A Sunday Stroll Along the River

Our trusty hiking book tried to take us on a "hike" that ended up being a walk through a kind of questionable part of town... But luckily we were close to some trails along the Rio Grande so we decided to do that instead.  It was a beautiful day and there were some great wildflowers along the way!



     

     

Our first visitor!

We were so excited to have our first visitor in Albuquerque!  Julia came for a quick weekend trip and we tried to show her some of the fun we've been having and mostly ended up showing her lots of good food and drinks :)  The day she arrived we took her on one of our favorite hikes...







And then had some delicious pizza and nachos for lunch...

     

Then dinner and margaritas...



We did some more eating, drinking, and exploring of Nob Hill bars the next night...





And topped it off with bloody mary's and brunch :)



Also these beautiful flowers started blooming in our front yard while Julia was here!

     

First day of work!!!

I finally got to have my very first day as a PA-C!  I'm working at an allergy, asthma, and immunology practice called Breathe America (check the website again in a month or two for my photo and professional profile!).  Bailey was excited to help me get ready for my first day (with my super snazzy full length white coat!)...



The sunrise was gorgeous on my way to the office on day one...



And here's my office!  I'm so fancy, my name is already on my office door!





The first week was really good overall.  Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming, and I feel like I'm starting to catch on to the electronic medical record, which is probably the steepest part of the learning curve.  I'm excited to keep learning and getting more comfortable at my new work home :)  I even wrote my first prescription as an actual provider (it was for an Epi-Pen)!  Now I just have to continue training while we wait for my credentialing to be completed (this involves getting all of the different insurance companies to agree to pay for my services and typically takes several months).

Hike #9 (Bear Scat Trail) (aka the last day of #fUNemployment)

The day finally arrived... my state license was finally approved (3 weeks later than anticipated) so I could start work!  To celebrate, we decided to go for a hike (surprising, I know).  This hike had some different scenery than we had seen before, so it was a nice change!  There were tons of wildflowers everywhere, especially sunflowers just growing all over the meadows!

     

Luckily we didn't run into any snakes or other undesirable critters along the way.  We didn't find the turn-off we were looking for and the signs weren't particularly helpful along the way, so we ended up just doing about 4.5 miles out and back.



It was a nice, relaxing way to spend the morning and keep my mind off of being anxious about my first day!

Random pictures and such

Apparently August is monsoon season here in Albuquerque, so we are always getting these crazy afternoon thunderstorms.  They seem to start in the mountains all around us, but especially in the Sandias to the east, so as the sun is setting to the west and shining toward the mountains and rain in the east, we get these beautiful rainbows!  In the five weeks we've been here I think I've seen at least 5 rainbows!



Bailey has found a new favorite spot looking out the front window and semi-relaxing on the ottoman.  This is an especially favorite place when her daddy leaves her and she has to watch him go!

Hike #8 (Piedra Lisa Trail)

We were planning to do a variation of this trail (called the waterfall trail) in the hopes of finding running water, but unfortunately that branch was closed for the summer months in order to allow the wildlife time to have some privacy and multiply.  Instead we did a bit of this trail, which was more elevation than we were planning for, but we ended up with some pretty magnificent views.  I guess we'll have to visit again in the fall to find the waterfalls!





The pictures don't do it justice, but it was so pretty the way the clouds were rolling in over the mountains!

Santa Fe and Hike #7 (Hyde Memorial State Park)

We decided to venture outside of the Sandias for the day and head north to Santa Fe to explore.  The Sangre de Cristo Mountains lie to the north and east of Santa Fe and are technically part of the Rocky Mountains.  We found a hike in our book that begins at Hyde Memorial State Park.  It was a very steep climb for the first mile, which ended with more gorgeous views around 9,400 feet elevation (we started at 8,400).



By this point the dogs were ready for a treat (and so were we), so we stopped for some beef jerky...



The trail continued with more gradual ups and downs through the forest and along the ridge.  There were lots of wildflowers along the way too!



