We spent the last few days of our vacation in Albuquerque and had a marvelous time.
We started our adventure at the Albuquerque Biopark which includes an Aquarium, Botanical Garden & Zoo. It was a nice size with a wide variety of animals, although the signage could have been a bit better (we often felt like we were just wandering lost among the animals).
As you might expect in New Mexico, they had a huge reptile exhibit. Each habitat had an iPad like screen that scrolled through information about each critter, which was a nice touch.
Next stop was the Aquarium (you can ride a train between the parks, but we chose to drive). We really enjoyed the jelly fish exhibit ... it is so cool to watch them move & glow in the dark.
And or course, we were mesmerized by the large shark tank.
The Botanical Gardens were pretty uneventful this time of year. They were putting-up lots of lights, so it looks like they must have a really cool evening light show for the holidays. The Japanese Garden did have beautiful water features.
And the mini-village with moving trains was pretty cool too.
We had a delicious lunch at Garcia's where I got to try Chicharrónes for the first time.
We stayed at Hotel Parq Central, which used to be a hospital. They have lots of vintage hospital items throughout the decoratiosn of the hotel, which are very cool. Our room was extremely comfortable.
We really enjoyed having drinks at Apothocary, the roof top bar while watching the sunset (if you stay there, go for the libations package ... the evening drink is a treat). We ended-up staying there for a while and enjoying some tapas for supper while enjoying the peaceful view.
The next morning we started our day at the Albuquerque Balloon Museum. Thankfully the Docent's warned us that hundreds of kiddos were expected on field trips that morning, so we might want to move quickly before they arrived.
We even got to fly a simulated balloon, which was a lot of fun. We didn't score too poorly, but I was a little heavy on the gas, so we ran out of fuel slightly before we reached our target.
It was amazing to see how the history of ballooning and lots of interesting artifacts ... and some fun ones too.
When we left the museum, the kiddos had arrived and were enjoying their own balloon experience where volunteers were letting them fill balloons and then release them to watch them float into the sky ... very cool.
We then headed to Scraps Galore.
In the afternoon, we explored Old Towne Albuquerque ... it was a beautiful day to wander the streets and check out more local art.
We headed back-up to the rooftop bar to watch another sunset, and then decided to walk a few blocks to check out Holy Cow Burgers for supper. We can't recommend it enough ... wonderful retro decor, fabulous service, excellent music, and fries, burgers & milkshakes to-die-for. We both had the Holy Cow Burger was was amazing.
And they had the best zucchini fries I've ever had.
And as always ... all good vacations must come to an end ... here's my final view of New Mexico from the plane.
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