Inspired by the amazing work of the people I’m surrounded by, I’ve started a few new projects. While I can’t share those yet, I stumbled upon some of my old work (from highschool) that was done both during and after a trip west.

On our trip to Las Cruces we made an obvious detour to White Sands National Monument, near Alamogordo, NM. The sand was a little cold and hard because of the previous days of rain but we had fun running and twirling and dancing anyways.

The New Mexico State Fair ran for a little over two weeks this September, bringing an array of quilts, pies, farm animals, vintage cars and QVC hosts to Albuquerque.

My first visit was with a bunch of people from work, which turned out to be really great because of how excited they were about going.  The clutter of souvenier and greasy food stands, along with the masses of people and other oddities was surprisingly satisfying.

Watching Valentine’s Performing Pigs skateboard and sink basketballs was definitely one of the highlights for me.

After looking at apartments for a few days, Chris & I decided to take off and head up to Santa Fe for two nights. While we left ABQ later in the afternoon, the drive was quick and we found a cheap room outside the main plaza area pretty easily.

We spent our first full day touring around looking at souvenirs and all the art & jewelry that was being sold at the Palace of the Governors. Happy hour started fairly early for us as we tested our share of margaritas and watched all the activity in the plaza.

Before heading back to Albuquerque on Sunday we went to Bandelier National Monument to explore the ancient caves left in the side of the Frijoles Canyon. We climbed the 140 ft up to the Alcove House, trailing behind two very young children who flew up the ladders fearlessly.

While we made it to the Land of Enchantment on day four, we didn’t reach Albuquerque until our fifth day.

It took us a couple days of driving around the city to get fully acquainted with the different neighborhoods. We stayed in Old Town and while we ended up going out to a few overpriced, mediocre restaurants, we found a great Mexican supermarket where we bought beer and snacks.

We went to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center for lunch and it was easily the best meal I’ve had in ABQ so far. The museum was really great, exhibiting information and artwork from each of the pueblo communities in New Mexico. We also got to see a group of Navajo dancers perform three different dances. They shared with us their gourd dance, sash belt dance, and a dance to honor veterans.

Day Four

Spent the morning driving around Oklahoma City and ended up at a local place, Jimmy’s Egg, for some southern breakfast. We first ran in to Route 66 on our way out of the city but decided we would have to drive i-40 if we were ever going to make it to New Mexico.

We ended up detouring off of 40 to check out the mother road, specifically the Route 66 museums. There were two. Along the way we also went through some strange deserted towns such as Shamrock, TX and passed the largest cross in the Western hemisphere.

We stopped in Amarillo, Texas for a late lunch and found a great mexican restaurant, Ruby Tequila’s. There we shared a “Dos Rita”: frozen margarita with a bottle of beer dumped in (literally upside down sticking out of the glass).