To say I was excited to go to Meow Wolf is an understatement, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't look up any photos before we went, when it's possible, I like to experience things without any expectations and to be surprised, I just knew it was going to be awesome and totally unique.
Meow Wolf is hard to describe, there really isn't anything like it, the closest thing I have seen to it are the Chambers of Wonder at the Swarovski Austrian headquarters. CLICK HERE to see my post about the Chambers and you can compare the two.
Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return is a unique art experience featuring an astonishing new form of non-linear storytelling that unfolds through exploration, discovery and 21st century interactivity. In 2018, TimeOut Magazine called this experience one of the 50 best things to do in the world!
The House of Eternal Return is Meow Wolf's flagship attraction which opened in 2016, and was built by a collective of 135 artists. There are plans to open similar Meow Wolf attractions in Denver and Las Vegas, which is exciting!
The House of Eternal Return is focused around the story of the Selig family, who disappeared after experimenting with inter-dimensional travel by tapping into a mysterious force known as "The Anomaly" in an effort to bring back deceased family members, causing the house to fracture open paths to alternate dimensions. A secret government organization called the Charter was able to contain the Anomaly's effects and passes off the containment warehouse as an art installation.
We entered into the Selig family house which had been preserved just the way they left it when they disappeared, evidence of their frantic researching and experimenting everywhere. The house looked like any other house with a family room, dining room, bedrooms upstairs etc....
...But there were several portals throughout the house that led to the alternate dimensions, we chose to access them by crawling through the fireplace to a tunnel that led to a very magical dimension. This colorful space-esque yet also somehow also prehistoric with a glowing wooly mammoth skeleton, dimension was one of my favorites.
Touching and interacting with the exhibits was highly encouraged, you never knew what you might discover. Like the rib bones on this skeleton were musical, each one a different note when you hit them.
We were given 3D glasses before we entered the house, certain rooms had really cool 3D elements!
As we explored, we found ourselves weaving between rooms in the house and the alternate dimensions, it felt exactly like being in a dream.
This was the upstairs hallway in the house, where the wall was split open by another dimension.
This room was so eclectic, it was fun to discover. This particular room also serves as a concert venue and we were lucky enough to find it as the band that was playing a concert that night was rehearsing, so we got a free concert as we explored! Fun Fact: in 2017 The House of Eternal Return was named the 10th best concert venue in the US.
These light blocks changed colors when you touched them.
I loved the randomness and whimsy of the things we would happen upon.
This was another room I really loved, like how magical is this??
This room was a little harder to find, it was tucked away in a corner behind a dark, ordinary door, which added to the feeling of it being a hidden gem.
We wandered down a dark corridor, not knowing where it would lead us, and we discovered it lead to our magical space dimension we had started in. This entire place is such a maze, and you never know exactly where you are, or where you are going. You just wander and explore and discover amazing things on the way.
This magical scene was in the closet of one of the bedrooms, the intertwining of the ordinary and the fantastical in this installation was really neat and added such a depth and contrast to this experience, and created unexpected moments.
There is a section that looks like a spaceship, with different rooms and different controls.
Once we felt like we had fully covered as much as we could, we headed back to the lobby. There is a whole mystery, escape room, type of narrative you can follow throughout the house, which we didn't have time for, next time it would be fun to look more into that side of the experience. This time we were excited to see all the magical alternate dimension stuff.
We had parked on the street, and as we were heading towards our car, we saw the cutest ice cream food truck, and since it had been a little while since lunch and we had about an hour drive back to our Albuquerque Airbnb, we decided to get a little ice cream pick me up to enjoy on the drive home.
We had a good giggle over the fact that we got super confused about the ordering process, we thought we got two different sets of ice cream rolls per cup, with two flavors per set. So I ordered lavender and honey as one set and then lemon and cream as the other, and Bethy ordered salted caramel and chile as one set and oreos and cream as another. Then the ice cream maker started making our rolls and we watched him add in all four ingredients at once and we were like ooooohhhh haha luckily, we had each ordered 4 flavors that kinda went well with each other so it wasn't an ice cream disaster, and actually the flavor combos were pretty delicious, unique, but delicious.
When we got back home, we were all pretty pooped, it had been a long, fun filled day. Reece and the kiddos just headed straight for bed, but Beth and I needed some dinner. So we decided to get take out from Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken and Ribs. This place was mentioned on several "must try" Albuquerque restaurant lists and all of them mentioned having to get a famous frontier sweet roll, which we were happy to do.
By the time we got there, the indoor dining was closed so we had to go through the drive through, their portions are generous! Comfort food at its best.
We brought our food home and had a picnic style dinner on the coffee table while we watched the 3 Amigos. This was such a fun memory for me, when traveling, I find it's sometimes the unplanned, moments, that don't always go according to plan that create some of the fondest memories. We were both so tired, so hungry, and still so sick with our colds and we had planned to go out to eat at a nicer restaurant as a family that night, but we got this fun, laugh filled, sisters only, late night meal instead, and I loved every minute of it.
Misty even joined in on our party, a fun girls night in.
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