Biking the Rio Grande

Our house is just a few blocks away from the Rio Grande, and this has quickly become one of my favorite aspects of living in the area of town that we do.  The city of Albuquerque maintains a really amazing multi-use path along the river, through the protected bosque, which runs 16 miles one-way.  It's beautifully paved, crosses under all major streets, and has entry-points in numerous locations.  And from my front door, it takes me only 0.7 miles to be on the path!

Now that Daylight Saving Time has given me more light in the evenings (this is so refreshing to me- I'd forgotten how nice DST is after 5 years in AZ!), I actually have enough time in the evenings to come home after work and still be able to ride my bike 20-25 miles before it gets dark.  I'll be in the field for a while starting up again this coming week, but these last couple of weeks have been filled with really great early-evening bike rides.  And many of Albuquerque's famous hot air balloons like to fly in the evenings, so sometimes I get to watch them float over the river while I ride.  Not too shabby.

Back in February, when there was still lots of snow on the mountains. 

The Rio is to the left in this picture, on the other side of the trees.  To the right is a small irrigation canal, and behind that is a bunch of gorgeous ranches and mansions with horses and alpacas and ostriches and donkeys.

Standing on the Alameda bridge, right above the Rio Grande.

Snowshod St. Patty's

This past Saturday, we decided to take what could be one of our last opportunities to play in the snow this season.  I got some new showshoes right before we left Tucson, and have been itching to try them out, but in the last weeks the snow in the Sandias has lessened considerably.  So, we traveled up to Santa Fe and drove a good way up into the mountains in search of a decent, snow-covered trail.  We ended up taking the Aspen Vista Trail, which is perfectly described by its name.  And though we didn't travel very far, we managed to get in a good morning workout and enjoy the sunny hike through the snow.

Then we tooled around the Santa Fe Plaza, checked out some shops, and ate at one of my favorite breweries.  No green beer or corned beef (eww), but a successful St. Patrick's day nonetheless.

... and I'll give you one guess as to what's in the Nalgene.

Thrifty

I am the queen of Craig's List.  

Check out this antique buffet cabinet that I found a couple of weeks ago for just $20:

It was pretty ugly when I got it, but I convinced Josh to cut some new shelves for it and I figured I could spruce it up a little bit with some paint.  

The end result is actually way, way better than I had anticipated.  I'm pretty proud of myself for this one!