M'lady and I went to the Land of Enchantment this past week for 5 days. I recently picked up a new camera (Ricoh GR III) - a little picture heavy. Here's what we did:

Landed in Albuquerque Saturday morning, picked up the rental car and booked it north to Santa Fe for the first 2 nights.

First stop in SF was Tia Sophia's for lunch, old school New Mexican joint. We were seated right away, I got the Santa Fe plate - tamale, cheese enchilada, and a beef taco with green chili sauce. Most places will give you the option of having red, green or Christmas. I went with green to start, they also served sopapillas with the meal, which were excellent:

After lunch, we hopped across the street to Taos Ale House to catch the Tiger game - this place was not great, but had New Mexico brews on tap and had them put the Tigs on the tube:

After an uninspiring victory over Mizzou, we walked around the Plaza until we could check into the AirBNB. The Plaza has a bunch of restaurants and shops, very touristy but the weather was perfect and the people watching was on point:

We checked into the AirBNB, had a little siesta while watching the Astros, then walked to drinks then dinner. First stop was Santa Fe Spirits tasting room, then Radish & Rye for dinner. I made the mistake of not making reservations beforehand, and most places were booked solid. Radish & Rye was solid.

The next AM we walked over to Boultawn's Bagelry for breakfast, I had a green chili bacon grilled cheese on an everything bagel, the lady had a cinnamon roll. Both slapped:

From breakfast we walked over to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I liked the landscapes, the flowers had me feeling some kind of way:

After Georgia, we went and put our name down for a table at Cafe Pasqual's - it was a 2 hour wait at 11, so we went back and kept exploring the Plaza, looking at the art and all the little stores. Bunch of junk, some cool stuff:

We got the call from Pasqual's our table was ready, and got seated right away. Super small place, slammed with people. I got the barbacoa enchiladas with christmas sauce:

After Pasqual's, home for a siesta, then to Second Street Brewery at the rail yard to watch the Astros and dinner. Decent enough beers:

Monday woke up, had a leisurely morning and drove up the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to see the sights, aspens were changing colors and looking very good:

After the mountain, we hauled back to Albuquerque. First stop was at La Cumbre for some brews. After that, checked into the ABQ AirBNB & hit up Artichoke Cafe for dinner. No pics, but it was very solid.

Early to bed Monday for Hot Air Balloon Fiesta Tuesday morning. I highly recommend going to the fest on a weekday. We heard all these warnings and horror stories about how long it took people to park and how bad traffic was getting out. We got there right @ 5 AM, got a 2nd row parking spot and in the gates in 2 minutes. No lines for any of the swag or food, and foot traffic was sparse.

Not sure what I was expecting, but it was like a 5 am Houston Rodeo or a state fair with funnel cakes and coffee and donuts:

We got coffee and some souvenirs, and stumbled into the pilots briefing. Listened to this for a bit and saw some balloons firing up for Dawn Patrol - where just a few balloons go up to check weather conditions. You can get right up to the balloons as they're inflating and getting ready to go up - really neat:

After the Dawn Patrol balloons took off, we were on our way to get a breakfast burrito when another balloon was starting to inflate - this one was carrying the American flag for the National Anthem:

After the anthem, rows of balloons starting to inflate. One in the middle was full of old dirty balloons - these were huge and had big baskets for people to ride along with:

There was a row on the far south starting to take off, so walked down that direction:

There was a tiger balloon and an old lady taking a picture with a Clemson flag. I told her that was Mike the Tiger and that Clemson was the fake Death Valley. She got big mad, but he is kind of ugly like the crackhead Clemson tiger:

From there we kept walking down rows as they started to inflate and take off:

This racer had my favorite colors:

We watched them compete - dropping markers in a certain area in the field until the wind shifted and some balloonists were stranded, landing in parking lots all over:

After the fiesta, we hit up Bosque brewing for Astros, lunch, and brews. Beers we pretty good and food was decent, but enjoyed some of the other smaller outfits better:

After Bosque, we walked from the AirBNB to Gravity Bound - delicious brews here:

Then to Marble Brewing:

And some flowers on the way:

Wednesday had another leisure morning and went to the Sandia Peak to ride the tram to the top. Lines were long, but the views on the way and at the top were on point: