FRIDAY, JUNE 20 LAST DAY IN SANTA FE PM JUNE 21 HOME

After our rest, Charlie and I decided to check out the train station.  Really a great place.  The restaurant there is called Tomasita's.  We decided to try it for dinner.  Year's ago it was the first place I tasted posole - love posole!

Water tank at the station

Santa Fe station and two waiting trains

Once we checked out the station, we decided to wander back to town.  We really have covered most of it.  My favorite alley.

The French bakery on Burro Alley seems so Santa Fe

Since it was too early for dinner and too late to go back to the motel/inn, we decided to wander over to the Plaza.  Unbeknown to us, it was "Cruising on the Plaza" evening in Santa Fe.  Old cars surrounded the Plaza, and a group sang some songs.  They were great musicians, but they could have used a singer.

The musicians setting up.

The Pink Volkswagon was my favorite.

We took these for our neighbor John.

Our flight on Saturday didn't leave until 2:45.  We found out that there was a market on Saturday morning at the train station area.  Lots of fun.  Good thing I was flying home, a lot of the produce and plants were gorgeous - I was a bit contained.  We began our drive back to Albuquerque around 10:30. Thanks to our Google-lady, we easily found the car rental return.  Had lunch at the airport.  Our flight home was mercifully simple.  

On to the next adventure.  This one I believe involves grandchildren.

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 PLAYING AROUND IN SANTA FE

Charlie and I took our time this morning.  We had breakfast at the motel/inn.  A great breakfast with the cost of the room - hurray!  After breakfast we walked back to the plaza.  Charlie wanted a bolo tie.  That wasn't quite as easy as it was 20 years ago - but he found a very nice black onyx and silver.  We asked a number of places where he could get the bolo tie leather strings.  They all directed us to the Santa Fe Jewelry Supply.  Thanks to our Google lady, we even found out how to get there.  We wandered some more - past the local native artists selling their wares along the Plaza.

Outside our "casita"

I'm in a shop near the plaza

Charlie on covered walkway.

After a bit, we decided to go to Canon road - the artist/gallery street near by.  We found the LaRoche lady again.  Several years ago we bought a red wolf in flowers from her.  She's still around, but she's moved on to deer, bears, and cats in charcoal not acrylic.  I like the wolves better.  We had lunch on Canon road.  We even managed to split a sandwich.

La Roche's studio - outside

Charlie next to the oldest house in the USA - circa 1656

Oldest church in the US

After we wandered back to the motel/inn, we got in the car and drove to the jewelry supplier. What a nifty place!  Not only did they have all the jewelry findings you could imagine (and more), they had Charlie's bolo tie leather and the silver tips for the end.  While Charlie was playing with those, I wandered over and looked at the loose stones.  Wow!  One in particular caught my eye - a blue turquoise with black in it that was beautiful.  I bought the stone, and plan to take it back to the jewelry mart in LA to get it mounted.

Back to the motel/in for a rest.

THURSDAY, JUNE 19, ALBUQUERQUE TO ROSWELL TO SANTA FE

Charlie and I got up and tried to find a place to have breakfast outside of the hotel.  No such luck.  A cafe in a government building had a depressing "cafe"  with fried egg sandwiches and dismal smelling coffee.  We then wandered to a Starbucks in the lobby of another hotel.  The line of people trying to get something there was literally 25 people long.  Back to the hotel.  Sigh.  Albuquerque is trying to improve, it's just that it hasn't quite filled out yet - kind of a teen-age city.

We got on the road to Roswell.  Our Google lady leading us out of town.  My new problem is that the Google lady sucks down the battery power on the phone.  Driving to Roswell we took the 40 - an interstate that goes on to Texas and is filled with all sorts of odd-ball places - Cline corners with everything you could possibly want - souvenirs of New Mexico, Indian jewelry, fireworks.  We then turned onto highway 285.  This highway was not "filled" with anything.  Rolling hills with mesas and mountains in the distance, ranches with no sight of steer or humans.  We did spot a number of antelope walking along fences.  They were nifty looking - yellow brown with black horns.  We drive through the "towns" of Encino and Vaughn.  Encino really isn't a town anymore.  You couldn't get gas, or stay in a motel, or want to stop actually.  Vaughn earns its livelihood from the railroads.  We did see the longest freight trains I have ever seen along the route.

