Old Town Albuquerque is a great place to spend a few hours shopping, eating, and soaking up the history. We ate at the historic and tasty Church Street Cafe. This restaurant is a converted dwelling thought to be the oldest home in Albuquerque and one of the oldest structures in the state.

The beautiful Catholic church built in 1793 still conducts services today.

When I think of Albuquerque, NM; I think of the Annual International Balloon Fiesta. Unfortunately, that event takes place in the fall. The next best thing to the festival is the International Balloon Museum. Here you get the history of ballooning from Europe to its evolution throughout the world.

Scott and I were really interested to see the petroglyphs at the Petroglyph National Monument. A petroglyph is a rock carving. Archeologist estimate that most of the images were made 400 to 700 year ago by the ancestors of today’s Native people.

Within the Cibolo National Forest is the Sandia Peak Tramway which is a must see. The tram goes from a base elevation of 6,559 feet to a top elevation of 10,378 feet. A trip up the mountain takes fifteen minutes to ascend 3,819 ft, and the normal operating speed of the tram is 12 miles per hour. From the top of the mountain you can see all of Albuquerque and have fantastic views of the canyon. We went later in the day and waited for the sunset – beautiful.