We left early Friday morning and got in ABQ at lunch time. We thoroughly enjoyed eating at resturaunts we don't have in Durango. Our first stop was Chick Fil A. Yum!
After lunch we headed to the ABQ zoo and aquarium. I'm so glad we did. They don't really compare to the ones in Denver but they're far better than the ones we have in Durango (we call the local fish store the Durango zoo!).
The kids especially loved the shark tank. I think we all could've sat and stared for quite a while!
After the aquarium we wandered the zoo and loved seeing the polar bears and seals get fed. The zoo doesn't take long to see everything. It's quite compact!
Look at the sweet baby chimpanzees!
From there we left and found our hotel. We had heard about Hotel Cascada from some friends. It's a hotel with an indoor water park. I had hoped to go down not on a weekend (take advantage of our homeschool schedule and avoid crowds) but they have different winter hours and were only open on the weekend. Bummer. So we swam with a few hundred of our closest friends ;) I'm pretty sure there were a dozen or more parties happening there this weekend. It's the place to go!
*Not my photo
We had a great time though. The hardest part was that Mark and I were both battling colds the entire weekend. Makes swimming a bit more cold and challenging. It definitely motivated us to get the kids into swim lessons ASAP.
We swam part of the day Saturday then went shopping for some clothes for the kids. And I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. I just had to throw that in for the record. It's taken me several years to succumb to this trend...here's hoping I don't look like I poured myself into them!
Anywho, after shopping we took the kids to Cracker Barrel (not helping me at all with the trying to not look like I was poured into my pants!). I forgot how much food they give you!
We thought for 10 seconds about swimming but decided going back to the room and watching the food network sounded way more fun. My kids love Chopped! Unfortunately we had some late night partying neighbors move in next door on Saturday so getting to sleep was a bit challenging. We had to call the front desk when they wouldn't get quiet after Mark asked them to (I promise we waited until after 10pm although I probably could've been asleep at 7).
We got up and ate breakfast in the room. I let my kids pick cereal for the trip before we left. Lesson learned. Sugar on top of sugar is what they picked. Oy!
After breakfast we went and swam for another hour before showering and heading out. We ate lunch at Red Robin - Mark's favorite - and drove home to 7 inches of snow. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that there was no snow in New Mexico and as soon as we crossed the border - bam. Snow. Beautiful snow.
Now to unpack and start laundry. It was a great weekend of making memories.
