I am back from my road trip to New Mexico! I was gone all last week and it was a recharge for me. Originally, I had planned this road trip as a solo road trip, but last minute my mom was able to come with me and I appreciated the company. I had underestimated how much driving this trip would entail, so it was nice to talk to someone especially when driving across Nebraska. With all of my travel posts, I like to split them up, so I don’t have one extremely long post. This will be a three-post series, the first post will focus on Albuquerque, the second post will focus on Santa Fe, and finally, the last post will be all the miscellaneous stops on the trip.

Albuquerque is the city that we spent the most time in, so I figured I’d start with ABQ! Albuquerque is stunning! The Sandia Mountains surround the city and in the sunlight, they are a bronze or golden color. I couldn’t get over how beautiful the mountains were; no matter where we drove, they were always within sight.

For every trip, I like to pre-plan an itinerary, so I don’t miss anything. One of the first places that we went to was Old Town. Old Town is slightly north of downtown Albuquerque and filled with shops, restaurants, and art galleries. The reason Old Town is worth the visit is all the buildings are historically preserved. Walking around Old Town, it feels like you are walking in what used to be a Wild West town. If that wasn’t enough, someone had a pet kitty that would walk around the shops and it was friendly. It would come up to tourists looking for pets. I’m a cat person, so that’s an added bonus.

Besides shopping, one museum I wanted to visit was The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. New Mexico is filled with history since it is the U.S. state where the Manhattan Project was housed and where the first nuclear bomb was tested. The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History was well worth the trip. There were several sections within the museum that I found fascinating. There were items from the Los Alamos gate which is where the scientists would gather and test their findings. While this museum heavily focused on the Manhattan Project, I liked how it talked about how nuclear science shaped medicine and how nuclear energy has been a focus for renewable energy. There was so much to see and learn and I felt like I learned something new.

Another thing that we did was check out Sawmill Market. Sawmill Market is adjacent to Old Town and it’s an indoor market with various vendors. We had the best Mexican food at Flora. We split Chicken Enchiladas and they were so good! Speaking of, we ate a lot of good food on this trip. That’s another reason I love to travel. I love to try new restaurants, food trucks, coffee shops, and other local places. I do not limit myself when I travel and I think food is such a great way to connect people together. I could go on and on about all the food we ate, but this post is already getting long as it is.

The final thing I wanted to add about ABQ was all the breweries! ABQ has a lot of breweries which I wasn’t expecting. I have always liked the atmosphere at a brewery and since the weather in ABQ was so nice, I was specifically looking for breweries with an outdoor patio or seating area. In total, we went to four different breweries in ABQ specifically. I wanted to call out one of my favorite breweries that we stopped at, Bow and Arrow Brewing Co. Bow and Arrow is a female and indigenous-owned brewery. If you’re thinking to yourself, who cares? Let me tell you. Doing a quick Google search, the brewery industry is 89% men and 11% women on average. I think it’s great to see more women getting into the craft beer industry. With Bow and Arrow, their beer is brewed on Native Land, and proceeds from Bow and Arrow go directly back into Native non-profits specifically. If that wasn’t enough, Bow and Arrow has a lovely tap room and their beer rocked.

To say that I enjoyed ABQ would be an understatement. I have wanted to explore the Southwest for a long time, so I’m glad that this trip happened. For my next post, I will share a summary of our trip to Santa Fe which is about an hour Northeast of ABQ.