Touring The Southwest Part 1 : New Mexico

Today I want to share more with you about our trip to the Southwest that we took in May. I wrote a little bit about it here so be sure to check that post out first. 

Dave and I were gone for a total of 8 days. We spent 5 days in New Mexico, 1 1 /2 days in Arizona and 1 1/2 days in Utah. And I can tell you, it wasn't long enough! We love love love that area and feel like we barely scratched the surface. We spent the most time in New Mexico because our missionary friends from Thailand were there and we got to spend time with them in Albuquerque and taking them around the state as well. We had a really good time. 

I will share as much info as I can but if you have questions please ask me! I think the SW is a very affordable place to travel. For 8 days, including lodging, gas, food, etc. we spent $1084.27 which is $135.53 a day or $67.77 a person per day. I think that could have been cheaper had we found a camping spot in Utah but they were all taken and we were forced to stay at a Motel 6, which oddly enough, is expensive in Moab. 

In Albuquerque we stayed one night in Uptown and the rest of the nights at this AirBnb. The AirBnb is up in the mountains and you take dirt roads to get there but if you are looking to get out of the city this is your place. If you want in the city we recommend staying by Uptown as there are lots of fun things around that area. Do check locations when picking lodging in ABQ as crime is a bit higher there. 

I plan to share ideas of places for you to go. New Mexico will for sure be my longest post because we have visited there the most. Each numbered item is a link so you can get more details and directions on that specific place. Holler at me with questions. 

New Mexico

Albuquerque

1. Old Town

I have been to NM so many times but had yet to go to Old Town. Old Town has shops, museums, churches, food and lots of local architecture. It was fun to walk around and see the sights in that area. 

Aren't these tea cups the cutest ever?! I found these in Old Town but just took a picture and didn't buy them.

2. ABQ Botanic Gardens
I must be 90 years old at heart because we always go to the gardens when we visit a city. The gardens in Albqueruque did not disappoint. They had everything from peonies to cacti and so much more.

3. Sandia Peak Tramway
This is a must if you are visiting Albuqueruqe for the first time. We didn't ride the tramway this time as we had lots of other times. I already wrote an entire blog post about that which you can check out right here.

4. Albuquerque Rose Garden
The ABQ Rose Garden was a place I literally, ran into, while I was running near Uptwon ABQ. It was amazing and is definitely worth the visit!

5. El Pinto Restaurant
If you go to New Mexico and don't eat Hatch Chiles you might as well have not visited at all. The best place to experience culture, food and the most amazing sopapillas that you fill with honey is at El Pinto. And oh my word my mouth is watering right now!

6. The Balloon Fiesta
I can't recommend the balloon fiesta enough. It requires planning though and you MUST get up super super early or you will miss it by waiting in traffic. Do your research before heading there but do head there. It's worth it. You can read my post on that right here.

Santa Fe

Santa Fe is the Capitol of New Mexico and is full of charm, sights and tourism. It's about a 45 minute drive from ABQ or if you don't mind walking a bit you can take the Road Runner Rail to Santa Fe. Here are a few things we did while there:

1. Visit The State Capitol
Not only is it is a beautiful building that you can tour but it really is neat to see where history is made. Our missionary friends were so fun to take because where they are from (The Philippines) you aren't allowed to tour places like this. They even let Reu sit in the Lieutenant Governors chair and he thought it was incredibly neat, which it is! I just take it for granted because we are used to this. It was neat to be reminded that we really do live in an awesome county where we can be a part of our government.

2. Visit Old Town

If you visit Old Town you will basically see a massive area of Santa Fe. We love visiting that area. 

3. Visit the oldest home in the US

The Oldest Home in the US. It's Adobe with a teal door. Super cute and fun to see.

4. Visit the Chapels 

There are three big chapels you should check out there but my favorite is Loretto Chapel because it has an amazing staircase that they still don't know how it was built. You can visit San Miguel mission too. It's supposedly the oldest church in the US. I personally just really loved all the flowers by the churches. =)

5. Frito Pies! 
You better believe it! You can go to the Five & Dime store in Santa Fe and eat a Chili Frito Pie supposedly invented in Santa Fe. We took our friends from the Philippines there because it's just classic American and fun. We also ate at little food stations around the Plaza. It was much cheaper than a sit down restaurant.

