721. Strengthen

721. Strengthen
Definition: (v) make or become stronger
Location Placed: Whoos Donuts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Date Placed: 10/5/15 at 9:25am





This has to be, hands down, the best donut place I've ever been to. They had a wide variety of donuts, including several I had never heard of before. The staff were extremely pleasant and gave solid recommendations. Additionally, they had some sort of deal on Monday's, which made a sweet breakfast even sweeter. If I ever find myself in Santa Fe again, or you do, I strongly suggest you check them out. Additionally, I think Whoos needs to do a bit of expanding and make their way to the East Coast!

720. Leadership

720. Leadership
Definition: (n) the action of leading a group of people or an organization
Location Placed: Santa Fe Lodge, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Date Placed: 10/5/15 at 8:54am





As we were flying out of Albuquerque but hotel prices were crazy because of the festival, we decided to spend a night and a few hours up in Santa Fe as it was only an hour away. Our hotel was right across the street from a very large armed forces cemetery. The whole lodge itself had a VERY southwestern decor, so we certainly wouldn't have forgotten where in the country we were. We settled in and headed out to dinner to a local place which proved to have some pretty solid food.

719. Invaluable

719. Invaluable
Definition: (adj) extremely useful
Location Placed: Starbucks by St. Claire, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Date Placed: 10/4/15 at 1:44pm





I was so excited to see the Starbucks mug for New Mexico. It was such a lovely scene and a great little souvenir for the trip. We got to see the hot air balloons so it was an added bonus reminder! As I don't think I'll be headed anywhere (at least to another state) I've not already been for several months, I'll have to enjoy this mug even more. 

718. Compatible

718. Compatible
Definition: (adj) able to exist or occur together without issue
Location Placed: Genuine Southwest, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Date Placed: 10/4/15 at 1:20pm





We popped into Genuine Southwest right around the corner from the museum to see if they had any cute knick-knack items. It definitely was a cute little store with some neat items in it. There was a really neat mosaic arch entering the cute little shopping area. It was really quite gorgeous, which makes sense given its location near the museum.

717. Athletic

717. Athletic
Definition: (adj) physically strong, fit, and active
Location Placed: Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Date Placed: 10/4/15 at 12:29am





The Albuquerque Museum was such a nice little museum. I really enjoyed visiting. They had a lot of wonderful exhibits about the local history. Having never been to Albuquerque before, and not even New Mexico, I thought it was a really informative museum. It even had a pretty awesome map in the middle of it. I definitely would recommend going to visit if you happen to be in the city.

716. Vixen

716. Vixen
Definition: (n) an attractive individual
Location Placed: Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival Field, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Date Placed: 10/4/15 at 8:58am





Far and away, this was the highlight of the trip. Essentially we had planned our trip around the festival as it happened the week after my business trip responsibilities ended. What a treat it was! We had no idea just what we were in for but it was so much more amazing than we could have expected. You are actually came to go right up to the balloons and talk with the ballonists. If not for the zebras, which are ballooning referees, you could potentially get knocked out by a balloon taking off! While we didn't actually get to ride in one, it was just a wonderous experience to get to be so close to them and see so many of them inflate and lift off. Then, as you can see from the picture, the balloons in the sky. I 100% recommend anyone who can go, does. You will not regret it.

715. Determined

715. Determined
Definition: (adj) processing or displaying resolve
Location Placed: Painted Desert Inn, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
Date Placed: 10/3/15 at 11:25am





The painted desert was pretty neat looking. However, my favorite portion of this trip was the Blue Mesa. It looked downright other-worldly. The layers of rock colors of this southwestern badlands were due in part because of the environment of the location many years in the past. Did you know that Arizona (or at least that part of it) used to be environmentally similar to what the Amazon is like today? It's hard to imagine when you see how flat it is. The Blue Mesa are a number of hills that show the differences of the layers of soil during a number of historic times. This lead to a really neat stratification of rock. It's hard to describe but extremely awesome.

714. Prosperous

714. Prosperous
Definition: (adj) bringing wealth and success
Location Placed: Painted Desert Visitor's Center, Petrified Forest National Park, (near) Holbrook, Arizona
Date Placed: 10/3/15 at 10:49am
Status: FOUND!





We decided to stop here on a whim as we had a bit of time to kill and it was along the way. We didn't really know too much about it, but this stop easily falls in my top 3 favorite places of the trip. The views were outstanding. There were a number of places to see petroglyphs on the nearby rocks along with signs indicating what they likely meant.

This crane was found by a woman moving states at the time she found the crane. She didn't indicate that I could use her email that she sent along to me, but I wanted to take a moment to wish her well in her move!

713. Nourishing

713. Nourishing
Definition: (adj) containing substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition
Location Placed: The Wigwam Motel, Holbrook, Arizona
Date Placed: 10/2/15 at 7:13pm





We made sure to stop at the Wigwam motel for the night while on our trip. How many other places can you stay in a historic wigwam? Not many I'd venture to guess. It was definitely quite the experience. The motel is located very close to the railway that goes across the state. I had only heard about the long trains with dozens of cars, but had never seen them. I definitely heard them throughout the night, and saw them the next day. One train, I counted, had over 100 cars attached to it! It definitely felt very middle America to me.

712. Hospitable

712. Hospitable
Definition: (adj) friendly and welcoming to strangers and guests
Location Placed: El Rancho Restaurant and Hotel, Holbrook, Arizona
Date Placed: 10/2/15 at 6:52pm






There weren't too many eateries in Holbrook, but this one definitely seemed the most frequented of our trip. There was a birthday party taking place, and quite a number of people were meeting up with friends for a Mexican Friday night meal. While it wasn't the best Mexican food on our trip, we certainly were entertained by the people watching and the conversations we overheard.