I stayed at my cousin's place overnight and the next day we were on the road at 9 am. After 400+ miles and 6.5 hours of driving, we were in Albuquerque, NM. My cousin drove all the way with only half an hour break. Two of the things are very popular in NM that are adobe homes and chilles. Adobe homes were very different and unique compared to the wooden homes that you see everywhere in US and it also reminded me of homes in India since they seem very similar. We got to hotel and rested for while and then went to see the bride and the groom. It waas nice of my cousin's friend to let me be part of their celebration. After saying hello to the bride and her families, we went back to the room and ordered pizza. We were both very tired, so we called it a night early that day.
Next morning, we got ready by 8:30 am and headed to see some volcanoes that had been erupted 100,000+ years ago and now has become one of the sight seeing places in Petroglyph national park. There were hiking trails where you can hike to the top of the volcanoes and see the scenic view of the entire city. The hike was moderate and duable. There were 3 volcanoes in a row but we hiked to the first 2 and decided to skip the 3rd one since we assumed it was going to be the same as the first two :P. The 3rd one was a bit too far and looking at it, it wasn't going to be any different from the ones we already saw. The two volcanoes we did hike were JA Volcano and Black Volcano. As we got to the top, we saw more and more black volcano rocks which were pretty unique. Also on our way of hike, we encounted numerous variety of bugs that I have never seen in my life. Thankfully, no spiders though! After a 1 hour hike, we headed to go to Boca Negra Canyon where we saw the polygraphs along the 3 self-guided hiking trail where one of the hikes was pretty steep. And we are sure we heard chirping of a rattle snake on the way. Obviously, we didn't peak back to see what it was but instead started running towards the other side of the chirping :D. There were hundreds of carvings on the lava rocks that must have been made thousands of years ago by American Indians. Unfortunately, they didn't have much info on this, so I can't tell you much either. But overall, the whole experience was pretty neat.
After almost 3 hours of sight seeing and a lot of hiking, we were tired. Since the wedding was in the evening, we got back to the hotel in the afternoon, rested and started getting ready.
About the wedding: Location - fabulous, ceremony - fabulous, weather - perfect, people - too nice, and dancing - can't complain. In short, a beautiful wedding! The wedding was held outside on a golf course with the backdrop of beautiful mountains and sun shining high to welcome the bride and the groom. The family and friends of the bride and the groom were all so nice and so happy for both of them. Check out the view!
After the wedding, we headed to the reception, mingled with other friends, and then hit the dance floor hard! To be honest, there was a lot of alcohol flowing and a lot of people got drunk. We had to take the shuttle back to the hotel so took the final shuttle at 11:30 pm and I assure you that besides me, my cousin and the driver, everyone else was drunk! I even remember that one of my cosin's friend said out loud to the driver "Mr. human delivery man, please turn the car around" since he forgot to pick up the bride's sister :P. It was hillarious! She is awesome! We got back to our room and I immediately went to sleep.
Woke up next day and packed our bags. Met the bride and her family and said our good byes and started heading home around 11 am. On the way, we saw some beautiful scneary, miles and miles of mountains completely covered with green trees. But it kind of gets boring once we pass the Las vegas, NM until we come to Trinidad. Anyways, in the last hour of our trip, we hit the horrible traffic :(. Finally we get home around 6 pm. Home sweet home!
The trip was great and the wedding was fantastic. I don't mind road trips, but it gets very tiring when you have to sit through in traffic. Thanks to my cousin and my cousin's friend for inviting me and taking me to the wedding. It was great celebration and weekend well spent in New Mexico.
