Blogs from Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, North America - page 10

After three very pleasant days in and around Santa Fe and three lovely nights at the El Rey Inn it was time to get back on the road and head for Albuquerque. Since we arrived in Santa Fe I have been saying to Bernie that I read something about an Emerald Trail that we should do in/around Santa Fe or Albuquerque, but I couldn't find the references in our guide books again and searching for 'Emerald Trail' on Google was unsuccessful. The El Rey was on Cerrillos Road (Historic Route 66) which became NM Highway 14 as it headed out of town. Well, it turns out that NM Highway 14 is the 'Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway'!! D'oh - I had remembered it as more green than greenish-blue. So we drove to Albuquerque by way of the ... read more

Sybil and Jovan went for a hike. Fairouz went for a shower. We watched the Grand Canyon IMax movie...didn't really like it. And then drove for 7 hours to Albuqurque after we decided not to camp at a place full of bullet holes everywhere.... read more

I know for most people reading this blog, you'll think to yourself that we took the day off only riding from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, but it was a busy day. We got up this morning and started at the Santa Fe National Cemetery to visit dad's father's gravesite. We looked up the location and headed over to the site, spending a little time there and taking a couple of photos. Our initial plan was to head straight down to Albuquerque, see his father's house, visit Old Town, and then continue west towards Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We started chatting with one of the maintenance employees at the cemetary about our trip, and he mentioned that we should do a loop north towards Taos and see the Rio Grande Gorge, so north we went. It ... read more

Today was to be another driving day. I woke up around 6.45 to hit some breakfast. Nothing really much on offer so I had some Frosted Flakes. They are just overly sweet Corn Flakes, so not very good. Once we hit the road our first stop was at Durango to have our group picture taken. We all had to huddle together in the snow so it was pretty funny, but the backdrop is a really nice mountain, so the picture came out really good. Next we had a short drive to our jeeping start point. They werent Jeeps as much as huge Hummers, which was cool, but it also meant that it was pretty boring since the Hummers took on the terrain so well. We made our own fun in the back of our Hummer, just ... read more

We had researched and planned for this day outing before we left home. Albuquerque has what they call a Bio Park. It is a combination of a very nice zoo, an aquarium complex, and a botanical garden. These are stretched along the Rio Grande River for about 2 miles. They also have a people moving train that can transport you from one part of the park to another. We spent the whole day there, with the majority of the time at the zoo. But we did take the train over to the aquarium and gardens in the afternoon. The people in Albuquerque can be very proud of the Bio Park. It is a first class, fun, and educational place to visit. Make sure you put it on your list to see!... read more