A warning at a rest stop along the 285

The motel in Encino.

We eventually got to Roswell (3 hours after we left Albuquerque), clearly a place where more than 1000 people live.  We even found a Radio Shack and got a phone charger for the car so our Google lady could live!

We drove down Main Street to the UFO museum - what else?  Lots of fun lots of silly.  Charlie's comment  - a classic list of faulty logic.  Smart people believe this, therefore, so should you.  The government won't say it's true, therefore, they're covering up the truth.  Fun anyway.

Charlie is competing with the aliens for Most Alien.

On the way out of town after our museum tour we stopped at a local place for lunch, Farlays.  Kind of huge lunch - need to slow up on my three squares a day routine around here.  It was really decorated well.

On to Santa Fe - up the 285 - even our Google lady hadn't much to say once she announced "stay on the 285 north for the next 180 miles".  Charlie began to fade behind the wheel, so I took over.  He decided the road was like a computer game - grass to the left and right - one or two cars in the far distance - and on and on.....

We got to Santa Fe just before 5.  Checked into the Santa Fe Motel and Inn - then took a short walk to town.  We got a coffee at a Starbucks.  Walked around a bit.  I found my bunch of chiles for my kitchen.  We had a wonderful dinner at the Shed.  I got posole instead of beans.  Delicious.  Walked back to the motel/inn.  Great day.

Around the main plaza in Santa Fe

Santa Fe at dusk.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 NUCLEAR MUSEUM THEN NATURAL HISTORY,

Charlie was done with presentations yesterday.  Today he just had to attend meetings and discuss.....

I decided to go to the National Nuclear Museum.  It's a few miles past the airport.  I've been using my Google maps directions on my phone.  What a great app.  A lady talks me through my more doubt-filled moments.  I had, for no good reason decided to drive along Central Avenue rather than take the freeway.  When I seemed to be running out of Albuquerque, I pulled onto a small street.  The Google lady talked me back to the correct streets (I had just given up too soon), and I "found" the museum.

The museum was the history of the atomic bombs done in a series of displays.  Really a fascinating place.  A World War II section talked about the German's attempt to get the bomb.  How we found out about what they were doing, and succeeded.  There was another display about early studies about radioactive materials from Beckerel to Einstein.  I found out that if you really want to fission material you need radioactive material with an even number of protons and an odd number of neutrons.  Hence U-235 works well, but U-238 isn't so good.  More displays about bombing Japan, and the awful consequences.  A copy of Little Boy and Fat Man - the bombs that were used. The anti-nuclear stuff in the 60s showed up too.  One of the more interesting/odd pieces there was a huge yard filled with old missiles.  Titans, Jupiters, Thors, and some military planes.  I was fascinated by the Titan, ICBM - the one that had been stored in silos.  There is was - odd.

Nuclear Museum from outside

Little Boy and Fat Man copies

The Titan ICBM  - just laying there

After the nuclear museum, my Google friend helped me get back to the Natural History museum.  I expected that to be the same old, same old...  Actually there was a huge display about the history of computers that was great!  They had a Uniac, and lots of interactive displays about personal computers from the old toggle switch to the original Mac.  Given that New Mexico has lots of geology and paleontology, there was also lots of great dinosaur displays as well.  My favorite was Stan, a T-Rex that had died of old age, but had had his neck broken and been bitten in the head earlier in his life.

Charlie and I decided we'd walk to a local restaurant for dinner.  The problem... no one uses downtown Albuquerque by foot, except the local bums.  It was creepy.  We reached the restaurant, but it was closed.  Bah.  We walked back, and drove back to Cervantes for another New Mexican dinner.

TUESDAY, JUNE 17, AIR FORCE MEETING AND MUSEUMS

Charlie and I had breakfast in the morning.  We walked over to the convention center, a block from the hotel, and put up his poster for the meeting.  I walked back to the hotel and hung around until museums open.  Below is a photo from our room - the mountains in the distance are the Sandia range

My first museum was the Museum of New Mexico History and sculpture garden.  The museum is a lovely, modern building.  There was a great exhibit of Crystal - the guy who "wrapped up" buildings, bridges, and sculptures.  He also put umbrellas up along the highway to the Tejon pass and in Japan at the same time.  Both of those projects unfortunately ended in the death of people who were whacked with blown over huge umbrellas.  Too bad - they were very nifty looking.  After I wandered around the Crystal exhibit, an announcement stated that there would be a tour of the sculpture garden.  I joined it, and was delighted.  What a great exhibit.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The main entrance of the museum

