New Mexico Trip 2022

For Wil's 50th birthday we had planned to go to Brazil. Carnaval 2022 falling on Wil's 50th birthday meant we could see the Christ the Redeemer statue as part of our "Seven Wonders" project, plus see the parades in the Sambadrome (a huge dream of mine), see spectacular Iguacu Falls, check out the modern architecture in Brasilia, and see the spectacular opera house in Manaus plus have a little more time on the Amazon. 

But then, COVID. 

I had booked all the hotels, but was holding off on flights and the Carnaval tickets because, well, it didn't seem likely. But in the "vaccine honeymoon" period, I was hopeful. But it wasn't to be. 

So we thought about what else to do. I had left it too late -- again -- to find reasonable accommodations in Hawaii. So that was out. And we didn't want to go too far for my first post-brain-clot flights. And we didn't want to be in big crowds, for the most part. But then I thought, "New Mexico." 

New Mexico feels really different, but it's not super far away. So we decided to book flights -- first class to treat ourselves! -- and I made a plan. 

Day "0" - fly Seattle to Albuquerque

Day 1 - drive Albuquerque to Santa Fe

Day 2 - Santa Fe and Georgia O'Keeffe

Day 3 - Santa Fe Meow Wolf to Truth or Consequences

Day 4 - Truth or Consequences for Wil's Birthday

Day 5 - White Sands and Alamogordo

Day 6 - Carlsbad and Roswell

Day 7 - Roswell to Tucumcari

Day 8 - Side trip to Amarillo, then back to Albuquerque

Day 9 - Albuquerque to home

At some point during the trip I looked to see what was happening in Rio for Carnaval, and was somewhat relieved to see that the sambadrome parades were postponed until after Easter. So it was confirmation that we'd made the right choice. 

I wrote up my notes as blog posts and backdated them to when they happened. I loved New Mexico -- the skies (and, despite it being NM and not AZ) the "little puffy clouds". I loved all the green chile. And I loved that feeling of freedom from traveling again.