The trip; Albuquerque

Next stop; Albuquerque, NM to stay with my aunts. They live in a great little neighborhood full of Adobe style houses. There were also some great doors; I took pictures of a few of them for Kelly! PS...the kitty pictured above; that's "Chairman Meow" ;-)


In the neighborhood were some Sandhill Cranes! Very cool birds


On our second day there, Susan and Melissa treated Alex and I to a world-class spa treatment at Ten Thousand Waves! It is a Japanese spa in Santa Fe. We got to soak in two teacup-like hot tubs (sans jets) imported from Japan for an hour and a half; the only two of its' kind in this country. Not only that, but it was like our own private spa. "Our" area had a bed, a fancy Japanese toilet (with bidet, heated seat, etc), two sit down showers and a private sauna! It was amazing! It also snowed while we were there


This is the walk up to the spa


These are some of the main buildings



After our wonderful spa treatment, we headed to downtown Santa Fe for some grub and culture. We ate a cute little diner that had great food! After dinner, we walked around Santa Fe and went into several art galleries.


This is the main square in Santa Fe


Another nifty door for Kelly



some very beautiful buildings here! New Mexico has a Christmas tradition of putting up luminarias instead of a majority of Christmas lights. They can either be put together by hand using a brown lunch bag with sand in the bottom and a tea candle sitting within it, or there were even people who purchased electric ones in strands just like Christmas lights.


It's a lot of fun to walk around the neighborhoods and look at the lights. It gives you a little different feel than the typical Christmas here in VA.

Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, it was cold





I was having a little trouble adjusting to the altitude so it was an early night for me. I hadn't drank enough water and my head was pounding. I was fine the next morning for our drive to Flagstaff. Susan and Melissa armed us with snacks for the road! And we were off