Supposed to be a wolf - but clearly a coyote

Cowboy and his horse looking miserable 

I wandered the museum a bit more and then had lunch at the cafe inside the museum.  After lunch I went to the Pueblo Native American Museum.  There was a fascinating room filled with various items from the Indian Schools - one as far away as Carlisle California.  I also found out who Lummis was.  There is the Southwest Indian museum in LA which is also called the Lummis house.  It turned out he was a reporter who complained about the head of the Indian Schools - a military man named Pratt who was awful.  One of his quotes was that he had to" remove the Indian from the children and leave the human".  In the basement of the museum was a great exhibit of Pueblo pottery.

Back to the hotel until Charlie finished.  About 5 we drove to the tram which goes up to the top of Sandia Peak, 10,500 feet up.  It's the longest tram in the world.  It was about 90° at the base of the tram and about 64° and windy at the top.  We, smart us, brought windbreakers so we wouldn't be too cold.   After a zillion photos (see a few below) we had dinner at High Finance a restaurant at the top of the tram.  A beautiful view, and a spectacularly good dinner!  Back down on the tram, back to the hotel, then sleep.

The tram coming to the station

A bunny getting some water below the tram

Up we go

The trams are counterbalanced - here's the one coming the other way

There's the top

Charlie at the top

Me at the top

The Rio Grande Valley and Albuquerque

MONDAY, JUNE 16 CHARLIE AT MEETING - ME IN OLD TOWN

Charlie had to be at his meeting near the airport at 8 AM.  He also told Jon (a former post-doc working with him for this meeting) that we'd get him at his hotel and take him to the meeting site.  Kind of early, but all went well.

Once I got myself together, I left the hotel at 9 and drove to Old Town Albuquerque.  I found parking easily.  My only problem was that most of the shops in Old Town didn't begin to open until 9:30 or 10. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular.  I did see beautiful pottery.  I'll save that search for a trip through the pueblo reservations on some future trip.  I ultimately found a lovely malachite ring - nice when it was a surprise. It was a fun wander.  Only a few of the shops were really filled with piles of junk.  Most of the merchandise was interesting.  I did find some fantastic lemonade, and a had a great salad lunch.  Some photos from Old Town before most of the shops were open are below

Back to the hotel for a rest.  At 5 got Charlie from his meeting by the airport.  We drove to a New Mexican restaurant called Cervantes on the airport side of town.  Back to the hotel and sleep.

SUNDAY, JUNE 15, TO ALBUQUERQUE

We had two flights to get to Albuquerque.  The first was from LA to Denver.  That flight was incredibly smooth.  We even got to Denver 20 minutes early.  Our seat-mate on that flight was a 6'10" guy on his way to try out for several different basketball teams in the Denver area.  I was impressed that he was able to sit in an Economy Plus seat and not break his knee caps- he fit.  We landed at gate 23.  Our next flight to Albuquerque was to take off from gate 83 an hour later.  Good grief.  Unfortunately, we had more time than we first thought.  Something was wrong with the plane.  The umbilical - a huge electrical cord was disconnected while they brought in various elements to glue the computer/electrical system together.  Then they tried to reconnect the umbilical, then disconnect it again.  None worked.  Our pilot sat with us complaining that if he hadn't landed his previous flight a half hour earlier than expected, he wouldn't be stuck with us.  He called for a back up plane, which appeared three hours later.  Those of us waiting for the flight had an United App that would ping when a new flight time was announced.  It got to be like a clock.  Every twenty minutes our cell phones would ping/toll.

Once we got the new plane - the rest of the evening was easy.  We landed in Albuquerque at 7.  Our suitcases showed up - got our car - and easily found the Doubletree Hotel in central Albuquerque.  One of the three tall buildings in the city center.

Good grief - almost a year since my last post!

I just noticed my last post was August last year.  I have a few photos to show you - of the grandchildren variety.  Charlie and I are in Albuquerque, and I'll have some New Mexico photos too. The last year of teaching has been intense, but good.  That really is my last year, since I retired in June.  More time for travel, blogging, and miscellaneous other hobbies long-since neglected.  Until some photos and more posts......