Santa Fe + Albuquerque

View of the Rio Grande from the Nature Center State Park

From Mesa Verde, we headed through Southwestern Colorado (via Durango) to Santa Fe.  We had found a campground just outside Santa Fe where we were able to stay for the night, October 30th.  The campground closed for the year on the 31st.  So . . . we were the only people staying there.  On so-called “Devil’s Night.”  Which was a little creepy.

This schedule gave us one full day to explore Santa Fe after packing up in the morning.  Most of our time was spent walking around the old town plaza, checking out shops (for engagement ring designs!), listening to buskers, and drinking coffee.  We then drove over to St. John’s College, where Kristen had once spent a week for Go Congress.  We walked around the campus, and felt compelled to do a short hike up a local trail into the woods.  That afternoon, we drove to Albuquerque to crash with our friends Josh and Dan Forman (Beth’s brothers).  Josh is an acrobatic yoga instructor and schoolteacher, and Dan is attending UNM.  We didn’t know much about Albuquerque, other than what we’d seen on Breaking Bad.  So we didn’t know what to expect.  But the Formans live right near UNM in a cool college-town feeling area of town.  That night they took us to a crazy (and very good) Indian-ish restaurant that had ‘Ayurvedic’ food, and we hung out at their place chatting for hours afterwards.

The next day, we popped by a local coffee shop recommended by Josh (again fantastic) and went up to the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park.  The park was a recommendation from April Forman, Josh and Dan’s mom.  (Bruce Forman, their dad, is one of my dad’s very good friends).  We walked along the Rio Grande, did some birdwatching, and ate lunch at the park.

Afterward, we drove to Pueblo Acoma, where the Acoma people live on top of a mesa.  We were very excited to see the Pueblo and possibly do a hike down the mesa, since Kristen had fond memories of visiting the place a decade before.  But, sadly, it turned out the Pueblo was closed for the day due to a local holiday.  So we watched a brief movie regarding the history of the Pueblo at the visitor’s center, and headed over to Gallup to stay with Bruce and April.