NM, Part 4: Sunrise Balloon Ride and Santa Fe!

 

We had a spectacular (and full) last day in New Mexico celebrating our anniversary.  It started with a sunrise (5:15 a.m. check in!) hot air balloon ride in what is truly (due to particulars of weather and topography) the Hot Air Balloon capital of the world (Albuquerque has more certified balloon pilots than most countries, and also hosts the Balloon Fiesta annually during the first week in October, where upwards of 500 balloons fly in the sky at one time!). 

Kelvin and I had ridden in one other (moving; a vertically moving one in Cambodia doesn't count) hot air balloon together, back in Santa Barbara in 2010, but it had been a while since we'd experienced the calm, floating joy of soaring over the ground!

Ballooning includes driving to a launch location, firing up the fans to fill the balloon with air, and then blasting hot air to help it rise (once passengers are aboard). 

We flew for about an hour and a half over Albuquerque and the Rio Grande, a distance of somewhere around 20 miles, and 3,000 feet up in the air (~8,000 feet of elevation).  The views were truly stunning! 

The descent 

See anything odd? 

Letting the air out

(Apparently, due to wind patterns, only about one in two hundred flights is able to land in the same place in which it took off. We were not one of those 0.5%). This company also does an afternoon flight in the winter months, but afternoon

winds (and storms) pick up in summer. 

After landing, our pilot, Damian (who was hilarious), poured us the traditional celebratory champagne toast (and made mimosas), which apparently came about due to balloonists in 18th century France trying to use wine as an offering to pacify some grounded farmers for landing on their property (and proving that they were not fire-breathing dragons or other scary creatures)!

After ballooning, we headed north about an hour to the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico's capital and a HUGE art mecca. It has a population of about 85,000 and is also known as “The City Different” because of its unique quirks and artistic charm. 

We took a guided walking tour of the downtown Plaza and surroundings, in which we learned a lot about the founding of Santa Fe, decimation and treatment of the native tribes, government (Santa Fe has the longest continuously operating government building in the U.S., the "Palace of the Governors"), architecture, and the art scene.

Pueblo-style building front

Tours: a “thing” once more!!

The end of the Santa Fe Trail (which originated in Franklin, Missouri).

All employees of Los Alamos Lab during WWII had to come through the secret office in Santa Fe. 

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

The statue of Mary "La Conquistadora" apparently gets her outfits changed frequently.

San Miguel Chapel (the oldest church in the U.S., est. 1610)

The Capitol building (the only rotund one in the nation)

We enjoyed a delicious lunch of Mexican food!

In the afternoon, we wandered through the galleries on Canyon Road. There were truly some amazing pieces, including kinetic sculptures (by Fred Prescott, which were my favorite), paintings, and other works of art (although the $24,000 cost of some was out of our price range!). I so appreciate art because I'm not artistic in the slightest!

We ended the afternoon (well timed with hot temperatures and thunderstorms) with a visit to Meow Wolf, which is an "immersive, interactive art experience" that truly captured the essence of creativity of this funky city. 

We donned our 3D glasses and wandered around the art exhibits, which included various drawings, paintings, sculptures, audio and video media, crawl spaces, climbing ladders, and more! I'd truly never seen anything like it before and felt like Alice in Wonderland! 

Will my kids recognize these? 

We ended our day with an incredible dinner at Izanami, an upscale Japanese restaurant in the hills just northeast of Santa Fe on grounds that include Japanese baths/a spa and guesthouse. 

Walking the grounds reminded us so much of our trip to Japan in 2016! (The bathrooms even had fancy bidets and Japanese sinks with lots of gadgetry!)

Miso soup

Kelvin had thinly sliced beef that he cooked on a hot stone in front of us, among other small plates. It all was delicious!

Somehow we ended up with three desserts (which I usually skip)... but they were all amazing. 

Four days is not enough to do everything we wanted in northern New Mexico, but was certainly enough time to get a nice and much-needed vacation, travel again (one of our great loves in life), and to spend quality time together as a couple without constant interruptions. What a blessing and how rejuvenating it was to see some new scenery and to (almost) forget about COVID-19 and release the past year and a half of sacrifice, grief, depletion, and burnout. I am so grateful for my wonderful in-laws for child-minding to allow us this break from “real life” and pandemic parenting which certainly took a lot out of me.  It was a trip I will relish and remember for a long time (and I highly recommend New Mexico as a vacation destination if you haven't been there or a good place to retire. I’m sure we’ll be back!).