TEACHER NOMAD: 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.