Long Weekend in Boone: July 2008

Two months to go until Erik returns from deployment, so I drive up to the Boone, NC area to spend a long weekend at my aunt and uncle's house on Sugar Mountain. My parents meet us, and we all have a wonderful, relaxing time in the mountains. Below are some photos from a drive along the Blue Ridge.

My parents and I relaxing on the back deck of my aunt and uncle's house. It is so quiet in the mountains...just the kind of vacation that I stressed military wife needs!

My Aunt Terri and I taking a walk around her Sugar Mountain neighborhood.

The Airforce Wife's Trip to Albuquerque: June 2008

While Erik was deployed for 6 months this past year, I realized the only way I would survive was to always have something to look forward to each month. To mark the halfway point of his deployment, I took a trip out to ABQ to spend a few days with Erik's family. It was wonderful being bathed in so much love and support!

No trip to ABQ is complete without a trip up to the Sandia Mountains via the tramway. You get an amazing view of the city.

During my trip to Albuquerque, I went with my parents-in-law and niece-in-law south of the city to the Acoma Pueblo. This reservation includes a tall mesa, on the top of which the original village was built. A tribal elder hosted a wonderful walking tour of the mesa town. Many of the older tribe members still live on the top of the mesa, despite the lack of running water and electricity.

The above image is a traditional Acoma stove. Below are great views from the top of the mesa.

After taking the tour of the Acoma Pueblo, the guide told us we had two ways to get back down from the mesa: a bus or the steps. The steps had been cut into the side of the rock by the Native Americans and were the only way for the villagers to descend to ground level for hundreds of years. So as not to look like a chicken in front of my in-laws, I cheerfully agreed to climb down the side of the rock. As you can see from the photos below, the descent was not as simple as I thought. I made sure my father-in-law was ready to catch me at any time.

To clarify: I am NOT afraid of heights! I actually love heights. I'm just quite clumsy and have some depth-perception problems that make climbing down from the heights a bit sketchy!