A weekend of adventures

Anne, one of my closest friends from home (although she currently lives in California), came to visit me for Memorial Day weekend! After a very long work week, I was SO excited to get to the airport on Friday afternoon to pick her up.  And at the suggestion of almost everyone I know, we rented a car for the entire weekend, making planning much less stressful (and much more possible!)

On Saturday morning, we got up early and drove out to White Sands, New Mexico, which is about an hour and a half away.  Since pictures are worth 1000 words:

The landscape is quite different than anything else I've seen in this area!  It was ridiculously hot and sunny there, but definitely worth the trip.  And the ride out there was especially beautiful!

On our way back to El Paso, we stopped in Las Cruces and Old Mesilla.  There wasn't much to do there, but it was fun to walk around and explore a new place.

On Sunday morning, we went to the Franklin Mountain State Park, which is located here in El Paso, very close to Ft. Bliss.  We hiked one of the moderate trails that was about 3 miles round trip.  We got a nice breeze on the mountain and finished before the heat became unbearable, which was nice.  The views of El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and New Mexico were wonderful, and I also really enjoyed the desert landscape.  Here we are about halfway through the hike:

We spent Monday exploring downtown El Paso before Anne had to fly back to Pasadena.  Overall, it was an incredibly fun and relaxing weekend, full of good conversation and good food.  And it served as a much-needed change of pace for both of us, which is always nice :)