Last Day of our Road TripGreetings! Well, here we are in Santa Fe, about to leave and head back to Albuquerque for one last night. This trip has just flown! I'm really happy that we were able to check off everything on our list that we planned to see thus far. Now, you may be wondering what the deal is with the photo above. Well, yesterday, the main event was to visit Nambe Falls. Tanya and I packed a wonderful picnic lunch, packed ourselves up in one car and drove out to Nambe (about 40 minutes) to see three of the most spectacular natural falls in the Southwest!  Nambe Falls - what we DIDN'T get to see yesterday because the park was closed for the season (courtesy nambefalls.fatcow.com) Tanya was on top of things all the way and checked the website multiple times for the hours. So, you can imagine our surprise when we approached a locked park entrance gate with a "CLOSED FOR SEASON" sign! Yup - due to now fault of our own, we were unable to see one of the most beautiful sites on our list. :-(  At Fort Magers Field Park, Santa Fe, NM The troops were disappointed, so instead, we decided since we had a packed picnic lunch which we had hoped to eat on our hike through Nambe, we found a park with a playground (Fort Magers Field Park) nearby the town of Santa Fe. The kids had more energy than they knew what to do with in the backseat of the car. So, the park was just what the doctor ordered. We found a nice table at the park and broke out the food. After some much-needed running, jumping and playing, it was time for Kakawa Chocolate for some delectable hot chocolates and sweet goodies.   Eating Chocolate delights at Kakawa Chocolate House in Santa Fe I will be reviewing Kakawa Chocolate House next Foodie Friday, so stay tuned! Yesterday was a very relating day all in all. A nice home-cooked dinner in our comfy Santa Fe condo and Episode 3 of Season 4 Scandal!! - What a night! Today, we will be on the road back to Albuquerque for one last night. One the way, we will make two stops: * Loretto Chapel The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe is a former Roman Catholic church that is now used as a museum and wedding chapel. It is home to the mysterious and miraculous staircase. * Brontosaurus Family A fun road side attraction photo op. It's the only day on our trip that has rained. I'm not complaining since we had wonderful weather!! Please check out Tanya's Foodie Friday feature, "A Taste of New Mexico." Enjoy your day!! -E  | From Santa Fe back to AlbuquerqueHiya! Well, this week sure flew by! Guess that's what happens when you are having fun... And we had a blast spending the week together doing a Travelin' Cousins Road Trip! I hope that you had lots of fun along the way following us in our little adventures! Yesterday’s little adventure definitely did not go as planned…as you can see from the above picture! Ya know, this is actually the second time that this type of thing happened to me attempting a visit on Tribal Land. Last time was going to Four Corners (read my short little account of what happened HERE).  Circa 2010  Circa - yesterday! It sucked anyway. But probably worked out for the best, altitude was bothering Dominic somewhat (headache), car sickness was bothering Kelsey, and the other two were just getting a bit rambunctious. So Elisa and I decided that we find a park, have our packed picnic lunch, and let the kids run around like well…kids!  Lunch time - picnic style  All the monkeys playing After playing in the park for a while, Gianna bumped her knee that had already been scraped up twice so far just this week! She seemed to get a bit insulted by this, and then it turned to bad mood pretty fast…She wanted to go home - nothing else! Being that the bathrooms were all locked at this park and each of the kids really needed to “go”, we left the park and headed for Downtown. I asked Elisa if she preferred us hitting the chocolate shop for some famous hot cocoa before or after shopping. We put the question onto the kids, aside from Gianna wanting to go home - it was decided that we have hot cocoa first!
Our little crew walked into this adorable establishment and were offered samples of the many offerings that they served. I sampled the American (most popular), Zapoteca (a more bitter chocolate), and the Chai (definitely too spicy for me). But it seems that each myself and the kids preferred a different blend of these delicious and decedent treats. So decadent that they are served in either a 3oz or 6oz cup! I ordered the American, Cosette the Zapoteca, and Dominic had the Chai. Cosette of course wasn’t thrilled with the tiny size - little does she realize how strong that little cup of chocolate heaven was! I also order us a few truffles to go!!! Which Cosette managed to eat hers while we were still there (by way of twisting my arm!)   After Chocolate silliness!!! Elisa and gang preferred to mainly go the Ice Cream route - yes they also have rich creamy Ice Cream too! And btw Gianna was feeling back to herself in the blink of an eye. What an awesome place!!! We spoke to and had a nice conversation with the owner, what a great guy! Which totally makes sense, because we found out that he too is also from New York!  Me, Tony, and Elisa! We took tons of pictures and immediately knew that this little artisanal chocolate shop was a location that we are definitely going to feature in an upcoming Foodie Friday!!! Which of course you realize that today is Foodie Friday! This week in bonor of our road trip here in New Mexico I have featured not one but all of the local delicacies that I’ve been so fortunate to try! Please read it HERE and see all of the mouth watering photos that I’ve included!! As far as the rest of the afternoon went, we decided that moving our visit downtown to today and just letting the kids relax and enjoy each others company was a better idea than to salvage the rest of what we had “planned”. Around the time that we were leaving Kelsey realized that she misplaced something, and we figured that if it wasn’t in the car that it was probably left at the playground. We went back to look for it and the kids begged for some more “playtime”. We agreed on terms where they can play at the park again now, it they remain of good behavior during our time shopping today! They did! So as I type this up, I am listening to the wonderful sound the rain (one of, if not my favorite sounds ever). I guess we’ll be visiting the capitol, and doing our shopping in the rain - which I am totally fine with! We’ll also be going to see Loretto Chapel, and on the ride back to Albuquerque we’ll stop and take some quirky pictures with a Brontosaurus Family! Once back in Albuquerque the plan is to go have a birthday celebratory dinner for both Elisa & Cosette (both birthdays are next week). Then just before midnight Dave B. will be landing back here to meet us for the remainder of our road trip that is without Elisa and the girls, who head back to NY early tomorrow morning. That’s about all folks! Have a super deluxe Friday! Enjoy Foodie Friday! And meet me back here for another day of this super fun road trip tomorrow!! Ciao 4 now, -T |
