A Practical Walk

After our San Antonio trip and then Between the Lakes, and now a New Mexico trip, I’m starting to feel like a travel blogger! This one was different in that we stayed at hotels instead of camping. And while I do like camping, it sure does make trips simpler when you don’t need to take your own shelter and bedding!

We decided to do a Senior trip for our daughter before she started college. The inspiration for this trip began with a band both her and her dad love that would be playing in Albuquerque, and then we planned the rest of the trip around that.

First stop was Carlsbad caverns. It felt rather nostalgic, because the only other time I’ve been there was when she was a baby and it was on that same trip that she started crawling….and now we brought her back here and she’s college-bound!

If you’re into caves, it’s pretty impressive! And there weren’t any tight spaces, in fact most of it was extremely spacious! You walk down the equivalent of 79 stories! Down at the bottom there’s even a restroom! And then an elevator to take you up….it was nice not having to walk back up it!

After Carlsbad we headed to Roswell. The last time we did Carlsbad, we also went to the UFO museum in Roswell and I’d like to say, that it was much improved from what I remember 18ish years ago!

The whole town of Roswell had a lot of aliens…just all over the place! Check out the local McDonald’s!

This McDonald’s made me wish my kids were little enough to play on it! The kids that were there were playing very imaginitavely…it seemed they were astronauts and wearing space suits…I just love seeing kids using their imaginations!

The folks in Roswell sure are friendly, here’s a silver sister I befriended.

Because this was for our daughter’s senior trip, we mostly did things she was interested in, and therefore it included art! Roswell has the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, that was pretty cool!

She really loved it!

Toast art!

I saw myself in this lady, I also love checking the mail…and wearing dresses, and usually don sunglasses…..I just don’t middle part my hair.

I was drawn to the colors of this one, and the 3d going on and aren’t eggplants one of the prettiest vegetables?

Even when traveling we enjoy checking out thrift shops and one such shop was Blairs Trading Post. If you like second hand shopping and you’re in Roswell, this is a great place! The people were friendly and said it’s a family business that’s been passed down. My daughter found an alien t-shirt here, that I’m sure was much cheaper than at the museum’s gift shop!

After Roswell, we hit the road for Albuquerque.

Wanna know what she was painting in the car?

In Albuquerque we drove up the road to the Sandia mountains and got some pictures.

My son sketching the view.

We did some wandering around Albuquerque and stumbled upon the Amapola Gallery, which was fun to see what local artists were selling.

We also checked out the Albuquerque Museum, which had interesting history, beautiful art, and pretty native plant landscaping that my husband was all excited about.

If you’re ever in New Mexico, don’t forget to try out the food! We went to Taco Sal, which was delicious! And funny thing, as I was looking it up to give you a link, discovered it’s featured in the hit TV show Breaking bad!

Red or green? I chose green!

So if you have a New Mexico trip planned, there’s some fun things to do in Carlsbad, Roswell, and Albuquerque. You don’t know how many times I’ve had to correct my spelling, I keep wanting to write it “Albequerque.” It’s okay, my son told me Weird Al also has trouble spelling it.

Any tips for other good places to visit in NM?