Spring Break 2024: TX and NM!

Spring break this year I took the boys to visit my parents in Arizona and we decided it would be fun to see some National Parks in New Mexico for part of the visit.  So, my parents drove to El Paso, Texas and that was the closest airport to fly into for White Sands National Park and Carlsbad Caverns.  The boys and I had an early flight Saturday morning at 6:45am with a connection in Dallas, but everything went smoothly and we landed around 12:30pm.  

We grabbed lunch at a highly-rated Mexican restaurant since we were right by the border called L&J's Cafe.  It was tasty!  We did some shopping on a street with Mexican shops and got to see the border crossing.  It was a fun, quick visit in El Paso.  

We then drove on 3 hours to Carlsbad, New Mexico where we grabbed dinner at a cute restaurant outside with live music and stayed the night at a hotel.  

The next morning we got up and had the hotel breakfast before checking out and driving to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  We had timed entry tickets for 10:30am.  While driving into the park we saw a herd of barbary sheep and some really cool views of the desert!  The kids worked on their Junior Ranger booklets and then it was time to go into the cave!

The cave was incredible!  We hiked down close to 4 miles and thankfully we were able to take an elevator back up at the end.  It was a really unique experience!  The kids shopped in the gift shop after and we ate lunch at their little cafe.  

We made a quick stop at some cute shops that had "alien" things since we were in New Mexico and I figured Scott would get a kick out of that.  It was a fun shopping plaza.  Then, we were on our way to Las Cruces to have dinner at The Pecan Grill and Brewery (where we tried a flight of all of their beers!) and to swim at the hotel.  There was a high wind advisory driving that afternoon and it was pretty crazy.  Sand and dust swirling all over throughout the desert.  Thank God my dad got us to Las Cruces safely and that the pool was indoors!  

The next morning we had the hotel breakfast and left to head to White Sands National Park that was about an hour from Las Cruces.  The wind had died down a bit thankfully.  The kids got their Junior Ranger badges (without even having to complete the book...), we bought two sleds and wax ($25 per sled - yikes!), and we picked out our hike.  It was quite the workout going up and over the dunes, but the sand was so fine and there were gorgeous views!  It felt like we were on the set of Star Wars.  

The sledding was pretty fun.  After, we could turn our sleds back in for a $10 store credit so we did some shopping.

It was time to head to Tucson, which was a 5 hour drive.  We stopped for Wendy's for lunch and made it to Tucson for a late dinner at Risky Business, which is right by their condo.  We got settled in the condo and went down to the hot tub for a dip.  We watched Ghostbusters Afterlife that night since my parents hadn't seen it.  And then it was bedtime!