Whatever I Feel LikeGosh!

I was up at the crack of dawn on a Friday morning, anxious to get to the airport for my flight to New Mexico. This was a new state for me and I was looking forward to the adventure that lay ahead. As it turns out, I had good reason to be excited.

My flight from Philly to Chicago went off without a hitch, but there were nasty storms in the Chicago area when I arrived that extended my layover there. I wish I would have known about the delay before I ate such an early lunch at Harry Caray’s, but whatever, it all turned out fine in the end. I was on the plane and landing in New Mexico before I knew it.

My uncle was waiting for me at the airport when I arrived. He got there the day before and rented a car for our use - we spent our trip riding around in a sporty little Ford Fusion. I would have never suspected the Fusion was such a great car. It was really comfortable and roomy, and got great gas mileage to boot.

Our first order of business was hitting the grocery store to stock up on food for the week. We stayed at a Residence Inn in the Penthouse Suite which was pretty much an apartment. We had two floors, two bedrooms, two baths, a living room, fully-equipped kitchen with bar seating, and a dining area. Very nice accommodations that completely spoiled me when I moved to the next place a few days later in my trip. I went a little crazy with the food shopping at Whole Foods. My uncle asked me how long did I plan on staying exactly - I think I was worried about not having enough of my good foods and I was hungry, too. Not a great combination for me.

After buying enough groceries for two weeks, we went out to dinner at the Black Angus Steakhouse and had a wonderful meal along with superb service. If you’re in Albuquerque, I highly recommend this place! The seating was spacious and spread out, so we weren’t right on top of other diners and they offer a free appetizer coupon for people who haven’t been there before. We had a nice talk here that really set the tone for the rest of our trip. I knew right away that we were going to have a very memorable experience.

I got my first taste of Old Town Albuquerque that night, too. We headed down there for a brief look around - not many stores were open by 8 PM, but a few were and I got a little feel for what the rest of the trip had in store. I loved the architecture of the buildings and all the tacky tourist crap in some of the gift shops we went into. It reminded me of the stores in Virginia Beach on the boardwalk - filled with souvenirs and local kitsch.

By now I was approaching about 18 hours of being up and I was pretty wiped out. We headed back to our hotel room where I had my snack for the night and crashed. I was extremely excited for the next day - we were headed to Madrid and Santa Fe!