We just came back from a vacation to New Mexico. We wanted to go somewhere that we had never been to before and we discussed a couple three places before making a decision. We had talked about New Orleans (even though I had been there over 20 years ago), but at this time of year in Louisiana the heat and humidity is brutal. We talked about going to Charleston, SC. When we went to Savannah, GA a few years back, we had planned on going up to Charleston for a couple days. But we liked Savannah so much that we skipped Charleston. However, we vowed to get there some day. We were leaning toward heading to Charleston for this vacation.
For some reason one evening not long ago, I started looking into going to New Mexico. I had flown into Albuquerque a number of years ago on a Southwest Airlines flight, but I had never gotten off the plane as I was heading on to Dallas from Las Vegas. So, technically I had been to New Mexico before, but never experienced the state.
Picking New Mexico over Charleston turned out to be a good choice - Hurricane Idalia hit the Florida Gulf Coast and veered up across Georgia and into South Carolina passing directly over Charleston as a tropical storm before heading out into the Atlantic. We would have been in Charleston when Idalia hit had we decided to go there. And I'm sure everything would have been disrupted for a couple three days as the storm surge and heavy rainfall caused massive flooding throughout the city and power was out to areas in and around Charleston.
Using flight and hotel points I had saved up with both United and Hilton, we ended up deciding about a week before we were to start our vacation to go to New Mexico, flying in to and out of Albuquerque. I also got a pretty good rate on a rental car through National using my former company's corporate rate to get a 2023 Toyota Highlander to use for the week. After landing in Albuquerque, we first headed up to Sante Fe for a few days. From there, we took a couple road trips including a very scenic day trip up to Taos. In all we went on 3 scenic byways during our trip to New Mexico. I'll highlight those trips in the coming days and weeks.
Weather in New Mexico when we were there was unseasonably warm - temperatures were 10 to 20 degrees above average. But like the desert Southwest, humidity levels were low making the temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90's somewhat bearable. The months of July and August are usually the peak of the monsoon season in the Southwest, but most of the monsoon moisture over the past couple years has stayed to the west of New Mexico. Complaints from the locals about the lack of monsoon season for a couple years now were a vivid topic of conversation pretty much everywhere we went.
New Mexico is well-known in the arts community for their large number of art museums, galleries and studios which support local artists throughout the state. The number of places to see art during our travels across the state was almost overwhelming. And it was all kinds of art - contemporary, Spanish colonial, sculptures, and Native American culture artwork.
The most famous of the art museums and galleries may be the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. 20th century modernist artist Georgia O'Keeffe fell in love with New Mexico during visits there in the 1930's, finally buying a ranch in north central New Mexico as a vacation home/inspiration studio. O'Keeffe became a permanent resident of New Mexico in the late 40's after the death of her husband. O'Keeffe lived in New Mexico for nearly 40 years before she passed away in Santa Fe in 1986 at the age of 98. We spent about 90 minutes one day in the O'Keeffe museum looking at some of her famous works as well as some of her more obscure works. It was worth the price of admission.
And, of course, there was the food. "New" Mexican food is different from traditional Mexican food in that they use a lot of potatoes in many of their dishes. They also use pinto beans as a side rather than black or refried beans. (I determined that I really liked the pinto beans in their own gravy when I was in New Mexico.) And, of course, the sauces they use on most of their foods - especially the green chile sauce - helps enhance the overall taste of the food without overpowering the main dish. I love the green chile sauce and I have to admit that I was getting sort of burnt out on green chiles by the time we were getting ready to leave. However, my last meal in New Mexico featured an omelet slathered with the green chile sauce. We also experienced contemporary New Mexican cuisine in Sante Fe, as well as contemporary Italian food in Albuquerque. Breakfast is big in New Mexico and we had a number of New Mexican-style breakfasts to start many of our days. And I had just one burger the whole time we were in New Mexico. Of course, it was topped with pepper jack cheese and green chiles.
With all the food, I was certain that I had gained 8 to 10 pounds while we were in New Mexico. With the glaring exception of one meal, nearly every meal we had ranged from very good to great. When I had my bag weighed at the airport to fly home, it was 11 pounds heavier than when we flew out to New Mexico due to stuff we had picked up during our trip. I joked to the ticket agent, "I think I'm 11 pounds heavier after eating all this food." My wife and I made a pact on the plane flight between Albuquerque and Denver that we had to go on severe diets once we got home.
The morning after we got home, I was scared to get on the scale. I always weigh myself before I go on a trip - either business or pleasure - as I generally lose weight away from home. This time, however, I was convinced that I was at least 10 pounds heavier. I jumped up on the scales, afraid to see the damage the great food in New Mexico did to me. But in one of the biggest and most pleasant surprises that I have had in quite some time, I didn't gain a pound while we were on vacation. Our scale even goes down to ounces and I weighed the exact same weight - pound and ounce - that I did the morning we left to go to New Mexico. Even though I was happy with that, my wife and I decided to continue with our plan for our diet and I have to say that I've lost about 4 more pounds since we got back.
The scenery was spectacular across the New Mexico. The stark tones of the high desert contrasted with the bright blue skies to make nearly every sight magnificent. We joined dozens of people on a hillside overlooking Sante Fe for sunsets, we saw pop-up thunderstorms from off in the distance in the afternoons, we explored gorges from the top down and back up again. And we stopped at a number of churches and sanctuaries that dated back to the 17th century. It seemed like every small town we drove through had a small adobe-style church that stood majestically in the village. I'm not a spiritual person, but it was rather neat to see some of the old churches in our travels.
In the days and weeks to come, I'll share with you some of the sights we saw, some of the roads we drove, some of the foods we ate, and some of the cultural highlights from our trip to New Mexico. I'll even talk a little about the New Mexico license plates which are some of the most colorful and interesting in the United States. There weren't many disappointments during our visit to the Land of Enchantment. It was a great vacation getaway. We didn't have many - if any - regrets when we left.
Well, except that we never did see a roadrunner while we were there...
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