Sandia Peak is one of the last mountains in the Rocky Mountain system and is Albuquerque’s most visible geological landmark.

My wife and I got to go back to Albuquerque for a few days this past weekend. It was a family get-together for her dad’s side of the family, and overall it was a _highly_ enjoyable weekend.

The flight down took us to Atlanta, GA for a 2.5-hour layover. It was my second time in that airport, and I’d forgotten just how far apart the concourses are. I also noticed that the trams that connect the concourses move _a lot_ faster than they used to. From Atlanta it was a 3.5-hour flight to Albuquerque, with _Catch & Release_ being the entertainment along the way.

It was fantastic being back in Albuquerque, though. I love the Southwest and beauty of the desert. I don’t know if I could ever actually live there, but I do know I won’t mind being able to visit there as often as is possible.

One of Old Town’s biggest tourist traps.

No trip to Albuquerque would ever be complete without a quick stop by Historic Old Town – the site of the city’s original mission. Unfortunately, like most places with history, Old Town has become little more than a large tourist trap, but you can sense some of the past in the old mission and in many of the buildings around it. It _is_ kind of fun to walk around a bit, though, and look through the shops.

Of course, my sister-in-law and I had to get at least one silly picture in. I’m just kind of surprised we didn’t take more than we did. That is one thing that Old Town is good for, though – picture-taking. We all took quite a few, and every other for the next month, I’ll be posting up a number of the pictures I took on my “photoblog”:http://photos.shamuswrites.com. So, feel free to check in there and subscribe to the feed if you’re interested. And also feel free to leave comments for each picture. I’d love to hear feedback on what you like and don’t like about the pictures. All the photos I took using my sister-in-law’s digital camera, so I’m not really sure what the specs are on that. I’ll see if I can land those sometime in the near future.

I felt like the whole weekend was a run from one big feast to another, though. We did Village Inn for breakfast two days, Indian for dinner one evening, Garduno’s for dinner on another, and large lunches most days. Plus, sopaipillas were had in great abundance – and if you’ve never had a sopaipillas, then you’re missing out, my friend.

The weekend went by much too quickly, and the flight to Denver and then from Denver back to Indy passed even more quickly. I definitely think I could have taken another few days before coming back home. But such is life, and no vacation can last forever, I suppose. Hopefully, we’ll get to go back again in another couple of years and spent a full week this time. I’d love to check out Albuquerque’s zoo and aquarium on the next trip and spend a little time exploring the wilderness with a camera. Maybe by then I’ll even have a quality digital SLR to play with.