We took a little spur off of the main loop to check out the waterfall trail.  It was nice and shaded and we walked mostly along a dry creek bed until we go to the main attraction... the waterfalls here just aren't quite what we're used to!  Apparently they're much more interesting in the winter months though, and a lot of people like to ice climb when the water freezes.



After the hike we checked out downtown Santa Fe.  We had a lunch at a delicious, dog friendly restaurant called The Shed, and then wandered around for a little while to listen to the various musicians on the corners and check out the street vendors.



It's a cute town and I'm excited to visit again sometime!

Hike #6: Tree Springs Trail (again)

We found another hike we wanted to do that was close to the Tree Springs trail head, but when we got to the parking area it was barricaded off and closed due to fires in the area!  So since we were close to Tree Springs we decided to do the shorter version of the hike.  That version was about 4 miles round trip and took us up to a nice vista point of the city and the lower parts of the Sandia mountain range (with a very steep drop off on the edge!).

     

Just another great day of "fUNemployment" with the Camp crew!

     

(It was kind of windy up there!)

Hike #5: Coyote Trail

Another nice hike in the foothills.  This was a shorter hike (~2 hours) and had a lot of more gradual elevation changes and a nice mix of sun and shade.  After Bailey seemed to be suffering from heat exhaustion toward the end of our long hike (Tree Springs) the other day, we decided that it would probably be wise to stick to shorter hikes until the weather gets a little cooler.  Among other symptoms, she kept laying down in every shady spot we got to, and if you've met Bailey you know that this is NOT at all like her!  And I swear we're not terrible doggy parents, we always bring plenty of water for them but the silly dog just doesn't seem to drink enough of it to stay cool!

     

Hike #4: Rio Grande Nature Area

We wanted to explore the area around the Rio Grande,which runs north to south on the west side of town.  I have to say that we were a little disappointed with this "hike" (although it was really more of a walk/stroll).  About half of the trails in this area don't allow dogs on them at all and none of the trails really went along the river.  I think it would be a nicer place to walk when it's not so hot because a lot of it was in the sun (which was also a surprise/disappointment because our book talked a lot about the huge cottonwood tree grove in the area, so we thought there would be a little more shade).

  

There were little paths here and there that we could use to access the water, but overall it was kind of underwhelming for something called the "big river."  To be fair it is definitely the biggest river/body of water that we've seen since coming here, but I guess I'm just missing hikes with nice water access.  We also obviously got spoiled in Texas with all of the water themed dog parks!  At least Bailey got to get a little bit of a cool down at one point!

     

About half of the part that we walked was actually paved and would be a nice place for a bike ride in the fall of spring.  It runs between the trails on the river side and a drainage ditch (that's actually kind of pretty) on the other side.

     

Hike #3: Tree Springs Trail

In the summer there aren't really any springs anywhere, just arroyos (dry creek beds), so the name of this hike was a little deceiving.  It turned out to be a really great hike anyways, and luckily we packed enough water to make it through the whole thing despite there being no natural water anywhere to be found!  The first part of the hike was through a mostly wooded area that got less rocky and more pine needle floored as we ascended.



We ended up meeting some UNM PA students along the way up!  We hiked with them for a little while but they branched left at one point to do a shorter hike (they had to go study, of course) and we went right to continue up the eastern side of the Sandias.  The middle part of the hike was a whole bunch of switchbacks through several of the ski slopes (meadows at this time of year), which seemed terrifyingly steep to me but apparently were only greens and blues!  Maybe they'll look less daunting come winter with snow on them!  Finally we reached the top, and had some amazing views of Albuquerque an the surrounding mountains as a reward.

     



     

I think the pictures speak for themselves.  There were also some pretty wildflowers along the trail going down.  The Indian Paintbrushes remind me of hiking in CO as a kid.



A summary of the hike from Josh's Map-My-Hike app... it doesn't mention the 2000 foot elevation change... definitely a challenge!