Day 2 New Mexico: The big 3-0 day!
A day filled with immense birthday luck! We started early in the morning and made our way to Sante Fe to go to Bandelier National Park. It was just incredible to be around such history! People have lived on the Pajarito Plateau for at least eleven thousand years. Bandelier National monument is in the Frijoles Canyon where the Ancestral Pueblo people lived. They constructed their homes here and the remnants are what we saw and are pictured. They were smaller square homes that were often two or three stories tall. They had one hole in the ceiling to go up to the next floor with a ladder. Needless to say, James and I were way too tall for these homes lol. Frijoles Canyon was occupied from 1150 to 1550 CE and the Tyuonyi village here is said to have had about 100 people living in the homes and another 400 people in the cliff dwellings. They ground corn, chopped wood, made pottery, herded turkey, and more. Tyuonyi is one of the many pueblos around Bandelier and many are unexcavated at the request of the Pueblo people today.
Then we went to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and I didn’t look to see what time they closed when we got there. We arrived at 4:15 and they closed at 5. We figured we wouldn’t be able to go in, but they let us :’) Birthday luck #1 of the day. It was so cool to see all the different pieces in there!
My best friend told us to go eat at Tortilla Flats so we headed there after the museum. We got there around 5:30, but weren’t very hungry so we looked to see what else we could do. I remembered a few of my esthetician friends told me I had to go to Meow Wolf and it happened to be across the street from the restaurant! It’s an immersive art exhibit with interactive exhibits. When we parked there, there were signs that we had to buy our tickets online. When I went online to purchase the tickets, it said they were sold out! I told James maybe if we walk in and ask there might be a slim chance we could get in. Birthday luck #2 of the day!
We couldn’t really bring anything in so I left my camera in the glove compartment, but took out my memory card and put it in my pocket (PTSD from another vacation our rental car was broken into and my camera lenses were stolen) and a couple other small things under the seat. We loved the whole experience and it took us about 1.5 hours to figure the whole story out and see everything. By the time we finished, they were closed at 7 and I highly recommend the experience! We left and headed across the street to eat yummy foooood and as I was getting out of the car I took my phone out to get a picture of the restaurant sign and my heart immediately sank. I started absolutely panicking. My memory card wasn’t in my pocket! I went into a frenzy looking in my car seat and in the door, but nothing. I ran back across the street hoping a worker would still be there to talk with. I found someone outside and told them what happened. They were so empathetic about it and told me they would look for it and gave me the customer experience to call back to check if anyone found it. There was about a 0.01% chance of finding it in there. I accepted the fact that all my photos from the trip thus far were gone. I went back to the car and told James what they said. He was concerned they didn’t know we were from out of state and he wanted to see if we could look ourselves. We go back AGAIN and I started looking on the ground in the parking lot and the employee I talked with runs out to me… BEST BIRTHDAY LUCK #3 EVER. THEY FOUND IT! I said “please kiss whoever found this on the mouth for me!”. I was so f*cking happy! Then we finally went and had an amazing meal at Tortilla flats! New Mexico is known for their green chilies and they don’t disappoint! Fun fact we learned: when someone asks if you want red or green chilies on your food and you want both, you say “christmas”!
I had an amazing birthday and felt so loved from everyone :’) Thank you to everyone who send me messages and such kind words! It meant so so much to me!
