Out West for the Weekend

So I know this blog is supposed to be for our collective RV travels, but I’m going to “loosely” connect it this time.  Since it’s my blog I’m going to take a little creative liberty.  It does tie in to future RV trips, so I think you’ll be ok with it in the end.

I recently returned from a fun-filled girls’ weekend in Albuquerque with my great friend Wendy.  We’ve done this weekend thing once before and knew we had to go somewhere again.  We figured we’d take advantage of the time to catch up on life before my retirement date arrives and I’m off on RV adventures with Pat.  (See – used that RV word, so tying it in already)

Wendy is one of those friends you can pick up with right where you last left off, no matter how much time has passed.  We know each other pretty well, but always seem to find out new things when we do get together.  For example, this time we found out we stink at selfies.

Yep, we get both faces in the picture at Old Town and then block the sign.  Partial heads at the Santa Fe Railyard (seriously?!) and well, we did see snow behind our heads but no mountaintop that I was going for on Sandia Peak.

It may have been the dead of winter in Albuquerque, but we had stunningly beautiful weather and the indoor part of the Botanical Gardens was gorgeous.  Everything was just starting to sprout – signs of Spring and a glimpse of Easter.  That visit was our bonus activity.

We did manage to do everything on our original list –

• Mexican dinner, sopapillas and Margs in Old Town Albuquerque (ok, so I had my dark beer instead)
• Shopping for turquoise jewelry (2 bracelets and earrings for me)
• Santa Fe walking tour complete with some of the oldest and most beautiful churches in the country (The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi)
• Sandia Peak tramway ride
• Brewery visit
• AND tipsy painting

I wanted to do the wine painting thing on our last girls’ weekend, but the schedule didn’t work out.  Wendy absolutely did not, but she was willing to risk artsy humiliation for me.  Turns out, that was one of the most fun things we did.  There must have been 30 people crammed in that place and we all were terrible painters.  Maybe our beverages of choice did not help, or maybe they did!

Finally, I promised you a tie to the RV thing.  We hadn’t been in Albuquerque for 24 hours before I was texting Pat that we could live there!  We love Florida and the ocean, but there is a rugged beauty out West that just calls to us.  We’re expecting to do lots of travel out that way and I now have New Mexico high on the destination list.  Maybe when we buy another sticks and bricks home after our full-time RV adventures are done, we’ll find a tiny house with a BIG RV garage in Albuquerque.

Stay tuned for the next post.  I promise it will be an RV adventure – scheduled for April!