Have you checked your bucket list lately? I don’t know that I’ve ever set down an official one, but in my head, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was on it. And we finally checked it off! For those of you who follow my Facebook page, you’ll know I had a fabulous, magical experience.
We chose to go with a local tour group that could bus us into the balloon grounds and provide us with a VIP tent since the mass ascension starts around 5 AM and the balloon glow is necessarily after dark. Albuquerque’s altitude is over 5000’ so the weather is considerably cooler than here in Southern California. The warm tent was welcome, but it was well worth wrapping in blankets and sipping hot chocolate to walk beneath those magnificent balloons as they heated up and lifted off. Watching their colorful glow drift into the night sky was like watching the stars lift from earth.
Of course, since we’d traveled that far, we spent a week exploring the city and traveling further up the mountain to Santa Fe. I have always loved New Mexico’s art. Their state government building is more art gallery than meeting rooms. We drooled our way around historic Albuquerque plaza and the galleries of
While we were in Albuquerque, we had dinner with Pati Nagle, who writes mysteries as Patrice Greenwood, and her husband at the St. James Tea Room. Pati’s mysteries center around a tea room just like the one we visited, and they proudly display her books in the gift shop—although we saw no ghost. Who knew how full one can get on tiny sandwiches? They had a soufflé in dishes that would have served well in a dollhouse! If you’re ever in Albuquerque, make sure you get a reservation and try it. You can even wear your fancy tea hat if you have one. If this is the way our English Regency characters ate, they were spoiled indeed, and very very fat.
I wrote about some of the history of New Mexico in Cheyenne’s Lady and about more recent times and Route 66 in California Girl. You can see my fascination with New
Mexico is long standing. The area was settled well before the Pilgrims landed on the east coast, so it has a long and fascinating history. I wish readers were as interested in American history as Regency—it’s far more colorful!
Have you planned a bucket list yet? What would we be on it? (Not that I need more ideas, mind you, but one can dream!)