Albuquerque With Visiting Friends

This morning I went to Albuquerque to meet some friends who flew in late last night from Massachusetts. Lazy Letterboxer and The Letterboxing Ham came to New Mexico to visit us for Thanksgiving. I picked them up at their hotel and we headed out to do some letterboxing before heading up to Santa Fe.

Our first stop was at the Hotel Parq Central. Here we found Ghost of Parq Central letterbox. This was a quick and easy find. We stamped in while sitting in the car and then replaced the box. Our next stop was at the Standard Diner for the Standard Diner letterbox. You had to go in and ask for the box. The Letterboxing Ham went in and got the box and brought it back to the car. Again we stamped in while sitting in the car. When we were done he returned the box to the diner. But it seemed to take him a while and when he finally came out he was carrying something - fried pickles. So we had fried pickles at 9:45am and they were delicious. From here we went to Old Town. I didn't need to find boxes here but I thought it would be a good place to bring the friends. So we spent a little time wandering around Old Town looking for boxes and did a little sightseeing. For lunch we ended up at Marble Brewery for a little snack. After eating we headed back to Santa Fe but instead of taking the interstate I decided to give them the back road tour and drive home on Hwy 14. In Tijeras we stopped to drive on the Singing Road. It was so worth the detour and then it was on the road home. We had a fun time letterboxing in Albuquerque and hopefully our friends will enjoy their visit to New Mexico.

Denver Botanic Gardens and a Little Letterboxing

This morning Thomas and I had plans to go to the Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Chihuly Exhibition. So after a nice breakfast we made out way there. We were a tad bit early and we had to wait in line to get in. The wait was short and we already had tickets so we immediately started walking around. I was amazed and fascinated by the glass sculptures. And I love the way they were incorporated with the plants. We ended up walking almost every path, I took about 250 photos and we spent about 3 hours in the Gardens. It was wonderful and a terrific way to spend a Sunday morning. I am so glad we made the trip to Denver to see this show.  After we finished at the Gardens we started walking back to the car but took a detour to find The Woodshed's Modern Lilly hidden in the parking garage. We easily found the box and I took it back to the car to stamp in. Once I was done I returned the stamp to its hiding spot and we left the Gardens.

We next made our way to Governors Park to find preboxed's Hey Guv box. We arrived at the park and we started looking for the box. The park was filled with homeless people. I counted nine people sleeping all over the park. Fortunately I was able to find the box without being seen. I took the box back to a bench to stamp in. When I was done Thomas had to stand in front of me while I hid the box so that a couple of people sitting against a wall wouldn't see me hide the box. Once that was done we went have some lunch at a restaurant across the street. We ate at Lala's Wine Bar + Pizzeria. The food was so good and we just sat and relaxed. Two hours later we decided to move on.

We looked for two boxes in the downtown area . . . Then and Now: Denver's Chinatown and 100 Years. I had no luck with either of these boxes. The Chinatown box was confusing since there were so many buildings and so many metal boxes. We looked under quite a few metal boxes and didn't have any luck. We also spent a little time at Union Station, which they have really fixed up. We sat and had a snack and enjoyed the building. Then we went for a walk in City Park which was great - the day was beautiful. Eventually we gave up and decided to call it a day. Tomorrow we will visit the Capitol Building and then head home. We had a great time in Denver and we are l1ooking forward to our next visit.

Here are a couple of slideshows from our visit to the
Denver Botanic Gardens.

I hope you enjoy! 

Chihuly Exhibition

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Denver Botanic Gardens

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A Day in Denver

This morning we slept in and just relaxed. After getting showered and dressed we decided we wanted to get some breakfast - and not the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, so we headed out in search of something. Just down the block from us we found a Le Peep and headed there. We had a great breakfast and then decided to do a little letterboxing until Thomas' brother drove in from Broomfield to spend the day with us. We drove to Fairmount Cemetery to find a few boxes. Thankfully I had printed out a map off the internet and had mapped out the boxes. So we started at one box and followed the map and did a circle around the cemetery finding boxes along the drive. We looked for eight boxes and found seven. We found three of the Fairmount Halloween 2011 Series, Hello Zombie, Which? C Sharp M or A Sharp M, Memento Mori, Fairmount Cemetery: Treestone and Quoth the Raven. When we finished at the cemetery we headed for another box nearby but Thomas' brother called and we headed to The Container Store to meet them. Here we did a little shopping and the headed over to Meininger Art Store where we did a little more shopping. By this time it was around 2:00pm and we were getting hungry. So we headed for Park Burger on S. Pearl Street. We had a great meal and got to visit for a while. After eating they needed to get back home so they headed out. Thomas and I decided to try for another box before calling it a day and heading for the hotel. We drove to Four Mile Historic Park to look for Supernatural Series: Vampire. It was a short walk and a quick find. Now we are at the hotel and we are relaxing and taking it easy. We had a good day and enjoyed visiting with Thomas' brother and sister-in-law.

A Quick Find on Our Way to Denver

Thomas and I are headed to Denver to visit his brother this weekend. We left Santa Fe sometime around noon. I had a clue for a box in Raton that I had been wanting to get but haven't been up to that area.

View from the Box

So we made plans to stop on our way to Colorado. We drove from Santa Fe and didn't stop until we got to Raton. We made our way to the parking area for the Climax Canyon Nature Trail. From the parking area we had to walk a short distance up a road to the trailhead. We passed a couple of guys working in the area on erosion control and then met up with a doe and her fawn right at the trailhead. We also talked with a man who was a volunteer who helped build the trail. In the area where you park and then along the road and near the trailhead were Christmas decorations. Raton had their annual City of Bethlehem lights at the entrance of Climax Canyon. We walked a short distance up the trail to a trail junction and then turned right on the East Loop Trail and only a short distance up we found Silver Eagle's Climax Canyon box. I stamped sitting next to the tree where it is hidden and then replaced the box. The views from here were terrific and the trail was really nice. We then returned to the car to continue our drive to Denver. Thanks Silver Eagle for the break in driving and the short but wonderful walk to the box.