February 3, 2002

Cosima's February 1^st birthday was coming up soon and I didn't have a plan.  I new she liked to visit Albuquerque on occasion, so I based my birthday present to her on that.  We would do the "big city" things that see loves to do.  The difference would be that we do as many of them as we could get in in two days.  We chose to celebrate the next weekend after her birthday.  I made reservations at a nice hotel, and came up with a must do set of activities.  Cosima could fill in what ever I had forgotten.

Cosima enjoying the gondola ride to the summit of Sandia Peak.

The Hike:

The highlight of the trip was probably our Sandia Peak adventure.  Being winter, we opted for a gondola ride to the summit.  The peak is 5280 vertical feet above Albuquerque, and the gondola is the longest gondola ride in the world.  From the gondola unloading platform we hiked the summit crest ridge.  The views were spectacular, and made our slightly difficult hike worth while.  We broke our own trail by post holing down the ridge when necessary.  Luckily, the winds were not bad.

Other Activities:

Our other activities for the weekend included eating at several very nice restaurants, dancing to country western and techno, two excellent movies at our 24 plex with stadium seating, and shopping, with REI an obvious priority.  We both thought that my impromptu plan was a winner.