Albuquerque, NM - First impressions

Just an hour and a half away, my new place was in Sandia Park, a suburb of Albuquerque. I was communicating with the host before the move in date, and she allowed me to come a few hours before the check in time. She was away taking care of her mother in Mexico. I've rented several Airbnbs with an absentee host, so that was actually a pro for me. I arrived around 11 AM and was able to quickly check in. The place was clean and comfortable with lots of windows, beautiful views and, wait for it, air conditioning!

Eating area

View of the kitchen from the entrance

Kitchen

Laundry

Bedroom

Bathroom

Living room

Lots of couches in the living room

View from the side window

There was a fenced-in outdoor area with beautiful views where I captured a few sunsets.

View from the bedroom window

View from the outdoor area

Another beautiful sunset

I rarely sleep well in a new place, and this one was not an exception. Except for the reasons why...

Kitty was fascinated by something under the stove when I got up for a drink the first night. He was in a hunting mode. I knew that if he caught it, he would most likely bring it to bed, you know, to show it off. What could it be? A mouse? A scorpion? A lizard? Hard to tell. The rest of the night I could not sleep thinking that at any moment Kitty would jump on the bed with something alive in his mouth. When I got up in the morning, I started to move things around to see if I can find any signs of an invader. Indeed, behind one of the three couches (yes, three!) in the living room I noticed mouse droppings. I had a mouse in the house. I knew that as soon as I let the host know, an exterminator would be called in to kill... I didn't want any deaths. Luckily, I had a humane mouse trap that I bought back in Napa when I had mice in my car. I set it up at night hoping to catch someone. Sadly, the mouse was either too scared being harassed by the cat or too smart to get into the trap. The second night went the same way - Kitty watching something intensely, this time near the couch, and me, not sleeping. I thought this was going to continue on night 3, but somehow there was no action. Kitty slept soundly with me. 

The mouse was safely (I think...) evicted or voluntarily left the house. The trap stayed in the same spot for days with no results, and there was no disruption in the sleep for that reason again. I guess having a cat around has its pros!

I also realized that I now lived only 15 minutes to several trails in the mountains. The very first weekend I went hiking Tree Spring Trail, a short hike in Cibola National Forest with the views of ABQ.