The Sandia Tram and the Wild Desert

Its been another exciting week for us in the ABQ!  We have both been super busy, as always.  Neal, with school...and me with several photo shoots!  But more on that later.  Thursday, we were able to experience the Sandia Peak Tram.  Remember all those mountains to the East?  Yeah, we went to the top!  The Sandia Tram is basically a little box that shuttles people up the mountain on a cable - yep, just dangling all the way up!  Not only that, but the Sandia Tram is the world's longest tram and ascends about 4,000 ft in 15 min.  The final destination is the peak at 10,378 ft.  The view was absolutely breathtaking.

This adventure began when we headed to the mountain around 6 pm, hoping to catch the sunset and some city lights on the way back down.  We found the tram, checked in, and soon after - we boarded!

 

  

  

  

  

And then...We finally made it to the top! And yes..that is snow! It is generally 30 degrees colder on top of the mountain.  It was 60 deg. that day so it was about 30 deg. at the top.  The East side of the mountain is still completely snow covered, in several feet of snow.  That is the snow skiing side - as you can see from the ski lifts...

  



For our nephews: Clayton and Levi!

While waiting for the ride back down, we grabbed a bite at High Finance - the restaurant at the top of the mountain AND happens to be the highest elevated eating establishment in North America at 10,378 ft! Let's just say that one beer I had up there was all i needed...

So then it was time to go back down..

  

  

  

So there we are!  We made it back and as you can see...the view was AMAZING!  We hope to go back again before we leave..possible a night ride so we can catch more of the city lights!

Moving on with the week, I have been very fortunate and have had the opportunity to work with an amazing photographer this week.  We have done a couple shoots, Tuesday in the studio and Sunday was on location.  I am so excited to see the photos!  We have definitely had fun and I know they will be great! But what truly made the shoot Sunday great was where we were shooting.  We headed out to the Ojito Wilderness - about 30 minutes North of ABQ.  It was an early day, beginning with me getting up at 5 am to meet the crew at 6 am to get on location at 7 am.  I have to say it was totally worth getting to see the sunrise in the actual wild desert.  It was truly one of the most oddly beautiful and amazing places I have ever been.  

  

This photo is to show how big this rock formation really is, compared to the equipment.  This is where we shot most of the stuff.  Some of the shots were on top of this rock - we had to constantly climb up and down it all day!

  

See that curve at the base of the second rock? This is the view behind it from there...

On a side note...at 5-7 am this time of year, it's about 40 degrees.  It was soooo cold!! But when the sun came up it got hot. fast. Around the 80's I believe.  The sun is so hot here, let's just say I got SCORCHED!  Makes for a nice tan though. :)

Our exciting weekend!

 

It has been an exciting weekend here in ABQ!  As you all know, Saturday was St. Patrick's Day!  That night we went out and celebrated with all of our new friends..but during the day, we went on a new adventure!  We went to the Petroglyph National Monument just to the West side of Albuquerque.  Here, there are 5 ancient volcanoes that had created a huge lava-flow mesa around them.  In all of these lava rocks are trails and hiking paths that go up and through this mesa.  We spent the day exploring this amazing landscape!  If that wasn't awesome enough, what was really to see here is the Petroglyphs.  In ancient times, the Pueblo Indians - who lived here then - would use this mesa as hunting and spiritual grounds.  So, these rocks and land is covered in Petroglyphs, or rock drawings.  Most of these are from 400-700 years old.  The oldest dating older than 1000 years old.  It was truly amazing to see!

Amazing huh?  I still can't believe we live here!  We can't wait to visit the actual volcanoes that created all this...as well as the still existing Pueblo Indians!  Stay tuned for that!

Moving on with our weekend...I'll tell you what is really amazing.  See how beautiful it was Saturday?  PERFECT weather!  Well, when it storms here, it obviously doesn't rain - it's the desert.  It does lightning and thunder...but it is SO WINDY!  Wind like I have never felt before!  And, like I said, this is the desert so there is no grass - in fact there is no dirt.  It's all SAND.  So what did we get Sunday?  A major sand storm.

 

Luckily, after St. Patty's Day...Sunday was a day of recovery and relaxation (hehe) and we were able to stay inside while we listened to this craziness outside.  To get these pictures we went out for just a bit to take a friend back to their car...at one point we were still this close behind and we could not see them. at all.  It was a little scary.... not to mention at least half the city was out of power.

One more thing about this - later Sunday night it did start raining slightly.  We took Bailey out for a walk before bedtime and the one thing I could notice more than anything is the smell.  To my fellow Missourians (or friends who live in grassy places)...you know how when it rains in springtime and it smells good?  Like fresh grass...or like, well, spring?  They even have candles made after it.  Well the first thing I noticed was it smelled like wet dirt.  Like mud kind of.  Kind of like gardening...or playing in the mud as a kid and then having to get washed off with a watering hose?  It was really strange.  But really, after such a huge sand storm literally everything was covered in dirt and sand and now wet.  Yuck!

And by the way - I am also doing a model video blog for The Network - basically a huge network that connects hundreds of modeling agencies all over the world.  They had asked me to be a part of their travel model blogs before I left Little Rock and my first blog is up!  Check it out here:

http://www.thenetworktalent.com/articles/_/travel-models/travel-model-kori-r882 

Thats all for now! Thanks for checking in!  

