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| Seriously, there were four of us. Someone had to take this picture atop Sandia Mountain. |
All four of us traveled to New Mexico this weekend for the wedding of a long-time friend. We received the invitation a few months ago and it took us a little while to decide that all four of us would go. But what about the expense? Will we have as much fun if the kids are with us? Will all four of us be too tired after a long trip in Hawaii? Didn't matter. We're a family. And families take advantage of opportunities like this.
The four-day weekend really was a five-day adventure. We left Lansdale at about 3:07 am on Friday. We returned at 3:30 am on Tuesday. I guess it's better to have ugly delays on the return trip than on the "to" trip.
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| About as far from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport as one could be. |
Let's get back, though, to the four-day weekend. Brian and Michael had some really neat festivities planned for their guests, though we had to miss the first one. We built a weekend of sight-seeing around the great party they threw for guests on Friday and a great wedding celebration on Saturday. We visited two National Park Service sites, a museum, a state capitol, and the strangest art exhibit I could have ever imagined. Oh, and we squeezed in a hike and a Minor League baseball game.
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| Meals, too. We had some great meals. On Day 1 it was at High Noon Cafe in Albuquerque. |
There were three sites in particular that we visited which made me realize how awful it would've been to come home and say "Hey, kids, we saw . . ." Petroglyph National Monument was a wondrous little gem, a very approachable introduction to New Mexico's history and culture. Meow Wolf would simply have not been fun without them. And Bandelier . . . there was enough there for another post entirely.
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| Really about the weirdest place I've ever visited. Meow Wolf. I appreciated it more near the end of our time there. In fact, I came to like it. But for 45 minutes it was disequilibrializing. |
This is all possible, of course, due to the generosity of two friends, one we've cherished for years and the other we're coming to know. Brian and Michael put together a wedding that was more thoughtful of its guests than any other I can remember. It's a shame we missed the hike Friday morning. But the venue they chose, Eldorado Hotel, was charming and they warned us well ahead of time of the need to book early (due to the Indian market in town). Their white party on Friday was a wonderful introduction for guests from around the country. Their wedding featured tables surrounding the couple marrying, and we were part of the ceremony from seats that we would keep for dinner. When we asked back in June if our kids were welcome, the answer was of course.
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| With Brian and Michael. |
For some reason we were able to do all of this on one tank of fuel in our rental Malibu. I'm sorry for the lame means by which I'm keeping to theme.
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| Santa Fe and Albuquerque are surprisingly close. |
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In many ways, I feel like a circle got completed. Of all my friends, Brian feels the most like a family member. I don't say that to disparage any other friendship, simply to point out that my bond with Brian feels like it's somewhere in that land between brother and cousin. I often joke that he's my ex-relative (seriously, we were distantly related by marriage until some divorce took place somewhere around 1999). But over more than two decades of friendship I've been able to share a love of history, music, and (I know this sounds odd) heritage with him that doesn't normally exist with others. I look forward to his visits back home to his family when he and I usually find a way to make lunch or dinner work. I look at photos from my own wedding back in 1999 and realize that this might be the final wedding from my college cohort of friends that I'll get to celebrate.
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| Brian is behind Sherry's left shoulder in this pre-digital-age pic. |
And I'm honored to have been there to witness it and share in his and Michael's hospitality.
A Malibu is a fantastic car!
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