2022 travel - New Mexico

So for my 40th birthday my Mom had the idea of doing a trip together, just the two of us, and so in 2022, almost exactly 10 years later we actually do it. We're going to the Santa Fe area of New Mexico, it's one of her favorite places and a new state for me (only states left after this are North Dakota and Oklahoma, neither particularly high on my travel destinations list).

Pictures which I know I shared at the time, but now with context, are at:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNhoGBEsj8Ci3ivqacGseWZQRfnQpuRDjs9C6OmYnq9kI3E00pZprjkXs_87QmrNg

Day 1 - Flying in to Albuquerque and driving to Santa Fe, first of many tasty New Mexican meals on the way. Otherwise just finding our rental, which is in a hilly suburban area just north of town,
doing a grocery run and getting ourselves settled. Of note, the grocery store tortilla section is extensive!

Day 2 - The morning is spent in Santa Fe itself sightseeing and a little shopping downtown. Includes seeing the oldest house and oldest church in the U.S., their cathedral (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Basilica_of_St._Francis_of_Assisi_(Santa_Fe)), and nearby Loretto Chapel and it's funky staircase (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel) and the Georgia O'Keefe museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe_Museum) which I definitely recommend.
Lunch is Venezuelan and tasty. For the afternoon we head east to Pecos National Historic Park (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecos_National_Historical_Park) which preserves the ruins of a large Pueblo which is very cool and a nice trail that goes through it. Weather was absolutely perfect and had some stunning landscape views. Also nearby a quick stop at a civil war battlefield, you don't usually think of the civil war happening out here, but there it was. Dinner at https://www.pantrysantafe.com/.

Day 3 - Today is Bandelier National Monument (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandelier_National_Monument) where a series of cliff dwellings are preserved along with some pretty extensive petroglyphs. This place was amazing, you can even go inside some of the dwellings, took lots of pictures. After lunch in Los Alamos (we did not up really doing any Los Alamos stuff, timing didn't work out, this was the best day for Bandelier, but most of the Los Alamos stuff was closed because it was Sunday) we went for a drive west through the Jemez mountains and current Tribal lands (Jemez and Zia Pueblos) and the scenery was stunning. We close out the day back in Santa Fe with tapas for dinner.

Day 4 - We're greeted by a light snow in the morning and today we have tickets for Meow Wolf (https://meowwolf.com/)! I don't really have words for how amazing Meow Wolf is, the hype is real. I have not been to any of the other locations so do not know how it compares, but I could've spent days in there, every room is a feast for the senses. We do come out eventually and then spend the afternoon browsing Santa Fe's art galleries along Canyon road. I'm not sure I've ever been to a city that was quite so into art as Santa Fe is - there is so much and most of it really good. I'm guessing crappy galleries just don't survive here.

Day 5 - Our final day, we take the "Turquoise Trail" which is a back roads route parallel to the highway that goes through a series of little old mining towns and we do lunch in one of them. Back in Albuquerque just time enough to do a little driving tour of the old town and take in an overlook of the Rio Grande, some pizza for our final meal, and then to a hotel before our flights home in the morning.

All in all a pretty great trip and very nice to get to spend so much time with my Mom.