Look what we have done in a week!

We have been in Albuquerque a little over a week and a half, and it has been great so far!  I was having a little bit of a hard time adjusting the first few days, especially because of the huge culture shock.  But now we are really settling in.  There are a few things that are just simply amazing about this place...

1. The Mountains - Walking out the door and seeing these huge mountains everyday is breath taking!
2. The food! - Seriously some of the best food we have ever eaten.  So far, we have eaten at a Bailey's Beach Bar (yes in the desert), an amazing pizza place, Frontier New Mexican Food, Fuzzy's Taco Shop (twice), and multiple other random places.  We seriously eat until we make ourselves sick every time!  Oh yeah, and we love to get it Christmas style!  (red AND green chiles!)
3. The people - Everyone is so nice here!  It seems like every one is a little on the "Hippie" side and just "goes with it".  And very helpful!

Neal is having a great time at school.  He has a great crew he's training with and he's having a lot of fun!  I have been super busy.  Mostly just getting us settled in and taking Bailey to the dog park.  However, last week I had a merchandising job (yahoo!).  And last weekend, I had a fashion/hair show!  This fashion show was for all the Aveda salons in Albuquerque.  Each salon had a small part in the show with a different theme, kind of like a mini show.  I was part of the Aveda Institute's show.  Our theme was the decades, and I was the 2000's!  They decided to dress me up like a "raver" girl.  It was definitely interesting!

Scary huh?  Ashley and Jennae did an AWESOME job on my hair and makeup!  Everyone else looked great as well!  Here is a video of my part of the show!  (Special thanks to my WONDERFUL husband for helping me get this video on here...it was NOT easy!!)

Here is a close up picture of me during of the show...

Anyway, it was super fun and I can't wait to see what Albuquerque has to offer next!

This weekend we are going to try and explore!  We will do something fun for sure!  So check back!

On the road to Albuquerque...PART 2 We made it!

Ahh...finally! We made it to Albuquerque!  After staying in Amarillo, TX Saturday night, we left early in the morning, and headed West.  If I thought there wasn't anything in Oklahoma, there DEFINITELY isn't anything in Texas!  What little bit we drove through, I had never seen so much nothingness in my life!  I have heard quite a few people say how there isn't anything in Missouri, but really.  At one point, we literally did not get one radio station!  And then, finally, when we did get one it was in Spanish!  We laughed a lot about this.  

Things started getting more interesting once we got into New Mexico.  First of all, the time changed at the state line.  And, the landscape began to change into desert.  Land forms, like plateaus, started popping up that I had never seen before!  I started looking for tumbleweeds and cacti, and even saw a few!  (No John Wayne though...) And then I finally saw the mountains.  Far off in the distance I could see them.  I had only seen them once in my life before, a long time ago.  Neal has seen them plenty I'm sure.  Needless to say I was pretty excited!  So, we headed straight for them and they kept getting closer and closer.  And before I knew it, we were IN the mountains!  On the other side was Albuquerque.  (By the way, sorry the pictures aren't the best.  We realized Sunday our camera was dead and the movers had packed up our charger.  So these are from my phone and our windshield was super dirty.)

First glimpse of the mountains!!

Getting closer...

View from base...

Our part of the duplex!

We found our new home pretty easily.  We are renting a little duplex on the SE part of town.  It's right outside of Kirtland Air Force Base and we can actually see the base gate from the end of our street.  The area is great too, with lots of shops and restaurants.  The duplex is completely furnished so we hardly had to bring anything with us.  In fact, we got in by noon and by 6 p.m. had everything unpacked and settled in.  We love it!  However, I have never seen anywhere like this city before.  First, there is no grass and no green.  People have rock yards instead of grass.  On a side note, our neighbor has cacti in their yard and me, never seeing one before, i just "had" to touch it, even after my wonderful husband told me not to.  I think you can figure out the rest of that story.  Anyway, the architecture is also very different.  Everything is an "adobe" style building.  Even our house!  It is definitely going to take some getting used to.  But most of all, seeing these huge mountains everyday is unreal, and very cool.

We have only been here for one day so far and this is a pretty cool place.  We checked out the base this morning, which is HUGE, compared to what we are used to.  Sadly, I fear I have Altitude Sickness.  Neal warned me about this and I think he was right.  Because we are in the mountains and so high up, the air is thinner and I am not getting as much oxygen as I am used to.  Not to mention it's super dry and I can't seem to drink enough water either.  I have been feeling worse and worse all day.  Not horrible, just headache, tired, and in general not feeling good.  I should get used to this altitude in a day or two.  In the mean time, Neal has to check in tomorrow and I am going to job hunt!  

One more thing from our old home in Little Rock.  Because I was the cover model of Arkansas Bride magazine, they were kind enough to do a feature on our wedding on their website!  It's really awesome!  You can check it out here: 

http://www.inarkansas.com/article/arkansas-bride/29655/real-wedding-arkansas-bride-cover-model-kori-fowler-gets-married

In the mean time, stay tuned!  I think this city will be very interesting.....