New Mexico Road Trip

We took a road trip to New Mexico last week during the kids' spring break. It's the longest road trip we have done yet with the kids and it went pretty smoothly. Tablets in the car helped with that but the kids enjoyed the scenery too. It was fun to see the changes in terrain along the way and the hundreds of wind turbines in central and west Texas. We could see a few turbines pretty well because they were right by the highway.

We drove to Santa Fe first, where Michael's aunt Sylvia graciously let us use her retirement house for a few days. It was a 12-hour trek to Santa Fe if you don't include the hour we stretched our legs in Roswell. We really enjoyed Santa Fe where the majority of houses and buildings are adobe, the sunsets and surrounding mountains are breathtaking, there is art everywhere, and they put chiles in all the food (even McDonald's has an 'add chiles' option). Okay, Michael would have liked to have toned down the chile heat a little but we did enjoy some delicious local eats such as Harry's Roadhouse, The Plaza Cafe, The Shed, and Loyal Hound. Just north of Santa Fe we day-tripped it to Ski Santa Fe.

We spent the second half of the week at the Angel Fire Resort. We were literally there the last weekend they were open for skiing. With lows in the high 20s at night and afternoon temps in the low 60s there was icy snow in the morning and slushy snow in the afternoon. We all enjoyed the snow, tubing, skiing, and a magic show by Mysto. It was a 13-hour drive (with stops) from Angel Fire to Austin. Even though the snow on the mountain wasn't powdery, the roads were clear and dry thanks to the spring weather and that made it a much easier drive.

All smiles as we set out on our journey: