Summer trip to the Southwest - Albuquerque, NM (Part 1)

During the summer after moving back to the US from Belize, we were taking a break from blogging. Now we're back at it, but this summer trip to Albuquerque and Taos, New Mexico (with side trips to Santa Fe), slipped through the cracks during the hiatus.  We thought we'd fill in the gaps a bit and share some of our photos from this trip.  We loved this area so much and had such a fantastic time we can't wait to go back. 

We stayed in a small Airbnb "casita", essentially a guest bedroom with full bath, microwave, dorm-size fridge, and private entrance in a home in a residential neighborhood.  More than a week in such a small accommodation would be difficult, but for a week, we managed.  We liked that the neighborhood was quiet and safe, had lots of sidewalks for taking Paisley on walks, and great views right from the main road nearby.  We could also ride our bikes to many places from there on bike paths and bike lanes.

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Nice quiet neighborhood

Our accommodation with the three windows

Views of the city and Sandia Mountains right down the road!

More views very close to our casita

Barry & Paisley enjoying a morning walk

This mosaic fence was so beautiful

We saw hot-air balloons most mornings

There are some very creative yards around -- no grass required!

For the most part, we had great weather, but there were some pretty severe thunderstorms at times as it was monsoon season.  The clouds looked pretty awesome right before or after storms.

While in town we visited the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park, which we'd spent hours hiking and birding in on our 2006 southwest trip.  We were disappointed this time; however, as the trails were closed due to drought and high fire danger, so we had to content ourselves with a short nature walk through the gardens and not nearly as much bird-watching as in 2006.  

All hiking trails closed -- bummer!

But birdwatching still possible

Female hummingbirds nicely sharing nectar

Turtles on the pond

We paid a brief visit to old town Albuquerque but didn't stay long since we'd been there before.  We were looking for a restaurant that had moved.  

Although we ate breakfast and simple lunches in our room to stay on budget, we had several good dinners out in the city.  One of our favorite meals was at Garduno's Chile Packing Co.

We enjoyed the margarita tasting flight!

One dessert to enjoy at the restaurant...

...and one to take home for the next day!

We also did some great bike rides exploring the city and two side trips to Santa Fe, so stay tuned for future posts!