A post by the youngest Jung…Carrie

It took some convincing, but after 6 months, I finally got both of my parents to visit me in Albuquerque. Mom was an easy sell. After her trip here last August, she knew just how much fun Albuquerque and the land of enchantment could be…but my dad, was a different story. It seemed that work and various other things always seemed to get in the way, but soon my unrelenting pestering got the best of him and before Mom and Dad had a chance to say no…I booked them a ticket to Albuquerque.
They arrived in the ABQ late on a Thursday night…but after a good night’s sleep we began what was to be a power packed and green chile packed weekend. (For those of you not from New Mexico…New Mexicans LOVE green chile and it can be found atop most any entree you order out here)
One of our first plans was to head up Sandia Peak via the tram…but said plans were foiled by an unusual rain storm (it doesn’t rain much here in the desert). We took it in stride though, and headed to Old Town Albuquerque instead. Which…as you can see, turned out to be a lot of fun.

A gargantuan lunch at El Pinto was on the docket next, which was to be our first of many doses of the New Mexico Green Chile.
Pretty soon, it was time to head back to the house. Even though the gang had solid plans to take naps next, I still had to head into KUNM to host All Things Considered. And while the idea of work while my family visited seamed like a buzz kill, we managed to turn it into an activity…as Mom, Dad, and Jon showed up at the station to watch me host the last half hour of the show (ok, so that idea was partly mine too). And I think that everyone was pretty excited to check out the control room. Mom was sure to whip out her camera to document the whole experience as soon as my mic was off.

The next day was Santa Fe! After another huge lunch FILLED with green chiles, we headed off to check out the various street vendors and shops. I know the trip to Santa Fe was especially useful for Mom as she was sure to snap pictures of Native American art we found, all of the colorful tiles that line the shops, all of the beautiful ceramics at our favorite shop, The Rainbow Man.

Hmm…Perhaps we could have expensed this trip because it provided mom with so much pattern inspiration???

It was a power packed day of shopping, but before we left the area, my husband Jon and I took a detour up the mountain to check out the Aspen trees…whose leaves were supposed to be in full Fall colors.

We indeed found the colorful Aspens we were looking for, but we also found snow! And the combination of snow and colorful leaves made for some awesome pictures.

It was early to bed that night because we had to be up bright and early the next day for Balloon Fiesta! And I have to hand it to my parents, they were good sports and agreed to get up at 4am for this event.
And after we took care of some digestive issues from all of the green chiles we’d eaten that weekend, and a little bit of traffic, we made it to Balloon Fiesta Park with enough time to get coffee and hot chocolate.
We also managed to find the Albuquerque Quilt Guild’s stand! Which was decked out with lots of beautiful hot air balloon themed quilts. What a great find! They were also raffling off one particularly awesome Balloon Fiesta quilt.
At first, I wasn’t sure if my parents were having fun that morning (it was quite the early morning and we Jungs aren’t morning people), but as soon as they saw all of the special shapes and realized that they could actually touch the balloons, I could tell that they were having a lot of fun. It really is like a flying Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade.

It’s safe to say that we all had a great weekend…but before we knew it, it was time to head back to the airport and send Mom and Dad home. I’m so glad my parents managed to make it out to visit me…And I think my mom left the state with enough inspiration to last her at least a line or two.