So shortly after 3am Saturday, November 5, we boarded the Southwest Chief in Newton - destination Albuquerque, New Mexico! We attempted to go back to sleep once on board, but the excitement of the train, and the fact that we'd already been up for a couple hours made it a little challenging. Eventually we did get a few (interrupted) hours of sleep before the 8am wake-up announcement.
The train ride west was great! The leg room was amazing at our seats, and allowed for all of our backpacks and bags to set on the floor and not even be in our way. Fortunately we were able to take up 4 seats since the train wasn't full which was great with all the moving around Corynn did.
We spent numerous hours watching movies on our DVD player, which kept Corynn quite and still for a few minutes at least.
We moved to the observation car for lunch, and although it was crowded, we found a few seats and enjoyed the desert views and wildlife out the windows while we ate.
Enjoying our sack lunch of banana bread, chicken salad pitas, grapes, chips, and cookies!
I think our train made 8-10 stops before we reached our destination, but all were separated by an hour or more. In addition to the observation car, there were restrooms on the train, a snack bar, a dining car for more formal meals, sleeper cars (which we never saw), and then the passenger cars. This ride was all-inclusive and suited us well!
A view of our train as we rounded a bend in the tracks (our seats were in the very last car of the train)
We attempted to get a little more rest before we arrived at our destination mid afternoon, but Corynn wasn't really into sleeping anymore on the train, so Kevin and I took turns resting and entertaining little miss energetic!
Kevin trying to sleep - Corynn faking trying to sleep
We arrived in Albuquerque, NM around 3:30pm (about 13 hours of traveling with the time zone change) and after a few minutes found the city bus stop that would take us to our hotel. We had been talking to Corynn about how we were going to ride a train and a city bus on our vacation, but within seconds of getting on the bus, Corynn was asleep in my lap and missed the whole experience. (But don't worry, we rode the bus several more times during our trip.) After a 5 minute ride or so, we exited the bus - with all our luggage, stroller, and sleeping child - and walked a couple blocks down the road to our hotel. After checking in at the front desk and checking out our room, we started to unpack and settle in to vacation...
...while some of us continued to nap!
Once she woke up, Kevin and Corynn tried out the indoor pool at the hotel, but since the heater was broken, the water was none-to-warm and Corynn was not impressed. For supper that evening we met Luke and Sarah - a childhood friend of Kevin's and college classmates of mine - at a pizza parlor a couple blocks away and had a good time catching up and eating some delicious food! They live near Albuquerque and gave us a heads up on all the fun things we needed to check out before leaving the state.
After that it was early to bed for all of us, after a very long day of traveling. Thankfully it was also the end of daylight savings time, so when we thought we were going to bed at 9:30pm, it was really only 8:30pm! Normally that would be a little early for us, but this night it was much needed!
Sunday morning we woke up bright and early - after 11 restful hours of sleep - and we're off to see the sites of Albuquerque. Our first stop... The BioPark - Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, and Zoo. The ticket booth opened at 9am and we walked up around 9:06! Our tickets included admission to all three places as well as several train rides.
Checking out the stingrays at the aquarium
What adventures awaited us at the end of this underwater hallway?
A huge wall of fish
Resting on the starfish
Another huge tank of fish, including lots of sharks
Making faces with this strange looking fish
I loved the aquarium, never having been to one before, and I think Corynn did too. After an hour or so of walking around the tanks and fish (several times), we headed back outside to the botanical gardens.
Thankfully it was a cool, but sunny day, so it was pleasant to walk around outside. We first headed to the Children's Fantasy Garden portion and found all sorts of creative and interesting things.
Riding on the giant ant sculpture
Inside a giant "pumpkin"
Walking through the carrots
There was also a long stretch of miniature train track running through the gardens that really caught Corynn's attention.
We stood and watched the little trains for quite a while
Inside the greenhouse with the Mediterranean exhibit (Corynn was very good about smiling and posing for me this morning! Maybe a little too cheesy though!)
As lunchtime neared, we headed for the little BioPark train depot to hitch a (20 minute) train ride from the Aquarium/Gardens to the Zoo!
Corynn was excited to ride another train, although she doesn't look it here
We headed for the nearest picnic area when we arrived at the zoo, but not before seeing some animals along the way.
Looking for the zebras
Petting the kitties (Have you noticed that Corynn isn't spending a lot of time in her stroller? We pushed that thing along everywhere and I think she spent maybe 2 minutes in it the entire day!)
Being queen in her royal thrown
It turned out that our picnic spot was right near the entrance to the zoo train - which took us on a tour around the zoo. So after we ate we hopped on yet another train for a narrated tour of the animals. Note: this was train #3 on our vacation and it was only day 2.
Yeah for more train rides!
And then finally we departed this train and explored the rest of the zoo on foot. There were a lot of exhibits, but not always a lot of animals in each exhibit. But over all it was a fun time at the zoo.
Watching the gorillas
Waiting by the polar bears for their afternoon feeding - which was really fun. We got to see them leap off the ledges into the pools of water below and devour their fish dinners!
Checking out the swimming sea lions, one of our last stops at the zoo
After a busy morning and afternoon, it was time to catch one of the last trains back to the aquarium and call it a day! Once again Corynn fell asleep at the end of our adventure - on the train ride back - and slept in the stroller for a couple hours after we got back to our hotel room. Obviously an exhausting, but great second day of vacation!
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