BT 4.0: Hiking Bliss

Every trip we have a few perfect days. Friday was perfect day #1 on Tour De Southwest. We took the team up Sandia Mountain. It was a 15-minute tram ride going up. Historically outdoor, mountain vacationing has seen us at our best and our tram ride and hike didn't fail. The kids loved hiking once we got to the top. By my estimation we went roughly 2 miles on the trail. Both kids loved looking for wildflowers, taking pictures and scaling large rocks. Odelia took shoulder breaks every so often which was no small feat for Mark and me at 10,000 feet elevation.
We have eaten piles of Mexican food. Tonight when we were walking around downtown Mark told Milo that we were going out for breakfast tomorrow and he instantly said, "Not Mexican again?" Hold tight, buddy only a few more days. The kids are getting more adventurous with tasting the exotic fare before them. As you may have garnered from previous posts I love candy stores. It has been especially exciting in New Mexico because it combines two of my loves, chocolate and chiles. Both kids have sampled red chile chocolate with pistachios as well as red and green chile peanut brittle. Under no duress from the parental units they also discovered War Head candies. Mark had the camera ready for their first sampling. Neither of them liked them and both of us were kind enough to suck off the sour part so they could eat candy pain-free. The problem, however, was that the toxic sour powder stripped the first layer of skin off my tongue. It took only one taste for me to remember why they are reserved for the young.
Our air conditioning got fixed. Being hot at night is nothing any of us do well so, despite the repair men harshing our vacation chill, it was a welcome change at the condo. Tomorrow is our last day in Santa Fe. We're going to try our luck at another hike and then head to the children's museum. Tuesday we take off for Cortez, Colorado.

Entering the tram at Sandia Mountain. The trip up was 15 minutes long. We traveled at 13 mph and went up approximately 4, 000 feet. On the way down they stopped mid-way down to pick up a service worker. He simply strapped himself to the roof and traveled the remainder of the way down sitting on top of the tram.

Sandia Mountain. Both kids have been very interested in taking pictures. Odelia took this one.

Hiking at Sandia Mountains, New Mexico

Oh, sweet Odelia this is such a cool picture if only you were looking up.

We found several different stops along our hike where we could climb up to see over the bluffs.
Photography by Odelia

Milo tries his hand behind the lens.

Both kids were tuckered out after the hike and laid down on the deck to watch the tram come up the mountain. Love this picture.

Tuckered out after the hike. Sandia Mountains, New Mexico

View from Sandia Peak, New Mexico

The start of our hike. Odelia looks so comfy, doesn't she?

Still on his shoulders. She's no dummy!

One of the overlooks we found on our hike. Sandia Peak, New Mexico

She's hiking. We couldn't get it across to her that the goal of hiking WASN'T to step on every bump, rock and root on the trail. She would get upset if she missed stepping on one of the rocks on the path but would get equally as mad when she would step on it and fall over.

View from Sandia Peak, New Mexico

Mark, Milo and Odelia taking a break on the side of the mountain. Sandia Peak, NM

Sandia Peak, New Mexico

Downward Dog at 10,000 feet. Sandia Peak, NM

The Dancer at 10,000 feet. Sandia Peak, NM

The tram coming to pick us up.

Stupidest sign.

War Head sampling!

This place was across the street from the university in Albuquerque, NM. It had super cool soda machines that were touchscreen. They had over 100 soda options. Imagine my delight! The food was super tasty too (Mexican...Milo).

We stopped at a trading post on the Turquoise trail on our way back to Santa Fe from Albequerque. It boasted a petting zoo. Now, I'm easy to please when it comes to petting zoos but one alpaca and two goats doesn't quite seem like a big enough population to warrant "zoo". Maybe they could have just said, "Come pet our pets and pay us to feed them".

The alpaca knew I was a friend. We had much in common and spent several minutes kissing and loving each other up.

Mark coined the term "naughty buttons" for the bottom row of elevator buttons to dissuade the kids from touching them. Here they are standing next to the forbidden fruit sporting their shades.

Museum of International Folk Art. Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe had a very cool farmers market. We munched on donuts, listened to teenagers singing for money, bought green chiles and sampled New Mexican jams, cheeses and bread. Mmmmmmm.

The Plaza, Santa Fe, NM

The first candy store. $30 later and I was sufficiently packed down with local chocolates.

They still make these.

Dog with sunglasses at the Plaza. It's never a bad idea to snap a picture when you see a dog sporting eye wear.

Green Chiles

Green Chile burgers ala Mark

The picture does not do justice to the amount of cherry juice covering Odelia.

Taos, NM

We let the kids choose a treat and they chose these sour suckers with sticky syrup topping. Super gross but they were entertained for 45 minutes. All in all it was a good purchase.