Three day weekend

Today marks the end of the first three day weekend of the school year.  Cas and I are sitting at the Albuquerque airport, waiting for the people who currently occupy the airplane we can see out the window to get off the plane so it can be cleaned and re-seated.  

It’s time to go back to work- time to go back to our lives and time for me to go be fifty for a year.  

We started the day at a hotel, made our way to a great university-adjacent restaurant called Frontier and each ordered a massive burrito.  Our trolley tour guide from Saturday recommended that restaurant in the strongest of terms, but warned that there is often a line to get in.  We saw a line as we were leaving, in fact, but we were there pretty early, so there was not much time between entering the restaurant and the massive burrito.  

We had so few delays in our day that we had a little time to kill, so we went to a local coffee shop.  The coffee shop and the restaurant were both actually on a pretty famous thoroughfare, so this morning, we got our kicks on Route 66.  Heck, when in Albuquerque, right?  

But it’s nearly time to fasten my seatbelt and put my tray table and seat in the correct position.  Back to work, folks.  See you on here next time we head out of town.  For now, here is one more link to our photo album.

Up, up and away!

Think about your morning routine, then think about what would have to happen for you and another person to be awake, clean and dressed in time to get out the door of a hotel room by 5:45 am.  Now, prepare to be impressed- we hit the mark, but we hit it early by about ten minutes.  

Rainbow Ryders is the name of the company Cas selected for my birthday balloon ride, and they expected us to arrive before six.  It all makes sense, too, because we were there to see the sun rise from the basket of a hot air balloon.   

We got there, and we were assigned a pilot.  They have color-coded tickets, based on who is flying you around Albuquerque.  We had green tickets, so that meant that we’d be spending the morning with Alfred.  

Spoiler alert: Alfred is clearly the best pilot.  He has been doing this for over two decades, and he knows exactly how to maneuver a balloon to travel exactly where he wants to go and land precisely where he wants it to land.  The dude had us floating just above treetops when he wanted us to be low, but he had us way up high when that was called for.  He’s very good  And he was our pilot on the best and most unique birthday balloon I have ever had anything to do with.  

We met about a block from our hotel, checked in, signed a waiver and hopped into a van.  They took us to a shopping mall parking lot, which is one of their alternative locations when the Balloon Fiesta Park is closed- more on that later.  Cas commented that the balloon launch was the most positive experience he’d ever had at a  mall.  Me, too, honestly.  Man, we’re both bad at shopping.  

We floated above the world.  At times, it was perfectly silent except for a dog barking in some distant neighborhood.  At other moments, we heard nothing but the rush of the giant column of flame that kept us aloft.  It was very, very cool.  

We floated around, rising and falling for about an hour, until we were ready to land in Mariposa Park.  I love the word Mariposa.  It’s Spanish for Butterfly.  Mariposa is such a prettier way to say it than Butterfly.  

Regardless, we landed smoothly at Mariposa park, and in proper hot-air-balloon tradition, we had champagne to celebrate a successful flight.  The Rainbow Ryders staff brought a cooler with all the stuff to make mimosas, and Cas was on board with a mimosa when we got off board from the balloon to have a toast.  

This was, far and away, the coolest, most unique and very best birthday present I have ever received.  Second best, of course, was the red bicycle when I was five.  I mean, it had a white woven basket, and Dad painted it red himself.  But seriously, did it fly?  

After the balloon trip across the skies of Albuquerque, we managed to make it back to the hotel in time for the last bites of breakfast.  We did all of this majestic floating before nine.  We made a plate of food each, walked back to the room and ate a few bites before our pre-afternoon-nap.  And a necessary nap it was- it was about an hour and a half from our heads hitting the pillows to the moment when we were back up and spreading on sunscreen.  

Stop number two today was the Albuquerque Harvest Wine Festival.  That was held at a place called Balloon Fiesta Park.  Obviously, that’s why we couldn’t launch a balloon from there. Okay, I get it.  

The festival was nice, of course, but we made the tactical error of walking there.  In my estimation, there are two kinds of walks you can take.  One is a leisure walk, and the other is a transportation walk  Our journey was a 25 minute walk that, aspirationally, we had wanted to be a leisure walk.  It was such a transportation walk.  All  business.  No scenery, no joy.  Are we there yet?  

About a third of the way in, we discussed the option of taking an Uber back to the hotel.  We arrived back in our hotel in a red Tesla driven by a nice man named Joel.  

Now, it’s time to relax.  We had a box in the hotel room fridge from last night’s dinner and some wine for which my identification was checked just yesterday.  We are in for the night.  Good thing, too.  We can’t pack too much more into this weekend.  It’s time to wind down and head back home tomorrow.  Apparently, we are just starting the school year.  Who can remember these things?  But until then, enjoy this image of us, being silly this morning: 

While we’re talking about it, here, finally, is our photo album!

Enjoy!  

Ten thousand three hundred foot birthday dinner

There’s a restaurant on Sandia Peak called Ten three.  It’s 10,300 feet above sea level.  This year, I have had a more acute awareness of the number of feet I am above sea level.  The folks who usher you up and down the mountain tell you to be aware of the altitude and drink lots of water.  Altitude?  I could tell Cas was thinking the same thing as I was.  Altitude?  That’s cute.  Let me tell you about Cusco.  

We would never actually say that, but it was rolling around in our brains as we waited in line to board the tramway up the mountain.  And boy, did we ever wait.  You see, there was a little, teeny tiny bit of lightning and thunder at the peak of the mountain, and the tramway shuts down when that happens.  After about the first hour and a half of literally waiting for the storm to pass, we started looking for a different way to have my birthday dinner.  The entry tickets are all time stamped, of course, and we were growing in hunger and frustration as we watched our time tick by.  We’d narrowed our restaurant choices and were just about to summon an Uber to take us away when the service to the top reopened.  Hallelujah!  

It took some time to board and some more time to get there, but when we got to the top, there was a visible rainbow.  Talk about a sign from the heavens that we were right to be patient.  Still, an hour and a half after we had planned to be there meant we were plenty hungry when we were seated for dinner.  As we approached the restaurant and waited just a few more moments for the table, we saw the sun set from the mountain.  Okay, that was pretty great.  Maybe the timing worked out perfectly after all.  

Today, we’re awake before dawn.  It is quite unlike Cas to do that voluntarily, but this one is special.  We have a sunrise balloon flight.  We watched the sun set from a mountain last night.  We can watch it rise from a hot air balloon today.  We honestly still haven’t put together our photo album yet, though.  Maybe that would have been a smart thing to do while we waited for the tramway to reopen, but it didn’t occur to either of us.  We’ll get there, though.  We should have some pretty amazing photos after this morning wraps up.  Beyond that, there’s a wine and music festival to attend, then we wind it all down and have to return to our lives.  

Fun moment to mention before I sign off for my floating flight, though- the waiter last night asked if we were celebrating anything.  I said I was turning fifty.  He said, “Well, you look great; happy birthday!”  And I said, “Thank you; it’s dark in here.”  

See you when we’re back on the ground, friends!

(This was the view just before we came back down…)