I often say that I “grew up” in Albuquerque – and while I did spend about five years there (very formative years at that) – seeing as it was only five years, that’s not completely true. Having said that, it was important to me to get back to Albuquerque, and New Mexico in general, on this trip. In many ways, getting back was actually the catalyst of this trip…

There were many times during the trip when I took a photo and just knew that it wasn’t going to do the site justice. Carlsbad Caverns pretty much epitomized that statement. You walk a mile down to get to the main hall and you’re just in awe the whole time – but getting great images in that darkness isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do! (Plus, I kept wondering when the sleestaks were going to suddenly appear…)

I saw a lot of cool “Welcome to ________ city” signs as I entered town after town – but nothing compared to the welcome in Roswell, New Mexico. They own this title, that’s for sure…

I know that this might be a little difficult to see, but I took this pic for a very deliberate reason: I’ve been telling people for years how there were roads in Albuquerque that just stopped and continued only in dirt – and I’d get these looks like I was out of my mind. While this isn’t in Albuquerque, it was in Texas, and I feel it was worth adding to this post…

True story – the Sandia Mountains have always been one of my favorite memories from my time in Albuquerque. Having said that, I always thought they were due north, when in reality, they’re actually due east, so the entire time I was there, I was directionally challenge – hey, I was like 6-10 when I was there, but, yeah, I’ve got no explanation for that whatsoever.

The Hiland Theater was my favorite spot to see a movie and we saw some good ones there (Grease, The Shining, Star Wars, Superman, to name a few). We always lived across town from it and it was a pain in the buttisimo to get to, but I’d beg my mom to go there for movies, mainly because it had a great balcony and most theaters simply didn’t have that going for them.

For those of you who have never been to the Southwest, that is a tumbleweed – more commonly known as the bane of every child’s existence while taking part in recess. Those things fly all over the place and they freaking hurt!

Loved this mural on the side of a tattoo shop on Route 66.

You can certainly correct me on this, but I’m pretty sure that everything is better in adobe.

This set includes a couple from Santa Fe (the train is awesome and so is that stuffed sopapilla from Tomasita’s!) I had had Blake’s Lottaburger built up in my head as the greatest burger ever – um, my memory played tricks on me with that one, we’ll just leave it at that. It’s still a cool sign, though! I spent a lot of time at Albuquerque Dukes’ games growing up, and got a chance to catch an Isotopes (AAA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies now) game while I was visiting. The last pic (bottom left) is the Pit – perhaps most famous for being the site of the famous North Carolina State Championship win over Phi Slamma Jamma in the 1983 NCAA Finals.

Old Town Albuquerque is also a great spot to spend some time. Just like adobe, I don’t think you can go wrong with kachina dolls or hanging some red chiles.

It seems like everywhere you turn there’s a cactus of some sort. I included some more shots of the Sandias, including a house at the bottom that I certainly wouldn’t mind owning…