6. Photos! 

Santa Fe is so incredibly beautiful! I love walking around and taking photos and I highly recommend that. We also drove to this lookout and really enjoyed the pretty views. 

White Sands

We drove from Albuquerque to White Sands, which I believe is a 3+ hour drive. There were some fun stops along the way so the drive wasn't as long and boring as I had thought it would be. Here are a few of the stops:

1. Valley of Fire

Valley of Fire is on the way from ABQ to White Sands. It's literally a huge valley filled with lava flow. It's beautiful and fascinating. You can also see White Sands way in the distance from these fields. 

2. Pistachio Land

This is right off of the highway. Seriously, you can't miss the world's largest pistachio. ha! All jokes aside, this pistachio farm is really fun. I had no idea pistachios grew on trees like they did. There is a large store here where you can sample all kinds of flavored pistachios and they have a Blue Bell Icecream bar inside, which is super nice in the New Mexico heat. 

3. White Sands National Park

We love White Sands! I've mentioned this before but if you plan to visit a few National Parks go ahead and buy the yearly pass. They are $80 and pay for themselves very quickly. Our NP fees for this trip was well over $80.

White Sands is literally like the name. Big white sand dunes! There is also a military bomb testing sight here where planes practice dropping bombs so some days the park is closed. Be sure to check the White Sands NP page for details. 

You can hike the dunes, run down them, sled and just look at them. They are fascinating. Now, hot New Mexico sun reflecting down on white sands will dehydrate you before you know what has happened. If you plan to go, go early! Drink 2-3 times the amount of water you normally drink and be smart. I don't really recommend visiting this place in summer. We went in May and it was too hot to hike. People have died from the heat here so I'm not just exaggerating on this one. All the scares aside, we love the White Sands! It's definitely worth a visit. 

That sums up New Mexico (for now). =) If you have any questions about any of these places let me know. I also plan to share about Utah and Arizona but they won't be as long as this post.

Photography Friday Week 10 - From a High Angle

Welcome to week 10 of Photography Friday. Photography Friday is a 20 week challenge to help improve our photography skills. There is a weekly prompt / theme for each week that you can be as creative with it as you'd like. This week's theme is a from a high angle and next week's theme is where you live. For further information please click here. 

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From a High Angle

This week wasn't so bad capturing images from a high angle. I already posted about Dave and I's weekend trip to New Mexico and I purposefully took some pictures from a high angle so I could use them for my photography challenge. Here is what I came up with: 

A dessert plant (don't know the name) but it's pretty and prickly! I can attest to that because I brushed up on one.

ISO 400   f/9   SS 1/400

I've heard photographers complain about the 'sun spots' but I personally think it makes pictures look more magical. What are your thoughts on those? I don't feel like this picture is crisp and clear but I was warned in a pamphlet at the dunes that the sand is hard to capture. 

 ISO 100   f/9    SS1/800

The sand ripples - I think they are rather beautiful

 ISO 100   f/9  SS1/640

On another photography note I finally bought an on-line class so I can learn Light Room. I don't even know how to upload and save my pictures in there. ha ha! 

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I hope you'll join in this week. I've enjoyed reading from those who have linked up. 

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Carlsbad caverns and whitesands - New Mexico + Lunch in OKC

Happy Monday! Anyone else excited about that extra hour of daylight we get? I don't' even care about losing that hour of sleep; I'm just glad it is lighter for longer in the evenings. 

I hope you all had a good weekend! Dave and I decided to head to NM this past weekend. We were on a mission to escape winter and small town life. We ended up going to Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands. Dave suggested the caverns and I was in a panic because I thought it entailed miles of hiking. However, it did not. Carlsbad Caverns are caves - huge huge caves! I had no idea they existed. I took a lantern tour of the caves, which was rather interesting and fun. After the caves we drove over to White Sands National Monument. I have a love for sand dunes - this is my 5th sand dune park I have visited.  

Today I'm in OKC and I had lunch with Amanda aka The Lady Okie. I never in my wildest dreams thought blog land would bring me new friends but I'm so glad it did. We have got together twice and have yet to take a picture together. We decided that was called #bloggerfail =)

                       

How was your weekend? Are you loving more daylight or do you hate to lose an hour of sleep? 

