Road Trip!

For the fourth of July weekend we took at road trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is known for many things, most notably probably the food, art, and the architecture. The drive took a little under 10 hours, and allowed us to see a large amount of West Texas along the way. 

One interesting thing we saw along the drive was the remnants of a summer snow storm. This picture was taken just over the border in New Mexico, it was 70 degrees at the time with a high of 91 on this day. Not sure where it came from or how it was staying around so long! 

Santa Rosa, NM

We arrived in Santa Fe on Thursday morning. The first thing that we noticed was the architecture. There weren't just a few kitschy houses/buildings with this traditional Southwestern style, every building in the city was designed in this style. 

Typical house in Santa Fe

In the main plaza

Mission San Miguel, claims to be the oldest church in the U.S. built in 1610

 

After seeing a few sites, we went looking for some of the enchiladas that the city is famous for. The red chile sauce that covers the enchiladas is their claim to fame, but the green is notable as well. They often combine the two and call it Christmas. The food was mostly Mexican and Native American inspired. Which means lots of enchiladas and hominy. 

Christmas enchiladas. Sadly not gluten-free. 

After adjusting a little to the altitude, the city sits at 7000 feet, we rented some cruisers from a local bike shop. There are hundreds of miles of hiking and biking trails inside and around the city. We spent most of the next day exploring by bike. The weather was great compared to Dallas, in the mid 80s everyday. As you can see, its mostly desert--which Lucy didn't enjoy much. She was happy to get home and see the grass. 

Navigator

Enjoying the view of the mountains

Enjoying a kiddie dirt bike track

Heading to dinner

The last morning we went for an early walk and hit the farmers market, where David happily enjoyed one of the best breakfast burritos he has ever had. 

The little one also got his first souvenir, some authentic New Mexican Moccasins

As we were getting ready to head home, David convinced me (and it took a lot of convincing) that we should take a detour through Roswell, NM. I am not particularly interested in aliens, UFOs, or the like. However, as I was googling Roswell, in an effort to prove there was really nothing to see there, we discovered that the annual UFO Festival was going on. So we went. The drive turned out to be the most interesting part, it was well worth the few extra miles in the end. The drive took us three hours South on the highway in NM, which meant three hours with no bathrooms or signs of civilization. 

After two hours this was all the civilization we found, and I am not even sure you can call it that. Still no bathroom. I am pretty sure this must be the place they modeled the movie "Cars" after. 

After finally arriving in Roswell, this is the closest we got to aliens. 

Overall it was a great trip! A few days after we came home we went for our 20 week ultrasound. The doctor was able to confirm that the baby is in fact a boy. He is measuring big, about a week ahead and in the 80th percentile. It looks like he has really long legs and he was doing lots of acrobatics. Everything is going great, I am feeling lots of kicks and movement but David hasn't been able to feel it yet on the outside. I feel great, I am still working out and doing yoga most days of the week. We do have a name picked out--but we are going to keep it a surprise until he gets here. 

Halfway there!

Starting to look a little less alien-like.