Thursday 18 May; Turquoise Trail, Albuquerque

We wanted to go for a hike and we wanted to go to the top of the tram, but we didn't want to do the 8 miles from the bottom to the top.  So, we decided to follow the Turquoise Trail and drive up to the look out and then hike the 1.5 miles to the tram and then back.  Not strenuous.  

The drive was pretty, but the higher we got the colder it got.  My car has a temperature gauge on the dashboard.  The funny thing, that I didn't discover until now, is that when the temp gets near the freezing range a snowflake appears on my gauge.  I thought that was pretty funny.

Not only was it freezing up there, it was windy as well.  We knew it was going to be cooler up there and meant to bring a sweater for Bella, but I forgot to grab it.  There was still snow on the ground.  

The view was amazing tho.  It overlooked the whole city of Albuquerque and the surrounding mountains.  

We had to put Bella inside our jackets.  We only stayed outside for a few min. and then went inside for some hot chocolate and to view the surroundings from inside the lodge.  

Needless to say, the planned hike was nixed.
Instead we continued to drive the Turquoise Trail.  It took us into the little town of Madrid where we discovered there was going to be a Blues Festival over the weekend.  Hmm, I may have to come back for that!
We continued the Trail which took us so close to Sante Fe that we decided to go on in.  R0b had not been there this trip so it was an opportunity to explore again.

We had lunch at the Blue Corn cafe and then stopped in at the Visitor Center.  They had a little pamphlet called the Margarita Trail....Hmmmmm?  What is this I ask.  It is a booklet featuring 31 restaurants who have specialty margaritas designed just for the trail.  You visit the place buy their margarita, and get your book stamped.  You can only get  2 stamps per day.  Once you get 5 stamps you get a T-shirt, at 15 you get a recipe book, and if you get all 31 you get a complete bartenders kit..  What the heck!
In the mean time, we went into St Francis Cathedral and walked around a bit.  We took turns going inside (not taking Boo inside)  

We walked the Labyrinth. 

From there we walked through town taking in the sites. 

Our goal was a Interpretive trail up to the ruins of a fort from way back when. It was fun.  There were signs along the way describing the history.

The view was nice as well.

After that we stopped in at two of the restaurants on the list and had a margarita and got my book stamped.  One of them was at a place called the Bell Tower.  It is up on a patio an we sat around a fire pit.  They also have Indian Blankets you can wrap up in and we did.  I wrapped Bella in one, I had one around my shoulders and Rob had one as well.  My margarita was a little cucumber-ish.  It was still pretty good. The restaurant was owned by LaFonda.  They area resort and actually own 4 restaurants in Santa Fe.  Next we went to another of theirs and had another margarita, not so great but OK and had some yummy appetizers which were enough for dinner.  It was a fun day.
After that we went home and went to bed.