Welcome to Albuquerque!

Branelle and I are in Albuquerque for the wedding of our friend Carla Haroz.  I’ve been to Nem Mexico numerous times but this was Nel’s first visit to the “Land of Enchantment”.  We flew in on Thursday on Southwest.  I like Southwest for the most part.  The fact that they don’t charge bag fees is nice (especially if you want to bring golf clubs along) and I kind of enjoy the relaxed attitudes of the gate and flight attendants.  Why shouldn’t you have fun at work?  What I DON’T like about them is the lack of assigned seats.  When you’re as big as I am, you feel bad if you have to ruin someone’s flight by squeezing in next to them at the last minute.  That said, I’ve had some “flying parties” on late night Southwest flights when the cabin is nearly empty and the flight attendants are ready to kick back and call it a day.  Thursday’s flight was in the early afternoon, so no 30,000 feet karaoke or open bar, but we had a row to ourselves and the flight was short and without incident.

Since we didn’t have a ton of luggage and weren’t planning on doing a lot of driving while here, I skimped on the rental car by going “Full Size” and ended up with a Hyundai Sonata (not sure what’s ‘full size’ about a Sonata).  The first one they gave us smelled like smoke so we swapped it out for another one and headed only a few miles into the Old Town section of Albuquerque. 

We’re staying at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town.  It’s a very nice Southwest themed resort and is host to most of the wedding activities.  On the outside it’s not that much to look at, but the inside and courtyards are extremely nice and very New Mexican.  Last night we went to a sort of unofficial get together for the bride and groom at the Apothecary  Lounge on the rooftop of the very swank Hotel Parq Central. 

The bride does not want to be photographed (actually it's just windy on the rooftop lounge).

The weather was perfect for being outside.  We ate and drank and mingled while watching the sunset and taking in the views of downtown and the surrounding mountains.  At about 10:00, my wimpy bunkmate decided she was still on Houston time and was exhausted and wasn’t going to make it much longer so we headed back to the hotel.  I was actually in one of my rare social moods (happens about twice a year) and also in “out-of-town-wedding-weekend-mode” so I was ready to shut the town down, but I gave in to my sleepy partner and called it a night. 

Nel and I chilling at our hotel.