"The Land of Entrapment"

Getting to New Mexico has been a long awaited goal for this road trip. What's better than relaxing and having fun with friends and family that you don't get to see very often?! 

Albuquerque

Our first stop after leaving Bryce canyon was Julie and Alex’s house. We drove 9 hours south from Bryce Canyon national park to Albuquerque. It was so cool coming up to the top of this big hill on rt 66 after hours of nothing but pitch black scenery to see this vast expanse of lights and activity of the city on the other side of the mountain. We spent the weekend hanging out, swimming, going out to eat, and exploring the city. We took a nice scenic drive up to Sandia Peak one evening and had dinner overlooking the city while the sun set in the distance. The view of the city at night is amazing. After spending a few days there we headed further south to Liam’s house!

Las Cruces

“The Land of Entrapment” as Celine’s Uncle Tony would say. (because it is so nice here, you will never leave) We have been staying with Liam at their families KOA. The campground is located on a mesa allowing us to have an amazing view of Las Cruces. 

The first night we got there there just so happened to be a full moon. During a full moon White Sands National Monument is open later than usual so we headed over to check it out. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. The dunes aren’t actually made of sand, they are pure gypsum deposits left over from when the whole valley was an ocean. The full moon reflecting off the white dunes made for a very cool experience. 

 We spent a lot of time at Lauren and Chad's house hanging out. We finally got to meet the infamous pups Duke and Izzy. They were so funny to watch run around.

It was great to get an inside look at how the Picacho Coffee Roasters work their magic in the roastery. We even

helped out one day bagging coffee!

We took a hike up into the Aguire Springs on the backside of the Organ Mountains. The mountains are formed in such a way that incoming air masses get funneled into the "bowl" on the backside of the mountains creating a unique micro climate causing a drastic contrast to the surrounding dessert scenery.  

With Chloe being the great little violist that she is we went to see her teacher perform in a symphony that just so happened to be featuring a 13 year old Cello prodigy, Sujari Britt. The show was great. We also got to go watch the soccer star Coltrane play his youth soccer game that Saturday! Those kids were a blast to hang out with all week. They both have such kind, outgoing personalities that always have the whole room laughing. 

Celine's uncle Tony has this incredibly fun hobby of building and flying remote controlled quad-copters which we got to witness and take part in one night before dinner. He makes it look so easy. However, for a first timer, it's no walk in the park. It took me a few light crash landings to get the hang of the ultra sensitivity of the controller before I could get a semi decent hover around the back yard. All in all, it was super fun and has sparked an interest of building my own one day soon!

It was nice to feel at home thousands of miles from Massachusetts. Although we wish we could have stayed longer, we had to continue on to Texas. We will be meeting my mom in Houston since she is flying in for work around the time we will be there. Can't wait!!