                                                                                                     

Today I'm also teaming up with Melyssa over at The Nectar Collective for a lovely little giveaway. There are two prizes - $125 Amazon gift card and a $50 Etsy gift card. Hope on over here to enter. 

Sandia Peak Tramway and Green Chilis

Remember back in October when I told how I literally jumped up and down because of The Hot Air Balloon Festival? That was by far my favorite activity in Albuquerque but there were some more things we did as well. The other big event we did was taking a ride on the Sandia Peak Tramway. 

The Sandia Peak Tramway is the longest tramway in the world. It takes passengers 4,000 feet into the Sandia Mountains in about 15 minutes. The cars can fit 50 people up to 10,000 lb. (Do 50 people weigh 10,000lb? I have no clue). Anyways, that's a lot of people and it reminded me a bit of Asia being crammed in there with everyone. Honestly, I didn't take tons of pictures on the way up. Sometimes things are just too pretty and I made myself set my camera down and soak it all in. The train carries you up at about 13 mph which gives you enough time to see all the beauty. The guide tells you different kinds of stories including a plane crash that happened there (before the tramway).

The views up top are phenomenal. They say you can see up to 100 miles out. This next picture was taken from the top. The cables you see is the first leg of the journey going down. If you look closely you can see a little building that the cables and tram go over and that takes you down the second part of the mountain. 

I loved going up the Sandia Mountains but I loved it more because I got to experience that with my husband and parents. It was also neat to see my Dad in this area as Albuquerque is his home town and he has fond memories from this place.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about something that is super duper crazy delicious - Hatch Green Chilis.

I can't believe I haven't told you all about them because 1. they are just so tasty and 2. I'm crazy about them. Anyone else out there love spicy food? My Dad, being from ABQ, introduced me to them. I never really cared for the 'spicy' hatch green chilis until I moved to Korea and I grew a love for 'everything has to be spicy'. Hatch green chilis are local to New Mexico and have a unique flavor. Be advised though - they can be super spicy and addictive. However, the spice comes with a unique flavor.

New Mexicans are serious about their chilis too. When I was visiting I read an article saying how they are spelled chili. Not chile or chilies but chili. Well, excuse me New Mexico! I also saw a long line of people standing outside a grocery store and thought 'What the Heck are all those people doing?' and then I realized there were fresh green chilis being roasted and they wanted to grab 'em before they were gone. Here is what the Huffington Post had to say about them.

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Hatch Green Chilis are in season mainly in September and guess what guys? My little town of Woodward had them. I bought me a massive amount of those, roasted them in my oven, peeled them and put them in just about every dish. I think Dave had his fill of green chilis but I'd eat them every day if I could. In New Mexico they have a green chili 'gravy' that they slather on just about everything you can think of and holy guacamole it's so good! Many grocery stores now carry canned Hatch green chilis. You should buy some!

Now that I've written about green chilis I'm gonna have to eat some! nom nom. How about you? Do you like spicy food? Do you hate it? Would you ride the tramway?

Lately #14

Life Lately

1. The massive amount of crafting I've done lately will hopefully soon pay off as I open my Etsy shop. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.

2. cafe vienna - I may or may not have drank 3 of these delicious drinks this week. They are so good! 

3. I've been wanting some 'south western' clothing and I finally found a cute maxi dress at Rue21. It was a whole whopping $8. I also found some southwestern jewelry which I'll have to take better pictures of later.

4. Isaac - he is still so cute and fun to watch. I'm so thankful I get to. That picture is him while taking a walk. I'm amazed at how much babies love the out doors.

This picture was taken on the way to Amarillo, TX. I think the sun rays and clouds are quiet beautiful.

Today we head for New Mexico to see some dear friends and then we are off to to the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque! yipee!!! 

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What have you been up to lately? I'd love to hear from you!

fall goals and upcoming blog posts

October is here.

