Forget the Weights that Hold Me Down

I think over the past four days I may have gotten 15 hours of sleep. But it was worth it! Lanie and Will invited me and Jenny to come visit Albuquerque and experience the Balloon Fiesta. It turned into a whirlwind adventure that was full of bold southwestern flavors and tons of bright colors. I arrived with a list of must-try restaurants from the Johnsons, and we did our best to conquer them all. With Hatch Chiles abounding this time of year, everything had an extra kick to it. From coffee to taco salads, to enchiladas, it was all delightful. Our definite favorite was The Range - we liked it so much we brought the boys back for a second round later that weekend!

Saturday we got on the Balloon Fiesta shuttle at 4:30am. Ugh. We fought our way through the dark out onto the launch field, leaning on some fresh mini-doughnuts and hot coffee to keep us awake. Around a quarter to 6 the Dawn Patrol began to prepare for launch. Watching the balloons slowly rise and take on the horizon was absolutely stunning. We stood on the field and watched hot air balloons from all around the world inflate and lift-off for over five hours - 555 balloons in total. My photos do not capture the majesty and grace that these giants encompass. The designs are all creative, while some are more beautiful and thought-provoking and others are witty and amusing. Then there's the Darth Vader balloon...with a crew of Storm Troopers.

After extracting ourselves from the masses of spectators, Jenny, Dan and I went up to the top of Sandia Peak to check out the views. Our goal was to be up there to watch the sun

set and see the Night Glow. It turned out that there were plenty of other tourists who had the same thought - the wait for the gondola was 2 hours! We decided to take the scenic route and drove the 45 minutes up the mountain. We ended up on a very different trail head than the gondola, which we practically had to ourselves. The views were astonishing, and the Aspen trees were gloriously gold. We hiked around a bit, and watched the sunset, but realized that we were too far away from the launch field to see any of the balloons glowing. It was still an amazing day.

Sunday included a hike through Slot Canyon in Tent Rocks National Monument. Again, we had perfect fall weather, not too many other hikers around, and lots of photo opportunities. All four of us were all a bit slap-happy at this point due mainly to a lack of sleep(and partially to some white cheddar Cheetos), and we had a fantastic time. This is definitely an weekend I will repeat at some point in my life!