Saturday, July 13, 2013

Coming Home

Eric & I are back in NM after a great vacation in Idaho. We spend almost a full day traveling from Boise to Santa Fe in planes, trains, and automobiles, quite literally. It was our first time taking the Rail Runner, the train that runs between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and it was awesome. As we rode past the scenery of northern New Mexico, eager to get back to our kitty and our apartment, Eric said something along the lines of, "Now that we've left Santa Fe and are coming back, it's really starting to feel like home."

He's right. Walking home from the train station, it was easier than ever to appreciate everything I love about Santa Fe: the smell of a desert rainstorm, the beautiful green hills surrounded by adobe abodes, the undeniably incredible food, the art, and all the eccentricities that the city and its people possess. It is good to be home.

Honestly, one of the best things about being home is being reunited with our favorite lil' fuzzball:
Nothing makes you feel better after a long day of travel than having an adorable cat purr contently on your lap. Having a pet is really the best. (Even if he does try to eat our chips and sandwiches when our backs are turned.)

So like I said, we had a vacation!
Six days of rafting down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, to be exact. Before last week I had never rafted and I had never spent any significant amount of time in Idaho; I am pleased to say that both were amazing. Central Idaho was green and mountainous and full of natural wonders, and I got to see many a wondrous thing while rafting. The best thing about rafting, in my opinion, is that you see things from a vantage point that few people get to have, since you're right on the river in what is often an area not inhabited by humans. Sitting in hot springs is always great, but sitting in hot springs that you can only get to by rafting down a river for two days makes you feel slightly pioneer-esque on top of that.
Eric & me loving the hot springs with some others on our trip.
The hot springs were definitely a highlight of the trip. I also loved hiking up to a waterfall over a cave, seeing some awesome birds (including a BALD EAGLE on the 4TH OF JULY), eating the delicious food made by our rafting guides, learning about the environment & history of the Middle Fork, and spotting some baby bighorn sheep with their mamas! I also, for the first time ever, got a tan on my legs. (Seriously, this has never happened before.)

One of many beautiful sights from the river.
Oh, and the rapids weren't bad, either.

I'm on this raft, on the middle of the left side.
If anyone is thinking of rafting down the Middle Fork in the near future, I highly recommend checking out ARTA. Let me reiterate that the food they made for us was delicious.

So that was our vacation, but before we left, we had an equally awesome time showing our friend Mallory around Santa Fe! Mallory is one of our friends from Colorado and one of the few people that knew both Eric & I before we started dating way back in 2005. She just moved to Taos, which we are stoked about, and she came and visited us!  We got to take her to a couple of our favorite places in Santa Fe and watch a couple episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Me and Mallory!
We can't wait to visit her in Taos soon! And in more exciting friend news, three of our friends from Colorado are visiting us next week! 

It's good to be back in the land of chiles, sopaipillas, and desert adventures.



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