Moving westward...

4/28/2014

New Mexico

Since I can't stand still for too long, I couldn't stay in only one state for my entire trip. Plus there was the actual reason for my trip - the conference in Albuquerque. So after one week of Arizona heat, my Canadian family offered me a ride to Albuquerque and we managed to squeeze in one more day together where we explored Santa Fe, before I had to drive back to the city and my family made their way north.

But before we could cross the state line, we had to drive through the desert. Remember the term no-man's-land? Yeah, I have a visual now...

The beautiful desert

For at least four hours straight, all we saw was highway, desert country and a couple of lonely houses or rest stops sprinkled along the road. For a girl from a small town in southern Germany, this roadtrip alone was quite an experience :)

Santa Fe is absolutely precious! It's on the *1,000 Places to see before you die* List and I have to admit, I know why :) The city center is full of traditional adobe buildings and galeries - we thoroughly enjoyed our short stay there! We even checked out the churches (and I was impressed, although I'm not big on churches...) If you're ever in New Mexico, make sure to visit this little gem!

In the heart of Santa Fe

For reasons unknown to me, I actually left my camera in the camper, so this is the only picture I took in Santa Fe -.- Shame on me! I took the Roadrunner down to Albuquerque *yay railroads* so my family could head north. It's really inexpensive and probably the fastest way to travel between the two cities. They even recommended it for a day trip to Santa Fe at the conference in ABQ. For all of you who are hoping to get some *Breaking Bad* related ABQ pictures - sorry, still haven't started watching that show :) I just went straight to the hotel and registered for my conference, got my name badge and got ready for the banquet. The hotel was nice enough to offer tortillas in our national colors ;)

A little bit of home?

I have to admit, I didn't really explore the city... We did manage to squeeze in dinner at one of the many diners along Route 66, and I have to admit I rather liked the place. Sports on TV, books along the wall and a pool table :) What more do I need? Oh yeah, right, the ribs were pretty good too ;)

Library Bar and Grill :) The name says it all!

The one thing that I will forever remember was my short but sweet stay at the E.R. Yep, that's short for emergence room -.- Let's just say it wasn't exactly the kind of thing I envisioned myself doing on my last night in ABQ... But, oh well, just another experience I can check off my list now. And I have to admit, the E.R. personell was surprisingly nice :)

4/19/2014

Enchanted Sedona

While staying in Phoenix, my Canadian Family and me went to Sedona for a day to check out the Red Rock formations and take tons of pictures (ok, and to check out every single jewelry story down main street...) Sedona is absolutely breathtaking!

Panoramashot - check!

I could probably upload about a hundret pictures here, just to show you all the amazing rock formations we found around the little town. Apparently, it's also know for its Energy field, or something other supernatural, so there are all these psychics and tarot people and funky little shops in town called "the vortex" or "crystals" or whatnot... plus, Sedona had a great art scene, so if you're interested in any of that, make sure you check it out if you're ever in Arizona! As I said, we preferred jewelry stores and souvenir shops :)

Red Rock Surfing

My family has visited this little town many times before, so they took me to some of the best lookouts and altough it was a little overcast that day, I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. They also took me to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a very old church built into the side of the rock, like it belongs there (that's where the panorama shot was taken. Sorry for the accidental headshot of the tourist there...) I think I could have taken a couple of hundret more photographs that day...