I’m finally finding the time to share a few bits of our honeymoon with you. The delay? Well, my computer crashed a few months ago and I lost all of my honeymoon photos. So, the ones you see here were grabbed from my Facebook profile. I wish I could have shared everything we saw but unfortunately, I didn’t load all my photos onto Facebook (I took waaaay too many).

We made multiple stops on our trip throughout New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. And, I’ve decided to post them in segments so it’s not so overwhelming.  So, here goes . . .

We flew into Albuquerque, New Mexico with plans to drive directly to Santa Fé for a spa retreat at the beautiful, Japanese inspired, Ten Thousand Waves resort but we were sidetracked. We found out on our plane ride in that we arrived during the International Balloon Fiesta. The festival has brought in hot air balloon enthusiasts since 1972. As we drove around the city, the sky was cluttered with hundreds of balloons. It was a site to see. Balloons were taking off and landing in the middle of streets and fields everywhere. I only wish I had done a little research ahead of time so that we could plan a balloon ride or even to watch them glow like lightning bugs at night as the hot air fills the balloons. Sadly, my focus was on the cute little town of Santa Fé, NM.

After driving the city and checking out the fossils at New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, we headed an hour north to our destination in Santa Fé. The drive there was amazing. The landscape was filled with mountains and cacti along with dirt. We are used to the flat, green roads of Northwest Ohio, so this was an exciting drive for us.

I loved Santa Fé. We first went to Hyde Memorial State Park to take a little walk. It was beautiful. There were tons of hiking and biking trails to explore. We didn’t stay long but it was just enough to get a taste of the beauty. Then we checked in at Ten Thousand Waves Spa & Resort which is right down the road from the park.

Ten Thousand Waves is up, up and up in the mountains surrounding Santa Fé. It’s so high up that we had to sign a waiver due to the extreme altitude and the heat from the soaking tubs, saunas, etc. The rooms at this resort are actually in separate buildings. Each has a theme and price point. We stayed in a remodeled Airstream tucked away in the woods. It was adorable. I wish I had more photos of the inside but, I fell sick after the spa experience AND it looks like the Airstream, Silver Moon is no longer available for lodging.

Our spa experience started with individual showers. They provided organic shampoo, soap, a kimono and sandals. We dipped our feet into a tub while sipping cucumber water and eventually it was time for our private hot bath. We had an hour in the Shoji bath. It was a gated and private space with a cold dipping pool, hot tub and sauna. I totally recommend reserving a private bath at this resort as the public ones allow nudity. (creepy).

After soaking, we headed over to the massage area to meet our female massage therapists. We decided to get a full body massage together. This was our first massage experience and well, they make you get completely nude. This totally creeped me out. BUT it was the most amazing ever. I’m pretty sure Steve fell asleep. We were so out of it when time was up that they had to help dress us then walk us to the sauna to warm up. The mountain air was cool and our swim suits were cold from being in the bath earlier. We finally managed to find our way out of there and walked out like zombies.

Shortly after reaching our Airstream, I started to feel sick. We thought food would help this so we ventured down the mountain in hopes of finding some authentic mexican food. No deal. There was food everywhere but I had to make Steve pull the car over because I felt so ill. Once we arrived back at the resort, I passed out and Steve worked. A few hours later, I woke up and we ordered in some sweet mexican food. The main difference is they use corn tortillas vs. flour.

The next day we explored the city. All of the buildings were pueblo, even the Best Buy and Staples. Weird. There are a ton of cute boutiques and art galleries in Santa Fé. We also walked through the farmers market and enjoyed homemade bread and fire roasted peppers. The whole city constantly smelled like peppers at all times of the day.

Overall, Santa Fé was a very clean, active city that was very conscious of their health and the environment. People dressed plain and everyone road their bikes. I would have loved to spend more time there exploring the city but alas, we had another place to see. Next stop, Phoenix!

Photos of the spa are from here. And if you missed the link for the spa, click here.

sidenote: they provide delicious granola for breakfast with organic milk! If anyone could tell me what the brand is, my husband would love you forever and ever. And, they also offer travel & tours of Japan!