Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and Santa Fe, New Mexico

I've never been in a hot air ballon and I honestly don't know if I'll ever get the guts to go up in one. But when I heard that the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was the most photographed annual event in the United States, I decided that it was something I couldn't miss!! My friends and I planned a long girls weekend to Albuquerque and Santa Fe to coincide with the Fiesta and we ended up having a great time!

My friends indulged me with a very early start to see the 'Mass Acension' at dawn on October 1, the first day of the Fiesta. One piece of advice for anyone who plans to do the park-n-ride is to go VERY early (people in the front of the line had to have been there by 5:00am because we got there at 6:30 and there were hundreds in line ahead of us...) We ended up getting turned away because the buses were stopping at a certain hour. And after seeing the lines of people waiting to get home from the event on the park-n-ride buses, I would tell anyone to just drive themselves. That's what we ended up doing and there was little traffic.


Once at the Fiesta, however, we found that the headache was well worth it. Hundreds of hot air balloons were in various stages of lifting off- from unpacking the balloon, to blowing up the balloon (it was all just air- no gas) and to lifting off. The public is welcome to mingle on the field with the balloon teams, ask questions, take photos, help set up, etc. I took over 350 photos in the 3 hours we were there. Here's just a sample...






After we were fiesta'd out, we hopped in the rental and started our drive up to Santa Fe, NM via the 'Turquoise Trail'. You can access this scenic by-way by driving I-40 East out of Albuquerque to Route 14 North. The trail cuts a rural path through the countryside, passing several tourist attractions, scenic stops and quirky small towns. One town we stopped in was Madrid, a mining town built in the 1800s. When the use of coal died down, the town died. But in the 1970s, it became a popular artist community. We parked our car on the side of the road and made our way to the various art galleries and craft shops. I would definitely recommend a stop here for lunch, although we continued on to Santa Fe for an early dinner.







Some highlights in Santa Fe include:

• The Palace of Governors- Local Indians line up here in the mornings to sell their handicrafts- you'll have trouble choosing which piece of jewelry to buy! The museum inside is one of the best history museums I've been to- it told a very interesting story of New Mexico, Santa Fe and the building itself, which has changed over time.


• Eating!!! Man, we ate a lot! Some of the restaurants we hit were: Cafe Pasqual's (pricey breakfast fare, but it was ok), Coyote Cafe (had a very good dinner on the rooftop cantina- and the watermelon mojito was good, too!), El Farol (great tapas restaurant with yummy sangria and has a bar attached that features live music nightly), The Shed (great tacos but get there early if you plan on lunch or you'll be stuck with an hour wait), and Il Piatto (good Italian). Wow- it's making me hungry again thinking of these places!!


• Georgia O'Keefe Museum- located downtown, it's an easy place to visit. The $12 entry is pricey for the size of the collection, but if you're a fan, I would recommend it as it featured pieces I never knew she'd done.


• The Plaza is great for people-watching!


• Shopping. You can find everything from designer clothes to kitchy tourist items, but one thing Santa Fe does not skimp on is shopping!

We never made it over to Canyon Road to visit the art galleries but we did do a scenic side trip up Bishops Lodge Road into the mountains (we climbed over 2,000 feet). I would tell anyone that Santa Fe is worth a good long weekend- especially around Balloon Fiesta time!!! If you'd like to see more of my balloon photos, click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=redhd2872&target=ALBUM&id=5525106115771947793&authkey=Gv1sRgCKGBnfq5z4e0FA&feat=email