co to see my cousin, Susan. We had a blast. It was a perfect trip.I left my apartment in NYC at 4:45 am via a shuttle to get my 8 am flight to Dallas at LaGuardia. I felt like a zombie. I made it in plenty of time for my flight. I switched planes for the flight to
Albuquerque from Dallas. Sue picked me up at the airport and I'm sure I looked pretty exhausted. I perked up when I was outside in the beautiful warm and sunny weather.After dropping off my bags, we went out for a snack and coffee and chatted for a while. Later, we went to dinner, stopping first to have a drink on the roof and enjoy the sun. Then we had some delicious greek food.
The next day, I spent the day in Santa Fe and loved it. Armed with my Lonely Planet book on Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos, I took a walking tour of all the museums, shops and sampled some food and local beer along the way. The Georgia O'Keefe museum was small, but very good. I met Sue for a drink at the Coyote Cafe and then dinner. We stopped at Borders to look at some books, too.
On Saturday, we headed to Ojo for a yoga class and soaking in the hot springs. Our yoga class was held in a yurt and you could hear the frogs croaking outside. It was amazing. Our teacher, Deanna, was soft spoken, patient and kind. The other women in the class traveled from Santa Fe to take her class. Everyone was very nice.
After the class, we changed into our swimsuits and headed to the hot springs. We tried all of them and they were amazing. We tried to get into the hot tub, but it was way too hot. When people came out of it, their skin was read up to wherever the water stopped. I don't know how they did it! Since the hot tub was too hot, we each grabbed a hammock and wished we had a book to read. The
hammocks were very comfy and there was a cool breeze blowing. I could have fallen asleep there.Our bellies started to rumble, so we got showered and changed into our regular clothes and went to the restaurant. It took me a long time to pick what I wanted because it all looked so delicious. I settled on Mayan tacos and Sue got the fish tacos. Both were excellent.
On the way home, we stopped at a flea market where I purchased a
photo of the mountains from a local artist. I wanted to take the mountains home with me because they made me feel so peaceful. From there, we stopped for ice cream in a funky town called Madrid. It was like nothing I have seen before. Lots of cool artsy shops and people, but not in a New Yorky way. It was different, and very interesting. That night we had dinner at a French restaurant with Bill and Gage. It was really fun.The next day, we picked up Gage from Bill's and headed to the Tent Rocks for a hike. Gage led the way most of the time as we weaved through small
paths between the rocks. When we got to the top we sat for a little while to admire the amazing view. On the way down, Gage told 
me all about his favorite book series which is based on Greek myths. He was so passionate and enthusiastic about the books, it made me want to read them, too.In the afternoon, we headed to a birthday party for one of Sue's neighbor's daughters. There were drink boxes and candy and a pinata of a mermaid. Watching the kids swing the stick at the thing was a little scary for me, but no one got injured thankfully!
When the party was over, we went across the street to Sue's house and she made us a delicious chicken dinner that we ate outside on the patio. What a perfect way to end the day!
We had such a great time, so I was sad to leave. There is a yoga retreat led by the yoga teacher we had in July. Might go back for that. Can't wait to go back!
