The day after we came back from Loon Lake, I flew out to Albuquerque for work. I had to attend a training and take notes on Tuesday and then flew back early Wednesday morning (in time to celebrate our anniversary- more on that in the next post!)
When I travel for work I like to try and see some of the local attractions and (of course!) eat some of the local food, even if I'm traveling by myself. So after the training ended I drove to the
Petroglyph National Monument, which is actually a large park of rocks with a few trails. A petroglyph is an ancient drawing done on rock by Native Americans who lived in the area. I was interested to see these as I have now worked with a number of tribes and have developed an interest in Native American culture and heritage.
I arrived about 1/2 hour before the park closed so I hoofed it up the trail in my sandals (many signs advising close toed shoes- oh well!). I walked fast as there were also signs advising me that they close the gates
promptly at 5pm and if I was still there I would be locked in AND ticketed. After a little ways I found a few petroglyphs and took some pictures. But I wanted more. I needed to see some different drawings. So I kept walking. As I walked past a large stone I heard a rattling sound.
I know. Freaked me out. I gave the sound a very large berth, found some more desirable drawings to photograph and started back. When back by the rattling sound again and all I could think of was episodes of CSI where they say the poor person they found in the desert was just "out for a hike". Dramatic I know, but its the truth!
The scenery was beautiful but HOT. I mean, I sweat when I exercise but I generally don't have beads of sweat trickling down my neck when I'm simply walking around. Well the trickling was occuring. Sorry if that's TMI. After my harrowing experience was near death, I decided I needed a cupcake. So I found a gourmet cupcake bakery (ok so I looked it up before hand but my scary experience justified the trip- my heart was racing- thats burning more calories right?!) and scored this amazing chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake. It had chunks of cookie dough baked right into the batter. I'm drooling thinking about it right now.
And that was basically my experience in Albuquerque in a nutshell. That and I hate that they refer to their airport as a "sunport" and decorate it with really tacky southwestern furniture. It really annoys me. And I'm not sure why I have such strong feelings about it. But seriously?! It's an airport people.
