Hot Air Ballooning with Rainbow Ryders

We are back from a short staycation at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa in Santa Ana Pueblo. Since we were not able to properly celebrate our anniversary or Raisin Bread's birthday, we combined those two occasions along with my birthday and took a nice weekend away.

One of our activities for the weekend was to take a hot air balloon flight. When we visited Albuquerque for the first time in 2013, we booked a balloon flight, but it was canceled the morning of the flight due to bad weather. We had much better luck with the weather this time.

We checked into the Rainbow Ryders office at 5:30 AM on Saturday and got split into our flight groups. There were twelve people on our flight, plus Taylor, our pilot.

A short time later, we hopped into a passenger van and drove to our launch site. In addition to our pilot, our two member chase crew also joined us in the van.

Once we reached the launch site, the crew started setting up the balloon for our flight.





They gave passengers the opportunity to assist with blowing up the balloon as well, but we both stood back and watched.

Before too long, we hopped into the basket and were up in the air! Everything about the flight was so peaceful. I was expecting to be a little bit nervous but the flight was so smooth. All we needed to do was take in the views and the sunrise.

Taylor gave us a great experience. He took us about 8 feet above the Rio Grande River. I thought we might be able to reach down and touch the water. It seemed so close!

Then he took us up to 5,000 feet above ground level.

We, for sure, had the best pilot. He took us the highest up and the farthest out of any of the balloons up in the sky at that time. We had beautiful views of the river, the mountains and the city of Albuquerque.

At the end of the flight, we took the brace position and landed smoothly in a bank parking lot, where our chase crew was waiting for us. 

They packed up the balloon and then we headed to a park to enjoy our morning refreshments. 

I had a delicious mimosa to celebrate our successful flight. We wound up talking to some of our flight mates as well! Everyone was in a good mood after our fun morning adventure!

If taking a hot air balloon flight is on your bucket list, Albuquerque is a great place to check it off. Rainbow Ryders has sunrise flights during the summer and sunrise and sunset flights during the winter. If you choose Rainbow Ryders, be sure to get Taylor as your pilot. He was great and is very experienced!

Our sunrise flight was $159 per person and included our flight, post-flight toast and refreshments and a flight certificate. Flights during the International Balloon Fiesta are much more expensive though, so be sure to check their website for the most recent information.

Adventures in Santa Fe + the Tinkertown Museum

While my mom was in town last week, we took a little overnight trip to Santa Fe. All of my previous trips to Santa Fe have been day trips, so it was nice to go at a bit of a slower pace.

We left Albuquerque after lunch and made the one hour drive to Santa Fe. Our first stop was the very beautiful but very expensive Nedra Matteucci Galleries. 

The gallery is housed in a huge historic adobe with a beautiful sculpture garden in the back. The garden was so peaceful.

The galleries and sculpture garden of Nedra Matteucci turned out to be my mom's favorite part of our trip to Santa Fe!

After seeing some art, we took a break at Kakawa Chocolate House. They specialize in drinking chocolate "elixirs" and had eight on the menu this afternoon. I had the chili chocolate elixir which was made of unsweetened chocolate, agave nectar, ancho chili and Mexican vanilla. It was super rich and creamy, and the small size was just the right amount.

Kakawa also sells house-made truffles, caramels and other chocolates. We had to purchase a few pieces to enjoy later.

We spent part of the afternoon at Prairie Dog Glass, learning to work with fire and glass. This is something I have always wanted to do, and I was so happy to learn how to do it with my mom. The session takes place over one hour and you can make as many pieces during that time as you can finish.

The class is very hands-on and it sure gets warm in there! The instructor was so patient, gave great directions and kept a close eye on what we were doing.

 My first piece was also my hardest. I made a bowl and afterwards my mom made a paperweight.

We still had about 20 minutes left on the clock, so I made a few flowers. It was hard to tell what our pieces would look like because they were still hot, and we couldn't take them home with us until the next day. I was so curious to see how they turned out!

We checked into the Hotel Santa Fe and had some time to rest. But I decided, instead, to hit the treadmill for a 2.5 mile run before getting washed up for dinner.

 

We visited Mu Du Noodles that evening. I ordered a Thai iced tea, and we shared the Singapore and Pad Thai noodles. Our server surprised us with a complimentary appetizer of green beans. The green beans and pad thai were both yummy, but the Singapore noodles were super salty. 

Mu Du Noodles would not make it on my recommended list. Too pricey for what you get. 

