3:30am sure does come early. We made our way over to the airport to catch our 6am flight. Once again we stopped in Dallas and arrived in Detroit at 2pm. We got our bags and got home around 7pm to enjoy turkey leftovers.
We thought that we should sleep in today since we know that tomorrow we’ll be getting up early again. After checking out of the hotel, we made our way over to the Taos Pueblo. The pueblo has been there for over 1000 years and the Indians who live there, live as their ancestors did all those years ago with no running water or electricity. We walked around the pueblo and checked out some of the curio shops. We enjoyed some fresh bread and cookies made by the Indians. The pueblo has many dogs (around 20 of them) that roam around looking for food. If they hear a bag opening, they immediately will run over. The pueblo is a very peaceful and spiritual place.
We went over to check out the Taos Mountain Casino which is located just outside of the pueblo. After losing a couple of bucks, we decided that we would just pick up some lunch and eat in the car. We stopped at the Guadalajara Grill again and this time we got chicken tacos and a huge bag of chips & salsa. Yummy!
The drive back to Albuquerque took us a couple of hours through some very beautiful scenery. We got back and headed over to the Cottonwood Mall to do some final shopping. We ended up having dinner at Sadie’s of New Mexico restaurant where we enjoyed an awesome meal (more chips & salsa and sopapillas). Our destination for the night was the Comfort Inn at the airport.
Sunday ended up being the only day that we did not have to get up early. Once we did get moving (after 10am), we headed down to the Taos Plaza to check out the shops and galleries. We got a tip from somebody in a shop to try Doc Martin’s for lunch. Always ask the locals where they eat. They will never steer you wrong.
After lunch we started our drive on The Enchanted Circle. This route takes you north of Taos in a circle around Wheeler Peak. We stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge bridge (it’s really high up), Taos Ski Valley (not many people here at this time of year) and various other little towns.
After a few hours of driving it was time for dinner. The lady at the hotel recommended the restaurant next to the San Francisco de Asis church. We got there and it was closed. We started looking through our guidebook and realized that alot of the places closed early on Sundays. We decided to ask one of the workers at the church for a dinner recommendation. He told us about the Guadalajara Grill. We figured that a guy that works at a church wouldn’t lie to us. We had the mandatory chips & salsa to start, chicken fajitas (huge portions) and deep fried ice cream for dessert. This was the best mexican meal I’ve ever had.
We waddled out of the restaurant and made our way back to the hotel for a little rest before catching a movie. We went and saw Two For The Money starring Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey. Wait for the movie to hit video stores.
We got up once again at 4:30am (these early mornings are killing me) and we got to the park at 5:45am. We managed somehow to park our car very close to the gates and this allowed us to catch a 45 minute nap before the Dawn Patrol. Today’s mass ascension was mostly the regular shaped balloons but there were a few special shapes. There must have been at least 500 balloons today. It is really is quite a sight.
We stopped by Kinko’s after leaving the park. They have something called the Sony PictureStation that will allow you to download your pictures off of your memory card and then burn them to cd. This works really well if you like to take lots of pictures and run out of room on your memory cards. We also found out that Walgreen’s offers a similar service. We decided to have lunch at Olive Garden before heading back to the hotel.
After packing up and checking out of our hotel, we started on the road to Taos. We stopped at the Santuario de Chimayo in Chimayo. There is a sacred sand pit called “El Posito” and it is said that the sand has healing powers. Next to the church is Leona’s Restaurante where we enjoyed some chips & salsa. Our last stop before heading into Taos was at the San Francisco de Asis church.
We checked into the Super 8 - Taos and then headed to Michael’s Kitchen for dinner (chips & salsa and sopapillas). There is not much to do after dark in Taos so we headed over to Wal-Mart before calling it a night.
We wanted to be at the park for the Dawn Patrol so we got up at 4am. Once we got to the park, we found the place that sold the deep fried sausage covered in pancake batter. That’s the breakfast of champions. The morning’s event was the Wells Fargo Special Shape Mass Ascension. I think it’s so cool that you can make a balloon be any shape. After spending a few hours wandering among the balloons, we headed over to the Cracker Barrel to enjoy another breakfast. Once we finished breakfast, we went to the 17th Annual Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival. This is a very good craft show with over 200 vendors. Needless to say a bit of money was spent there.
We decided to spend the afternoon in Santa Fe. Our first stop was at Jackalope. It’s a really neat store that sells lots of different stuff. We then headed over to the Plaza Area. We explored Canyon Road, the Palace of the Governors, St. Francis Cathedral and the Loretto Chapel. The Loretto Chapel is home to a miraculous staircase. It is built with no central or visible support. We even managed to get some sopapillas from the Plaza Cafe. We got back to Albuquerque just in time to see the AfterGlow Fireworks show at the balloon park. Another awesome fireworks display.
