A Quick Visit to Santa Fe

We drove up to Santa Fe this afternoon just to walk around the Plaza and have dinner. It's only a little over an hour's drive on the highway. If you take the Turquoise Trail, you can take all day to get there, stopping at galleries and museums and walks. But we just decided to take some pictures of the architecture and have New Mexican food at the Blue Corn Cafe. Even on the highway, the views of the desert and mountains on the way are spectacular.



We took this picture because we couldn't believe that THIS is the parking garage!

This is where we had dinner.












This is a business that reclaims and sells architectural parts.

And this is the theater where the symphony performs.

Things Are Different Here

What kind of things? Well, cemeteries. I don't know why they have ironwork fences around the graves, and the amount of plastic decoration is strange to me. I understand why there's no grass, but it's not something I thought about until we drove past a cemetery and I realized how odd it seems.

What else? There's art everywhere in Albuquerque, including on bridges, highway dividers, in medians, and randomly throughout the city.

Things that are merely functional in New York are decorative here. We really like that about Albuquerque.

A few other differences: There's no helmet law. There's no bottle bill. They sell wine and liquor in the supermarket. Speaking of the supermarket, there's an entire aisle of tortillas and green and red chili sauces, plus you can buy green and red chili sauce by the vat in the frozen food aisle. There's no car inspection except in the city of ABQ, and that's only a tailpipe sniffer -- no safety inspection at all. There is early voting and you can vote at any polling place.






This is a roadside stand:

There are also block, adobe, or stuccoed walls and/or iron fences everywhere. The neighborhoods are walled off from the main streets, then the individual houses have their own fences or walls around all or part of their yards. Many houses are open to the street in the front, but have walled-in backyards. I am getting used to it, because now it seems wrong when I see the occasional house stuck out in the middle of the desert with no walls. I wonder whether it has to do with the wind?

I think that I will have to write a Part II to this post in a few months. I'm sure I've left out things that I have noticed, and that I will experience more differences as I continue to acclimate to this new place.

Tunnel Canyon, Tijeras

Yesterday when Stephen asked what I wanted to do today, I suggested walking around Old Town and maybe visiting the Museum of Art and History. But when we walked out of church this morning and saw how beautiful the weather was, Stephen thought we should change the plan to hiking and save the Old Town for a colder day. Of course, I agreed immediately. I'm still amazed that he's willing to hike; for him to initiate the activity was delightful! He even had a place in mind, so after lunch we drove East to Tijeras which is in the Sandia mountains very close to Albuquerque.
Although the trail sign listed multiple uses, we mostly saw mountain bikers and only one other hiker. Stephen thought it would be fun to bike and I thought it would be too scary. Speaking of scary, in addition to the bear warning (which was on the FRONT of the board this time) there was this:

The area is wooded, mostly with smallish evergreen trees. It kept looking almost familiar, particularly when looking up, but then I would look down and see cactus and yucca amongst the underbrush which was very disorienting.

I love the lichen-covered rocks and the view.

We rested before heading back down. I thought this might be one of those trails where you don't make better time coming down because you have to slow down to keep from sliding. There were a lot of loose rocks on the trail and it was very sandy and dry. But we did go slightly faster on the way down, maybe because we weren't stopping to take as many pictures. I can definitely feel this one in my quads, and I'm really psyched that Stephen went so far and enjoyed himself. We're working toward a longer hike with lunch included. One of these weekends!

More Balloons

The Balloon Fiesta came to our apartment complex yesterday morning. The winds brought all the balloons East and filled the sky around us and balloons were landing everywhere. It was awesome!

A Visit to the Unser Racing Museum

Stephen chose the outing for this Saturday, and we went to the Unser Racing Museum in ABQ. There are four generations of Unser family racers. The museum includes Pike's Peak cars, sprint cars, and Indy cars. There are videos of races and interviews and lots of trophies and memorabilia. Stephen's favorite part was an engineering display of successive years of engines showing the advancements in technology. I enjoyed the videos while he was poring over the engines.

