Albuquerque, NM

I had a quick business trip to Albuquerque this week. I flew out on Monday and flew home today. I arrived early enough on Monday to do a little bit of site seeing with a coworker who was there with me.

I had printed some information on Jemez Falls and we planned to hike to that. But, I had not looked at the weather forecast and I didn't realize that there was still so much snow around. Also, the trails were poorly marked so we spent a good bit of time driving around trying to find the trail head and then the trail itself was poorly marked. Since it was late in the day, the trail was covered in snow and ice, and it was pretty doggone cold, we didn't make it to Jemez Falls. But, we did find Soda Dam. We happened to drive by it while we were looking for the Jemez Falls trail head.

We finally found a trail head that linked to the Jemez Falls trail and we attempted to hike a short ways on it before determining that it was getting too late to continue. That, coupled with the fact, that the trail was covered in snow and ice made me give up the hunt for the Falls.

We stopped in Jemez Springs for dinner. If you blinked your eyes, you would miss the town. We found a little hole in the wall looking joint called "Los Ojos." We were joking as we walked in about wondering if they would serve "our kind" there. When we walked in, everyone sitting at the bar stopped what they were doing and stared at us. When the waitress walked up to take our order, the first thing she said was, "you aren't from around here are you?" I think what we found most humorous was a guy standing at the bar holding a toddler. I leaned over to my coworker and asked him if he had ever seen the movie, "Sweet Home Alabama." He had because he immediately said the quote from the movie, "Look at you, you have a baby... In a bar." We had both thought the same thing. I will admit that the food and service was excellent. I highly recommend eating here and trying the green chili sauce.

We returned to the hotel and then attended the meeting on Tuesday. We finished with business around 4:15 so that left a little daylight to head to Sandia Peak Tramway. We were able to get to the top before sunset. It was pretty cold on top though....in the low 20s with a wind chill in the teens. We couldn't hike because the snow was pretty heavy still. I made a snow angel and then was ready for a hot drink so we made a pit stop at the High Finance restaurant and got a drink and a appetizer before heading back down to get a full meal somewhere in town.

It was painful getting up this morning. I had a 6:20 flight back to Atlanta. The time zone change and the daylight savings time change pretty much hosed up my internal body clock. I'm about to go to sleep as I type this.

I had a great time on this trip just because it offered something different to do after work was done. I only wish Jeff and the girls could've come with me.