I decided that this fall I need to set some goals for myself. There are some things I want to get done and I think writing them down and figuring out a plan of action on how to complete them is beneficial. I'm not a natural planner by any means. I have to work at it, really hard! I thought I'd share with all of you lovely readers what is on my list:

prayer life - I am going to make a point to set aside 5 minutes a day for uninterrupted prayer. I know it doesn't sound like much, I'm kind of even embarrassed to post '5 minutes' as a goal but I get distracted so easily. I have a prayer list and I want to go through it more and pray specifically for people intentionally and fervently.

Bible memorization - last fall several women in our Bible study took the big task of memorizing the book of James. If someone told me I would memorize a whole book of the Bible I probably would of thought "yeah, that would be great, but I'm not disciplined enough". Well you know what? I did it! I memorized a chapter a month. I want to get back into that. I don't know if I will memorize a book or a few chapters but I know I need to memorize something from the Word. I want to have these passages picked out and ready by Thursday, October 3rd so I can take them when I travel to Albuquerque.

TESOL certification - I purchased an on-line class to get a certification to teach English as a second language. Let's just say I have put that class off for ahem...months now. It is due in February but I want it done by the beginning of December before Christmas rolls around.

Etsy Shop - I'm wanting going to open an Etsy shop! I made cute burlap bags and clutches and I'm in the process of setting up shop. wahoo! I need to take pictures and finish setting up and I'll be ready to go. My goal is to have photographs uploaded and ready so I can open shop when I return from Albuquerque next week! 

blog - I want to do some organization with this little 'ole blog I have. I have some things lined up for October so here is a little preview

• share about Dave and I's trip to Palo Duro Canyon in Texas
• recipes - I am going to share 4 total - two healthy recipes and two unhealthy ones. They are some new recent finds I discovered and are so tasty. I'll also be sharing a vegetarian option for those who prefer no meat. 
• things I've learned from the Bible - oh man! I don't know why but I have a hard time posting about what God teaches me during my quiet time. It's not that I'm ashamed I just have a hard time sharing all that BUT I think it's good to share what God is teaching me. 
• Albuquerque Balloon Festival - Dave, my parents and I are headed to Albuquerque this Thursday! We are going to see some amazing friends, eat a massive amount of Hatch green chilis and go to the Balloon Fiesta. 
• Never Have I Ever - a link up on 10/10 hosted by one of my favorite blogs 'The Ladie Okie. 
• How to run a half marathon without training - yes, it's true. I am running a half marathon in two weeks and my longest run has been 5 miles. I have managed to do cross-fit and hike a half marathon with Dave. Wish me luck.
• cows - that's right. I went around town today in Woodward and took some pictures of the cows...mooooo! I'll be sharing about those weird big animals too. 
• Missionary profiles - It will be a new series about missions so stick around! 
• Why the blog and the history behind 'Sunshine to the Square Inch' 

If you stuck around this long ... Thanks! What are your fall goals? Do you have any suggestion for blog posts? Want to memorize some Bible verses with me?

Friday's Letters . 5

Dear Mt. Wheeler, thanks for only being 8 miles instead of 14. I think a 13,000 ft. mountain is a good reintroduction to mountain climbing. Dear Sister, I'm beyond thrilled that you are coming to visit for the weekend. Don't let this small town fool ya, a fun schedule is in order: roller blading, crossfit (bring a friend day, whoop! whoop!) and a local concert by a fantastic artist.  Dear Static, you are super cute and all, but please, quit eating bathroom trash as well as the whole bag of cat food when I'm gone. Dear Crossfit, this week I got my first open blister and as much as I never wanted one, I earned it! I PR'd my dead lift and couldn't of been happier. I have some awesome crossfit friends who cheered me on and pushed me. Thanks!!! Dear Woodward, this week I was driving down the road and it hit me that after living here 6 months it felt like a familiar place and like my 'temporary home'. Don't get me wrong some of your weird OK cultural is still odd to be but I'm getting used to it. Dear Dave, Thanks for helping me hike up a big mountain and for going 'Beka pace' even if it did slow you down by 1 1/2 hours. You're the best. Dear Sandy, Can I just say how glad I am I wore the Korean scarf you bought me up this mountain!!! I neglected to pack a jacket or a long sleeve shirt for the top of the mountain and the coldness was extreme. The scarf was my saving grace, so thanks!

What are your weekend plans? Have you ever hike a 13,000 or 14,000 foot mountain? (you totally should!). Hope you all have a great weekend.