Day 5: Carlsbad to Roswell

Miles driven: 117

I don’t even know how to choose the pictures from today. Carlsbad Caverns left us speechless.

It was cold when we first were down in the caves, 750 feet below the surface, so we had to buy hoodies in the gift shop. We were twins.

We lost count of the alien statues we saw on our way to Roswell and stopped by the Roswell Spacewalk.

We walked around Roswell for a bit.

After Mom won a round of the game Phase 10, we caught a lovely sunset.

Day 4: Truth or Consequences to Carlsbad

Miles driven: 318

The fastest way between T or C and Carlsbad was to take the 10 through Texas. We took the longer route and did not regret that.

First stop was White Sands National Monument and it was magical.

We drove through a part of Lincoln National Forest and did not expect to see this landscape in New Mexico.

And there was nothing…

And we drove into this…

To get rewarded with this at the end of the day.

Day 3: Tombstone, AZ to Truth or Consequences, NM

Miles traveled: 308

When we first planning this trip, I saw a small town on a map and knew we had to drive through it just so I could snap a picture of the sign.

This tiny detour let us see a few cows in the wild.

The views were stunning as we made our way into New Mexico.

Most of the towns we’ve passed through have been quiet and then we drove through Hatch, NM and it was chili central and smelled like a spicy heaven. These are chilis roasting and drying on a roof.

We settled into Truth or Consequences

Day 1: California and Massachusetts meet up in Phoenix.

We met up in the car rental spot at the airport, jumped in the Escalade and both were eager for Mexican food. We were very happy with our choice. The chips were so fresh that we could hear the sizzle as they were placed in front of our drooling faces.

We saw an ad for the Musical Instrument Museum and made our way after lunch while seeing some charm of Phoenix.

We were really excited to see a few Haynes flutes on display!

We then made our way to our hotel, had and amazing dinner and plopped down on our patio to play some National Park trivia until we were interrupted by a stunning thunderstorm we watched under an umbrella.

Tomorrow we hit the open road!

Boat trips: playing tourist in Boston

Mom comes to Boston twice a year for work and we like spend the weekends traveling around New England. This weekend we decided to stay in town and do some touristy things. We started our day by taking a water taxi, The Vivian Li, over to Long Wharf for lunch.

We then jumped on another boat to take in a historic cruise of the harbor and some of the islands.

Boat trip number three was from Long Wharf over to Charlestown to take in the USS Constitution that I am lucky enough to see her masts everyday at work.

It was a perfect spring day!

Day 10: Denver, CO to our homes

Google “DIA conspiracy”. Go on, just do it, it’s fun.

We got to the airport early to see what we could find in the Jeppesen Terminal. It’s currently being renovated so not all of the insane art is visible and is in storagw for its protection but we did get to see a few things like….

Blucifer who killed his artist.

This mural that is tame compared to others.

We were walking near baggage claim looking for gargoyles and we spotted the bright colors of those murals and these two were just as insane in person that we hopped they would be.

We would have totally missed this treasure this if we didn’t have hug.

One things for sure, DIA is embracing the weird with this renovation.

This was a wonderful vacation and thanks for following along with us. We get to do mini road trips at least twice a year so we may update this in the future. Also, visit all the National Parks you can. They’re always perfect.

❤️ – ShooKy

Day 9: Snowmass, CO to Denver, CO see

Miles driven today: 227

We headed to Aspen to window shop and eat. We walked across this park we watched fireworks over 30 years ago.

This happened after lunch.

We then headed back to Denver and drove through the Rockies.

We returned our trusty BMW and headed to our hotel at DIA. We reviewed our original plan (yellow highlighter) and compared it to what we actually did (blue highlighter).

We had an estimate of 2,200 miles but we ended with 3,224!!!!!

At our first stop, we picked up National Park Passports where you can collect stamps and stickers at visitor centers. We made a decent dent into our own collections.

Were not quite done yet. We have some time before we fly out to see what we can stumble across.

❤️ – ShooKy