Hey, Nineteen!

I visited the desert Southwest last weekend, ran a race and really enjoyed my trip!
I visited Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a day trip to Santa Fe. I really enjoyed learning more about the area, the native people, and eating lots and lots of Hatch green chilies! I swear they put that stuff on nearly everything.
This was also a girls weekend with my college friend Susan, whom I went to Las Vegas with last year.
And in keeping up with what is becoming our routine, there was adventure.
Our first full day we drove up to Santa Fe, visiting museums and the historic downtown area.
We stopped at San Miguel Chapel first, the oldest church in the United States.

San Miguel Chapel

Right next door was the oldest house in the United States. The rooms were so small!

Oldest house in the U.S.

 We wandered further into the historic center of town and nearby was Loretto Chapel, with a staircase apparently built without supports and with just wooden pegs. The railings were added later. We weren't allowed up, but it was really beautiful and cool.

The "mysterious" staircase at Loretto Chapel

Rose window of Loretto Chapel

We had a late lunch at San Francisco Street Bar & Grill. I didn't realize that St. Francis must be the patron saint of Santa Fe. Or at least the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is nearby, perhaps giving the street and restaurant it's name.

Breakfast burrito with, what else?, Hatch green chilies!

Saturday morning, after breakfast at Lindy's Diner along Historic Route 66, we headed out to the Petroglyph National Monument to see the rock carvings made by indigenous people. We stopped at the visitor's center first and an older park ranger asked if we wanted to see them via a sidewalk or desert trails. Sidewalks with bathrooms, or desert trails with pit bathrooms. We chose sidewalks.
Here's were it gets interesting. Apparently the park ranger's idea of sidewalks and my idea of sidewalks vary differently. I got a barely graveled trail straight up the side of a mesa.

This was the only sidewalk we stood on

Some petroglyphs as we ascended the mesa

I'm on top of the world!

 The trip up to the top of Boca Negra Canyon was rather arduous. Several times we had to sort of hand over hand grab onto the basalt around us, hoping not to roll down the mesa face. The black basalt, which you can see behind me, comes from an exploded volcano, which is now the canyon. Behind me in the distance are three extinct volcanoes.

Susan, with the Sandia mountains behind her

Me at the top

A Macaw petroglyph

A snake petroglyph

We picked up our race packets after our visit to the park and then decided to visit Old Town Albuquerque, where we shopped, shopped, shopped. We decided against lunch because we'd made reservations for dinner at High Finance Restaurant atop the Sandia Peak. The only way to get up there is to take the tram and my brother, who used to live in Albuquerque, told us to go up and see sunset from the peak, which is 10,000 feet up.

Sunset from the peak

 We ordered our meals and enjoyed a glass of wine while we waited for sunset. Our waiter came around with our soup, then came back to say there had been a kitchen fire and our dinner orders would be delayed by about 20 minutes. We were waiting on sunset anyway, so we really weren't fazed by it.
We ordered another glass of wine and enjoyed the view!
But the manager came around a bit later to say there would be no food. He'd been forced to shut down the kitchen all together. He offered us a discount at the restaurant at the base of the tram and gave us our drinks and soup gratis.

the city lights of Albuquerque

We got a chuckle out of our fire adventure. Remember last year's trip we were evacuated from the hotel at 3 a.m. when some yutz pulled the fire alarm. Fire seems to be a theme with us!
Sunday morning was beautiful. Cool, but not cold.
We got out to Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, or SIPI, where the New Mexico Chips & Salsa Half Marathon, 10K & 5K was held.

Ready for the 5K!

Balloons aloft!

 There were about a dozen hot air balloons that drifted across the horizon. That was really neat to see.

Post-race chips & salsa

There were no snacks along the race route, but I did get chips and salsa at the finish, and I was given a choice of red or green salsa!
Our final nice meal of the trip was at the St. Clair Winery & Bistro in Albuquerque. I tried the crisp white flight, all wines made right outside of Albuquerque. We passed the vineyards on our way to Santa Fe. The meal was yummy, too.

"Life is Good. Wine Makes It Better."

 Our new motto was hanging on the wall: Life is Good. Wine Makes it Better.

Crisp white flights

 The photo makes the glasses look really big, but they were small glasses. I liked all of them. I tried a pinot grigio, a chardonnay and a brut. I usually don't like a lot of chardonnays because they are so oaky, but this one was very buttery and smooth,

Getting our kicks, one last time

On the way back to the hotel that afternoon, we stopped one last time in Old Town and got a picture of the Historic Route 66 sign, which runs along Central Avenue.
I had such a great trip. State No. 19 will be among my most memorable.