2015 Albuquerque Balloon Festival - St. Elmo Hotel Stay

A Road Trip to Remember: New Mexico and Beyond

Each year around the end of September and the first week in October, I visit my sister Sandra in New Mexico. We share wonderful times at these annual get-togethers. I arrived in New Mexico on September 30 this year. We go to the Frontier restaurant and have breakfast – regardless of the time of day I arrive, I usually arrive in the morning. My sister is extremely well read on the history of our planet and our universe, and it's always inspiring and educational for me to spend time with her. This trip she turned me on to boron as it relates to human health and "Human Universe" by Brian Cox – among other things.

Exploring Colorado: The St. Elmo Hotel

We took off on a 5-hour drive to Ouray, Colorado on Thursday morning. The place is famous for its exquisite beauty, set amidst a fantastic natural setting, and features a wonderful hot spring. We stayed at the St. Elmo Hotel, which I found quite nice. On the way up to Ouray, we stopped in Durango, where I had a unique experience – doing something for the first time in my life! That evening, we shared a delicious meal at Buen Tiempo, a well-done Mexican restaurant.

The Earthship: Unconventional Architecture

On the way into Taos, we visited Earthship, a collection of unusual architecture that's taken to the extreme. What a piece of work that place is! I took several photographs. That night, at our restaurant in Taos, a man sitting at the next table bought our meal because he thought it was nice for a brother and sister to be traveling around having fun – quite an exhilarating experience!

Hot Air Balloons Over Albuquerque

Back in Coralles, we got up at 6 AM on Monday and Sandra's son Jake took his two children, Sandra, and me to see the hot air balloons go up at dawn at the Albuquerque, New Mexico balloon Festival. It's a stunning visual experience – the balloons are a vast array of brilliant colors. Sometimes they're fashioned into the shape of animals or items like huge buildings or fire trucks... pretty much anything you can think of has been made into a hot air balloon! We were able to walk all around right next to and under the balloons as they readied for takeoff.

Another amazing thing I found was that some of the balloons took off from the field where we were standing, circled around, and returned after an hour or two to land in that same field. Leaving the Festival, we took off on a drive up a gravel road to the top of the Sandias Mountains.

A Picnic Break

We stopped at a nice picnic area along the way, each of us taking a brief moment to stretch our legs and enjoy the scenery.

Challenge both sides of your brain – every single day! I get younger every year. The playground doesn't care how old you are. Never leave the playground.