Fiesta in Albuquerque

Albuquerque was one of the first destinations we set a date to get to before we left home, as friends of ours (our daughters were inseparable in those days before we left) were planning on being there for the balloon fiesta. It was their mom/grandmother's 90th birthday party and family reunion, but we were welcome to crash the party. 

First things first, though, and being our first big city since leaving Seattle we had to stop for Korean food our first night in town. We had gone way too long without spicy red noodles, our particular brand of soul food.

After that we spent some time checking out their plaza and historic church. 

The next afternoon we met my friend and her girls there, and lots of silliness ensued. In typical little brother fashion, this guy sort of stole the show.

He is 13, and eating, finishing eating, or at least thinking about eating, in most pictures. Sofia's restaurant filled him up, and we all loved the food.

We hung out at our friend's hotel that night while the kids swam, then our daughter got to have a sleepover since we all planned on meeting up at the sunrise balloon launch the next morning. 

The phone call tag as we tried to find each other on the field went something like this:

"I'm by the cow's udder."

"I think I see that. We're by spider pig, and Elvis is behind us. Do you see the big queen? We'll walk towards that."

Once again, we felt so lucky to get together with friends on this trip, and make great memories with our children. Without them, we wouldn't have even known about the balloon fiesta. What's the best travel tip you've received?

This is really worth seeing; you feel like a little kid looking up in amazement all morning.

~Judy