride up in a gondala type car that held about 25 standing passengers. We got some great views up at the top and grabbed a drink and snack at the restaurant High Finance.

Here is the view from the top, of the tram coming back up:

And of course while on our trip we enjoyed lots of Einstein Bagels!  I think we may have eaten there at least once a day.  Boy do we miss our San Diego Einstein..but this helped numb the pain for a little while :-)