Trip to New Mexico

Disclaimer : Very long blog

On Friday April 11th, a bunch of us(11 in fact) took a trip to New Mexico for a badminton tournament in Las Vegas, NM and a bonus trip to my favorite city in the world - Santa Fe! As many of you may know, this is where Alan and I got married, so any excuse to visit this beautiful city is a good excuse.

All cozy in our 15-seater van...

We rented a 15-seater van and packed all of us in the car and started our 9 hr drive to Las Vegas!!! We did stop for a long dinner in Pueblo and had to drive 10 mph over Raton Pass due to a snow blizzard. But we did eventually get there after 1 am. After a quick unload, all of us scrambled into bed to catch some much needed sleep.

Tyler testing out the hotel bed...

Morning came too soon(especially for those who had to sleep thru some loud snoring!!!) and after a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the badminton tournament venue.

Group picture of the Boulder Badminton Club contingent

Once we got there, after a quick pre-tournament picture of the group, we settled down and started warming up. Tournament soon started and we realized that for once the competition was quite stiff. With the elevation difference and the use of plastic shuttles, it really made a big change to the playing conditions that we're used to. I played particularly badly that day and even lost to women more than twice my age!!! Shame on me!! Alan and Steffen who played quite well, in the end, lost to the opponents whom they had to play 3 times due to some stupid double elimination rule. The rest of the gang did much better than me and went away with some medal of some sort.

All the girls..

Tyler attacking aunt Addy...

The tournament finally ended at about 6:45 pm which didn't leave us much time to drive to Santa Fe(an hour away) and make it to our dinner reservation at Geronimo's at 8:30 pm. But Steffen "Speedy Gonzalez" got us there anyways. We had a really good meal at my favorite restaurant and came up with a whopping bill of $830!!! But it was worth it.. :) We barely made it back to our rooms and I was out like a light.

Some of us can really clean up good with just 5 mins in the bathroom!

We had a lazy morning on Sunday and enjoyed some instant coffee at our fancy little apartment. I discovered this cute little place called El Rey Inn a couple years ago and have always wanted to stay there but it was always full. This time we were lucky and got it. It's got plenty of space and is beautifully decorated in Sante Fe style.

But as there was much more to see in Santa Fe itself, we unwillingly packed up and left. We headed to another favorite eating place of mine - Guadalupe Cafe where they serve the best blue corn enchiladas in green chile(and for spice crazies -- red chile). As the wait for a table was 45 mins, we decided to take a walk into downtown to knock off a few sights before brunch. We made it all the way to Hotel Loretto before getting summoned back by the restaurant.

All snuggled up at Guadalupe cafe..

I was slightly tempted to sell Tyler, but one look at his sad face brought me back to my senses.

As usual the food was fantastic and the company hilarious. With our tummies full, we continued on with the tour of Santa Fe visiting Loretto Chapel where we got married and other sights downtown. It was nice for us to be back in Santa Fe and everybody else seem to find Santa Fe equally delightful.

Family picture at Loretto Chapel

Soon, it was time for out long haul back to Colorado. Alan decided to take the scenic route home thru Taos(though most of us slept). It was a looooonnnnggg drive home and halfway thru, Tyler who had been doing well with the travelling, finally decided he had enough and started to protest, so, we had to let him out of his car seat for a bit. He even said he wanted to drive, so here we go...