A visit to the Land of Enchantment

 Recently we traveled to Albuquerque for a family wedding.  We stayed for several days and actually had the opportunity to do a little touristing around the city prior to the wedding.


Each day while we were there we had to find ways to entertain ourselves for several hours.  The first stop was the Albuquerque Biopark Zoo or Rio Grande Zoo as it was named when I was growing up in Albuquerque.


They have a baby hippo.  This was a surprise baby this year because mom had been on birth control.  It sure is cute.


Irv and I's first date 40+ years ago was to this zoo.  Our first kiss was in the giraffe house.  We went to recreate that moment, but the giraffe house is no longer accessible to the public.  We had to settle for the giraffe yard.


Who doesn't love the elephants?


This majestic peacock might get turned into a painting.


They had a reptile house with all kinds of creepy crawly things.  God was very creative when he came up with some of these critters.


They had a beautiful aquarium for the penguins who put on a good show for us.


By far the best thing about coming to New Mexico is always the food.  New Mexican food is quite different from any other Mexican or Tex-Mex food.  If you've never tried it then you're missing something special.  Irv had the flat brisket enchiladas with both red and green sauce.


I had a rib eye burrito with only Chile Verde.  There's nothing better than green chili on top of everything!  Although I'm from Colorado and am supposed to love Pueblo green chili, I had to admit that there's nothing better than Hatch green chili from New Mexico.


We found this little place in downtown Albuquerque thanks to Yelp.  What's funny is the road was closed about a block away from this location.  When we looked down the street everything had been sprayed white--houses, yards, and everything else.  Our waiter told us they're filming a Christmas movie there. Kind of hard to imagine with green leaves being on the trees still, but I'll be watching for it on Hallmark.


Then the day of the wedding arrived.  It was an absolutely beautiful location in the art district of Corrales.  I was relieved to see it was outside so that I didn't need to wear a mask the entire time.


Here's Irv with his SIL and sister.


At the start of the wedding we were all asked to put away our phones and cameras and just be present for the ceremony.  Mostly everyone complied which I thought was great.  Sometimes mental memories are the best.  Above is our nephew, his new wife, and the groom's mother.  They all looked so beautiful.


The color scheme of the wedding were all colors you'd expect to see at a New Mexico wedding.  I loved the little terra cotta pots as our favors.


The first dance.


My groom was the best looking man there.


I love wedding cake.  I had a piece of the chocolate raspberry and the marbled.  


Lots of good New Mexican food for dinner.


The night was capped off by our tradition of dancing and singing to Paradise by the Dashboard Lights by Meatloaf.  Always so much fun with my SIL.

We'll be stopping by Albuquerque again in December.  You can beat I'll be visiting Cocina Azul again!


Comments

polcat24 said…
Yes Cocina Azul was delicious! But i won't be having the red sauce next time! It was hot!! Food was great would recommend to everyone.
November 1, 2021 at 11:35 AM
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