The next morning, we enjoyed a lovely breakfast at our hotel before going to explore the Plaza. 

The first attraction on our list was Loretto Chapel.

The chapel is known for its "miraculous" staircase. The staircase has no visible supports and was built using only wooden pegs. Also, the identity of the builder was never discovered. I must admit that it is a lovely chapel!

We made our way around some of the Plaza and visited the native jewelry makers, galleries and souvenir shops.

After exploring the Plaza and grabbing some lunch, we headed back to Prairie Dog Glass to pick up our finished glass pieces. These are my works of art: a bowl and three flowers. I couldn't take a photo of my mom's piece because they wrapped it up really nicely for her flight home. But I can tell you that it also turned out very nicely!

We hit the road after that to get back to Albuquerque. 

On my mom's last full day in town, we, along with Raisin Bread and the two pups, visited the Tinkertown Museum in Sandia Park.

Tinkertown began as the hobby of Ross Ward, who carved, collected and painted his miniature town over many years. He was a born tinkerer.



Although Ross Ward has now passed, his wonderful collection is open for the public's enjoyment. There was so much to see that it was hard to notice every little detail that was lovingly created.

I hope my mom enjoyed her first visit to New Mexico and will see us again soon!

Thanksgiving 2013 + Savannah and Charleston Road Trip Part 1

I can't believe it's December. Since Thanksgiving happened so late this year, we only have 22 days left until Christmas! That reminds me, I need to put up the Christmas tree. 

Raisin Bread and I had a couples' Thanksgiving this year. We decided to take a mini-vacation to Savannah and Charleston. Since we were going out of town for the weekend, I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before actual Thanksgiving so that we could enjoy all of the lovely food that we only get to have once a year.

We had a decent spread. I roasted a half turkey breast with herb butter and made stuffing, corn bread muffins, roasted whole sweet potatoes and green bean casserole with bread crumbs instead of fried onions. We also had cranberry sauce and gravy for good measure. For dessert, we had a store-bought pecan pie.  So delicious! 

On Wednesday, we started our drive south. Our plan was to make it half way to Savannah and spend the night in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Getting out of DC took forever! It took us almost four hours to get to Richmond! By that time, we needed to stop for dinner.

Soggy weather on our drive

We had dinner at The Black Sheep in Richmond. Raisin Bread ordered the fish of the day, which was tilefish, and I had shrimp tacos. We both really enjoyed our food. My tacos weren't heavy at all but very filling. I loved the seasoning on them too.

We finally reached our destination about three and a half hours later than we planned. That's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for you! It was a really frustrating drive. All we wanted to do, of course, was wash up and sleep. 

The next morning we had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading out on the remainder of the drive to Savannah. 

For lunch, we stopped at Clark's Inn and Restaurant in Santee, South Carolina. We were extremely excited to find something open on Thanksgiving Day that wasn't a fast food chain. 

The hotel was all decked out for the holidays and it added to the already beautiful ambiance. The restaurant was serving some specials in addition to its regular menu. Raisin Bread ordered the pork with blueberry sauce plus sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. I had Thanksgiving meal #2: turkey with cornbread dressing, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and cole slaw. So much food. We also had dessert but they were both pretty awful. 

A few hours later, we reached Savannah...on schedule, I might add! Our first stop was Bonaventure Cemetery. The first thing I noticed about Savannah was all of the beautiful, haunting Spanish moss. I find that it gives a place such a sense of mystery and calm. 

We drove into the cemetery and walked around to visit the different sections on the grounds. The weather was gorgeous and made for a peaceful walk.

We also sought out three of the most famous grave sites in Bonaventure. We saw Gracie. 

Conrad Aiken and the famous bench next to his grave. After I took this photo, we saw two ladies take over the bench with their glasses of martinis! Just like in "The Book."

Lastly, we saw Johnny Mercer's resting place. This is a photo of the engraved bench next to his grave site with the names of his most famous songs carved into the sides of the bench. 

On the edge of the cemetery is this river. The cemetery was pretty empty. We only saw about ten other people wandering around while we were there. I guess visiting cemeteries isn't high on people's list of things to do on Thanksgiving Day.

Our first taste of Savannah was very pleasant and I couldn't wait to see what else it had in store for us! Stay tuned for more of our road trip!

The Black Sheep

901 West Marshall Street

Richmond, VA 23220

Clark's Inn and Restaurant
114 Bradford Boulevard
Santee, SC 29142