Nicole's 30 Before 30: New Mexico

New Mexico certainly lived up to it's tag line in my experience. Full of surprises. So much beauty, so many discoveries!

Surprise #1: Southern New Mexico is home to an international space hall of fame/museum. It was fun and educational to wander around and read about the role of New Mexico in space exploration and the fascinating men and women who have contributed in this field. I particularly loved the pictures of earth from space - incredible!

Surprise #2: The number of check points we went through and the number of times our answer of "Yes" to the question "America citizens?" got us a nod to drive on.

Surprise #3: Miles and miles of beach like sand dunes in New Mexico? Yep! Gorgeous! So glad we went twice. Once for a twilight picnic on full moon night, ending with a concert from a group of men from the local army base. Again for a sand sledding and jumping adventure.

The desert is beautiful. Different than many other places in the world to be sure, but definitely beautiful. The adaptability and resilience of the plants and wildlife there is awe inspiring to me.

I also greatly enjoyed the wide open spaces and the slower pace of the Southwest. Driving for hours and mainly seeing nature was relaxing and rejuvenating to me.

One of the discoveries I made was the beauty of the Carlsbad Caverns. There is a huge bat colony that lives there, and they led to the exploration of the cave which ultimately became a national park. This significantly surpasses in size any cave I've been in to date. I couldn't stop staring at the diversity of formations in the cave. I took more pictures than I care to admit :)

I also was introduced to this amazing collection of petroglyphs - not ever sure how this was possible:

Of course, this trip would not have been complete without some traditional Mexican food. Napolita's had all the traditional fare, and I chose the gorditas, at Janae's recommendation. They were tasty.

I went to church with Janae, and everyone was so kind to me (and clearly enjoy having Janae around :) it was entertaining to hear people's thoughts and questions when they learned I live on Manhattan. And I particularly liked talking to one woman who herself lived in Manhattan a couple decades ago, and the Bishop and his counselor who have no interest in living in the city, but said they are happy to live through me...

Walking around historic old Mesilla was also a treat. I don't know the history/significance of blue doors on adobe houses, but I sure enjoyed them. Again, there were beautiful desert plants as well!