Paleta time!

Paleta time!

I got vanilla with Fruity Pebbles and fruit drizzled with white chocolate. Shaun's is coffee with Oreo crumbles and cheesecake bites drizzled with dark chocolate. Yum!

It bloomed!

It bloomed! And there's another bud coming up on the left.

The weather is gorgeous.

The weather is gorgeous. No heat or air conditioning needed - just open windows and a ceiling fan. Adrian loves to loaf in this basket. I kind of wish I could, too.

Our neighbors Yucca is going to bloom!

Our neighbors Yucca is going to bloom! I'll be keeping an eye on that. I've never seen one this large flower!

We tried to have a regular day today.

We tried to have a regular day today. The cats were excited to have their "wet food" routine restored. (They have dry food available all day, every day, but get to share a can of wet food once daily as a treat.)

Meanwhile, I slept until 4 pm which is not too "normal" for me. But I guess I needed the rest after several days of being on the go. 😂😂😂

Pictured are the downstairs cats. From the left: Scar (standing up tall), Harley, Balthazar, Calypso, Tobi, and Ashanti.

Not pictured (but still given treats): Sindar and Adrian, who both live upstairs. Also not pictured is Leon, but that's Kira's son and she is in complete control of what he eats.

Krystahl is heading home tomorrow

Krystahl is heading home tomorrow, so our adventures are done - for now. I really hope she'll be back, though, because there is a ton left to see!

This morning we went to Santa Fe. We had brunch at a restaurant that had some blue corn pancakes she wanted to try. They were really good - and yes, they were a pale blue color. We should've gotten pics! I myself HAD to try this Quattro Leches cupcake while I was there. It was tasty!

After that, we went ahead to Meow Wolf Santa Fe. I'm only sharing a couple of photos because I don't want to ruin it for any future visitors, but needless to say it was just as interesting this time as the last. I don't think it's physically possible to take in everything on the first pass. They don't call it "The House of Eternal Return" for nothing!

Me and Shaun ended up getting some really neat matching reversible jackets from the gift shop before leaving. I guess we are turning into THAT dorky old couple. 😂😂😂 I'm not complaining, though. At least we have style! We'll model the jackets for y'all one of these days. 😆

Then we went back to downtown Santa Fe to check out some of the shops. We saw some neat stuff. There was a ton more to see, but there is only so much time! Shaun bought me some rocks at one of the shops. I'm posting a video of the Rainbow Obsidian because it's so neat, as well as some pics of other cool finds.

We then went back to Albuquerque to meet up with Owen (Krystal's husband) for dinner. He didn't hang out with us a ton this week, but we like that dude. He took us to a Brazilian restaurant called Tucanos this evening. It was a really interesting experience with a lot of great food. Most of the food is buffet-style, but these people bring GIANT skewers of other foods to your table and chop off some into your plate (you have a signal on your table that you can flip to let them know to keep coming or to stop). I got to try some tasty stuff! I had some of the best turkey I've had in my life. My favorite was probably the grilled pineapple. That, or the creme brulee. I don't know. I can't decide. 😂

Anyway, we ate and then all promptly crashed. 😂😂😂 That meant it was time to say our goodbyes, so we did. We all need some rest. It's been 3 days of adventure and it caught up to us. But it was a wonderful time and I am so excited to have had our first visitors here. ❤️

MeowWolf, again.

Wolf Art

Druzy, maybe?

Snail sculpture, because why not?

A Bob Ross tile that regretfully did not come home with us.

MeowWolf, obviously.

Our brunch view at the Plaza Cafe

The most beautiful parking garage we've ever seen.

We got home just after midnight after another long, but exciting day.

We got home just after midnight after another long, but exciting day. I don't have as many photos on my phone as I did yesterday because I drove most of the day (I'm not complaining; I like driving). But I will share some highlights. 😊

We started out heading to the Jemez Mountains. We stopped at a small museum at some ruins. They had the craziest bathroom wall. The ruins in the video are from a church built in the 1700s. The kiva (the thing with the ladders) is an underground pit with stools and a fireplace. There were signs up asking for no photography of the inside of the kiva since it is sacred, so we respected that.

After that we went to see the Valles Caldera. My understanding is that it's an extinct volcano. It's a prairie-like area on top of a mountain which was created when the volcano blew the top of the mountain off. That area is now home to elk (who we didn't see today) and also prairie dogs (who we did see). From Wikipedia: "Valles Caldera is a 13.7-mile wide volcanic caldera in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. Hot springs, streams, fumaroles, natural gas seeps and volcanic domes dot the caldera floor landscape." I definitely want to go back there and spend more time exploring.

After THAT, we started heading to the Bisti Badlands... or so we thought. Turns out that there was a road closed on the way which cost us about an hour of time, but we did make it to there... but not before Google helped us to make another bad navigation decision that had us going down almost 30 miles of graveled / dirt roads. 😂

It truly was an adventure, though. We spent most of the day without cell service or internet. We saw unfenced horses (with a foal!) that might have been wild, some cows, a bull who looked like he wanted to attack the car, 3 beautiful calves hanging out near the (obviously barely used) road, and also the Rocky Mountains from a distance. I will share pictures of all of that when I have them available, but for now they're all on Shaun and Krystahl's cameras.

My favorite part of the day was exploring the Badlands. It's an unmarked wildlife area, so you just had to get out there to see what you could see. Unfortunately we were shorter on time than we wanted to be, but we did see some crazy, beautiful formations. I 100% will be going back there. I don't know when, but I will. I need at least a few days in a camper or van because today just wasn't enough. I have tons of photos, but I'll share my best ones here.

From the official government website (because I could not explain it better): "The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a rolling landscape of badlands which offers some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners Region. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. The weathering of the sandstone forms hoodoos - weathered rock in the form of pinnacles, spires, cap rocks, and other unusual forms. Fossils occur in this sedimentary landform. Translated from the Navajo language, Bisti (Bis-tie) means "a large area of shale hills." De-Na-Zin (Deh-nah-zin) takes its name from the Navajo words for "cranes.""

The last stop of the day was for food at Gabby's. It looked like a diner from the 1950s and the food was EXCELLENT. It was an adorable and cozy little place to eat and a great way to (almost) end the day. We were still 2 hours from home, but we'll definitely stop there again when we go back to the Badlands.

Next up: Meow Wolf Santa Fe!

Formations at the Badlands

Formations at the Badlands

Still the Badlands

The wall of this bathroom is insane in the best way.

Formations at the Badlands

Formations at the Badlands

Outside of Gabby's

Information about the church

Formations at the Badlands

Part of the caldera

Inside of Gabby's

Information about the kiva

I was trying to get out of the kiva, not look sassy, but I guess I did both. 😂

Formations at the Badlands