Our house was a hit too. We rented this great adobe home right in Old Town. The enormous park across the street was huge and we hit it each PM. There were at least 3-4 museums on the sides of it too! It looked to be an original older adobe home, but had been completely redone recently inside, so it had modern (ie functioning) new appliances, bathrooms etc. It was so nice to have the house be part of the trip, in that it was truly New Mexico through and through, with straw in the raw adobe walls in some rooms.
Our house:
Thursday night we hit the park and we made simple burgers and veggies at home for dinner. Everyone was happy. The kids were so excited they were up very late, despite out trying to get them to sleep.
The children, thanks, in part, to the Chicago time zone, were up at 6:20am, which is 5:20am California time. Chispa and J shared a room. Little-s slept with S. Changa slept on pillows on the floor in my room, so she woke me up at least 7-10 times coughing or crying in her sleep. I got up for good when she woke me up saying, "I need go poo-poo" She did, so at least that was good. We weren't per se well rested, but we were ready to hit New Mexico. Who is well-rested traveling with small children?
Our first full day, we went to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Museum, toured
about as much as the children would tolerate, bought a few trinkets for the kids upon leaving, and a cool New Mexico print I liked for me for our house.
Then we figured we'd all get outside, and after lunch at Monroe's (mmmm huevos rancheros with green chilis), we hiked the Petroglyph National Monument. I carried Changa in a Mei Tai. She was super tired, she never would have climbed the mountain herself that day.
We then took them home, and they wanted to hit the park, so we let them run about the park, which was very nice. At some point I popped into the house to throw the marinating chicken (thanks S for remembering to throw it into the teriyaki in the am) into the oven for dinner, and returned to the park. Let's hear it for living across from the park! Chispa kept getting gusher nosebleeds, which she gets sometimes, I think the dry air was exacerbating it. Luckily the park was populated with lots of local families, who had plenty of extra tissues and wipes to clean up, bless them.
The trip actually featured a large number of bodily functions by my dear progeny. Changa was SO tired, she peed her way through NM. It was a bit ridiculous. Actually, it was a lot ridiculous, but I wasn't going to diaper a person who's been out of diapers nearly a year during the day. At least it was only ever pee accidents. Chispa, on the other hand, managed to #2 herself (a fun little trend that had started at home recently, of waiting too long), this happened in NM not once, but TWICE, she was so busy doing other things, but at the house luckily. Both times, I made her scrub it out herself. I also told her I would NOT be carrying multiple spare outfits for her when we were out and about, and she would be sporting the #2'd clothing if that happened out. That seems to have ended it.
We were all so tired, we had Shabbat, and even I managed to conk out at 10:30pm, which is 9:30pm California time. This is amazing as I'm usually up with Mr. H till 11 or 11:30pm at home. Yes, I was that tired! I also got smart, and stuck Changa and her improvised pillow-bed into my master bathroom. There was no door, but there were heavy brocade curtains, seemingly the style in these adobe homes, and they muffled the noise enough that I was only briefly awakened once or twice, and woke up on my own at 6:20am, fully rested. Then Changa serenaded me with a Passover medly of "No no no, I will not let you go." and "Dig dig dig your shovel...." It was cute and made me laugh, because I'd gotten enough sleep. It would have been far less cute the day prior.
Saturday morning we hit Explora! the kids science museum across from the house, which was fabulous, and free thanks to our respective home museum passes, then ate at Flying Star in Nob Hill. Chispa was pretty cranky, tired, and hungry, so I had to insist she covertly eat some dried mango and almonds to reintegrate her in the museum. At lunch this time I really branched out and had huevos rancheros with RED chili. S. had found a hike with a waterfall, but it turned out to be farther than we were led to believe, and luckily, we were warned by friendly staff at lunch. A fellow mother we met at the Flying Star cafe recommended a hike in the Sandia foothills that had a creek to wade in. Somehow we didn't find it, but we did get into lovely nature, and it was clearly a popular hiking area, despite the obscure directions of "turn at the 3rd dirt road" type. Various people fell down, needed bandaids, needed snacks, needed to go potty in the woods etc, but we were glad to have had a proper outdoor adventure. Luckily, S's children needed as many, if not more snacks than our kids, so we were well stocked at all times. S. was ALWAYS on top of snacks, which was a huge help. Chispa was all set to complain about hiking, and kvetch and kvetch and kvetch, but J. is a little billy goat, so Chispa got caught up in running along with her. Changa peed herself enough that I told her she then had to walk, and I'll be darned if she wasn't a trooper of a hiker. She'd gotten a better night's sleep as well, obviously.
That night we had leftovers, we had so many available. S. went to bed. I went running for 30 min. around Old Town square, which I found by following the music, and got to listen to live music Saturday night while I ran! Old Town square turned out to be 3 blocks from our house as well. Did I mention our location ROCKED?
We hit Old Town square Sunday am, bought a few small jewelry things from the Pueblo outside. Chispa chose a bracelet and necklace. She was so proud of them, Mommy, I'm so excited to have REAL jewelry, not kid jewelry!!!!!!
And home we went.
The children all generally did well together, and enjoyed playing together. There were the usual squabbles and whatnot, but they really did great. S. and I travel well together, and it's always such a pleasure to get to see each other for real, and have a bit of live time to catch up.
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There was one small bad incident. The girls WROTE on all the furniture in their room, their names. I found it the night before we left. Luckily it came off with me and S. scrubbing. It was everywhere, inside the drawers, inside the cabinets. We had a long talk the next day about trust and good judgment. Chispa was so contrite that night, very unlike her, you could tell she knew she's really screwed up. (J. led the charge, but Chispa had clearly joined in). She said in a small voice "If I say I'm sorry, does it make it a little bit better?" I told her it did make it a little bit better, but didn't fix it, but I really appreciated that she said she was sorry and meant it.
The amazing thing is, S. and I became friends in our early 20s, so you never could have predicted what it would be like now. And yet amazingly, we parent similarly enough, and travel similarly enough that it's like having a wife AND friend to travel with! It's more of a vacation than it would ever be for either of us traveling as family units, as we both take on so much of the work, it's just easier. So we really have been enjoying our trips. And it was even easier this year, with the girls all being older than last year's trip. They all had their fits, fights, etc, but it was well worth it.
And I've graduated. I checked both Britax carseats at the curb at the airport, instead of carrying even one onto the plane. WHAT A RELIEF not to schlep those through the airport and onto the plane. That rocked. (thanks to my friend J. for that at home, who suggested it)
So in summary, we really liked Albuquerque. It was easy to navigate, quite non-touristy, kid friendly. Cousin J. was 100% right! I would go back again, we of course, couldn't see everything by a long shot. Our kids all enjoy the trips. And I always enjoy having time with S. Let's hear it for girl's weekends!
1 comment:
The kids look so elated from their adventures. You guys are heroic moms for pulling this off with so much panache.
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