Day 33 & 34 -- Albuquerque to Flagstaff to Bakersfield

Sunday started with a trip to the local catholic church to attend mass with Brett and Jess.  Then we ended up "just muffin' around" as Brett likes to say.  That's actually the name of a local breakfast place in Albuquerque that's pretty good.

After that we hung around Brett and Jess' place talking for a bit.  Aurelia played with George and received some high quality hair gel.

Then she played with me...

Then we practiced being lazy together...we're on vacation!

And finally we said our goodbyes to Brett, Jess, and George.

The drive to Flagstaff was uneventful aside from the smokey haze we had the whole way due to the wildfires.  Aurelia ended the night by reading the paper.

The drive to Bakersfield began well enough--but an hour and a half go by and we come to a screeching halt.

Yep...we apparently missed a big motorcycle accident by about 5 minutes.  The closed the freeway for 2 hours (cars were backed up over that hill in the last picture by about the hour and a half point).  It wasn't all that bad though.  We just stretched our legs, read the paper, held Aurelia up towards the sky to get some pictures...

The rest of the drive to Bakersfield was a whole lotta this...

We arrived in Bakersfield just before 8 so we didn't have time to explore the area.  We hit the sack to prepare for our drive to Santa Cruz the next day.  Woo!

Days 31 & 32--Albuquerque Old Town and Sandia Peak

Brett, Phil, Aurelia, and I walked around Old Town and browsed through the shops, mostly art galleries and jewelry stores...meh.

Phil wanted to go see the Rio Grande, so we drove to a "beach" area that was a couple of ponds that had more ducks and geese than people.  It was near the Rio Grande but trees and a barb wire fence lined the river, so it was a no-go.  After that, Brett showed us where he works on satellites on Kirtland AFB, which was pretty cool.  We were looking at things that are going to be in space...no big deal...

Right when we got back to the house ice cream truck music tickled our ears, so we ran to the corner of the block like a bunch of kids and saw the van coming our way.  The treats hit the spot since it was like a gajillion degrees outside!

We waited for Jess to get home from work (the boys played XBox and the girls took a nap), then went to Gardunos for dinner.  It was pretty tasty New Mexican fare and good margaritas.  Phil and Brett talked alot.

 Saturday!!  We woke up, made some sandwiches, got our hiking gear together, and slathered on lots of sunscreen for our trek up Sandia Peak.

And finally--a picture of Brett and Jess!

 The La Luz trail to the top of Sandia is over 8 miles and covers nearly 1 mile of elevation.  We decided  not to do the entire trail, but hiked to the overlook spot about 5 miles from the trailhead (8,800 ft. elevation).  It was the most strenuous thing I've done since labor contractions...

 Aurelia was worn out.

 The view was nice, but smoke from wildfires in Arizona covered the land with a haze.

 Lunchtime!

 Group shot!

The hike took up most of the day.  Jess and Brett finished off a great day with a perfect dinner of grilled teriyaki chicken, an orzo dish, and mixed green salad.  Tired and happy...

Day 30--Santa Fe

Brett and Jess had to work so Beth, Aurelia, and I moseyed on over to Santa Fe for the day.  I don't think I'd ever been to Santa Fe before, though Brett recalls us going there when I lived in Albuquerque for a few months.  Either way, it was all new to me when I saw it.

Beautiful architecture and churches and history in the town; though a little too many jewelry and clothing stores and nearly all the art was pretty expensive.  Here's some pictures of a beautiful church of St. Francis we walked through. I especially liked the church's doors (last picture below).

There was also some interesting mexican door art we saw a lot of...

Then we had a delicious lunch at the blue corn cafe.  Here is Beth and Aurelia making a tough choice...

Then we walked by the oldest church in the U.S.  It's not protestant! I think we should call for a congressional inquiry!

They were redoing the facade with handmade bricks, it was pretty neat so see how they were made, though Aurelia found it uninteresting.

While walking back to our car we stopped into an art store and ran into this cute fella....Aurelia had to say "hi".

Then we headed back to Brett & Jess's place to eat at Five Guys (decent burger) and then played Settlers for the rest of the night.  I won the first game, but then Brett figured out the strategy and beat us the second game.  Aurelia just watched TV.

Day 29--Amarillo to Albuquerque

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS MANY PICTURES OF AURELIA.  DO NOT CONTINUE TO SCROLL DOWN IF YOU HAVE A SERIOUS HEART CONDITION OR CRAZY-GRANDPARENT SYNDROME.

Our stay at the Baymont in was pleasant and comfortable.  We had our free, hot breakfast down in the lobby before donning our swimming suits and heading to the outdoor pool.  The water felt chilly at first, so it took us a while to dive in.  Aurelia didn't seem to mind it, though.

Here is a shot of her butt, which I think is so adorable when she's in her swimsuit and it clings to her little cheeks.

She enjoys the pool, but hasn't really learned how to splash the water around yet; so we just kind of wave her around in the water.

 Baby sunbathing.

 New Mexico sky!

We got into Albuquerque around 3:30.  First we went to a dead mall that only had a Dillard's open, so we drove across the street to the thriving mall and walked around for a while.  Phil and I got some Rocky Mountain chocolate, and Phil got a sugar rush then crashed.  Aurelia wiggled around and we read at a Starbucks before getting to Brett and Jess' place.  The people in the pictures below are not Brett and Jess.  You'll see them later.  They are friends of Brett, Jess, and Phil.  Josh and Brea have an 8-month old son Mason, and all three came over for dinner.

Mason wasn't fawning over Aurelia, so we thought he was pretty cool.  Oh yeah, Mason walks around by himself.  Did I mention that he is 8-months old?  Aurelia loved watching him and Brett and Jess' bulldog George.

Day 28--Tulsa to Amarillo

4 Weeks of road trip--it's been awesome.  We hung out in the hotel (Holiday Inn we got from hotwire for $50!) in the morning.  Here's a view out the window of happenin' downtown Tulsa:

Here's Aurelia playing on the bed with all her toys.

Then we headed out.  First stop was Oklahoma City.  We stopped at a mall to stretch our legs for a bit which was nice.  Beth got a massage and I walked around with Aurelia for a bit.  Then we hit the road to Amarillo!

We arrived in Amarillo about 5:30, fired up yelp and found a well reviewed steakhouse called Hoffbrau Steaks.  We ordered some fried jalapeños and they were awesome.

 That's us looking seriously at our dish.  We both had some super good steaks too.  Beth had a peppered smoked steak, which was awesome, and I had a ribeye which was also awesome.

We waddled back to our car and went back to our room.  Aurelia was in a funny mood, Beth walked to the bathroom while I was holding her and she'd start whining, then Beth would run and jump back onto the bed and Aurelia would squeal in delight.  Super cute :-)