The House Hunt... so far.

Albuquerque is a big city of half a million people. If you include the suburban areas that flow into the city, our realtor says it's more like 800,000 people. Stephen and I have lived in Paradox, NY (winter population, 46 people), Ballston Lake NY, and Schuylerville, NY. This whole city thing is new to us. Fortunately, our realtor, Matt, knows the area inside and out and is proving to be invaluable as we look for a home.

ABQ is really nifty in that there are lots of different terrains, microclimates, and ambiances within the city. You can live on a city street, in the desert, on the side of a mountain, or near the river with lots of trees and grass. All of these areas have their charms for us, so we're flexible on that point. The one thing we have decided is that we want to be on the East side of the river for commuting. There are only so many bridges over the Rio Grande, and they can become annoying bottlenecks during heavy commute times. Now that I have started teaching lessons on the East side of the river, I too want to avoid traffic as much as possible.

The biggest problem we are having finding a home is that we want a modest house with a giant garage. The city doesn't seem to have such a thing. Most of the large garages we have seen come with way too much house for us. We may buy a house with room to build a garage, or expand an existing garage, or we might end up with a large house, depending on the price. The houses here don't have basements because it's too expensive to dig or dynamite a hole in the granite. And they don't have attics. So it makes more sense to have a slightly larger house to store the stuff we New Yorkers keep in our basements and attics. Other than the garage, we're not that picky. We want to have a guest room and guest bathroom and I would like an area for my instruments.

One area we love is on the Eastern edge of the city up against the foothills of the mountain. We have looked at a couple of houses that are next to open space. Here's the view from the driveway of one of them.

We like the adobe/stucco style houses with the flat roofs. Most of the houses have walls or fences. We like kiva fireplaces and tile floors -- both features of the New Mexico-style houses. Here's a house we looked at and liked but probably won't end up with because it's a foreclosure and we would have to rush to put down an offer:

Balloon Fiesta Day 2 -- The Mass Ascension

The mass ascension was cancelled yesterday because of wind, and I used up my one opportunity to roust Stephen out of bed at "oh-dark-hundred." So this morning I went to the parking area by myself after checking on-line to make sure that the event was going to proceed as scheduled.

Something I've learned in the past two days about balloons: nothing happens quickly and there's a lot of waiting around. It's not really important to be on time based on the posted schedule and being early is simply a waste of time. Stephen says that he heard on the live TV coverage that the mass ascensions get more organized as the 9 day event goes on.

The site from which I watched is a big empty lot about a mile up the hill from the balloon park, affording an excellent view of the morning sky. There were only a few cars when I arrived, but more cars, walkers, and joggers stopped by as the event unfolded. It was only 48 degrees out, so I waited in my car. There were 9 balloons in the mostly dark sky when I got there -- probably members of the Dawn Patrol. The mass ascension was supposed to start at 7 AM. At quarter past 7, the first one went up, followed slowly by a dozen more. When I left to go back to the apartment to get ready for church at about 7:35, there were probably about 70 balloons flying. When we left to go to church at 9, they were landing all over the city, and chase vehicles were on the move. Coming home from church, around 10:45, there was not a sign of a balloon anywhere. Apparently, the winds become too unpredictable by mid-morning.

By the time I got back to the apartment, Stephen could see the balloons as well. He took this shot out the living room window.

Balloon Fiesta 2012

Albuquerque hosts the world's largest balloon festival, with 900 balloons participating this year. The geography and weather patterns create a "box" of air currents such that balloonists can rise to a certain elevation and travel in one direction, then change elevation and go the other direction, ending up more or less where they started. This allows them to stay in the air longer and have more control over where they end up.

We got up on Saturday morning, the first day of the Fiesta, with the intention of watching the Mass Ascension from a mile or so away. We had been told that to be on the field, we would have to leave our apartment by 5:30 to sit in traffic to get in. We were extra glad that we didn't attempt that when the word came that, due to high winds, the mass ascension had been cancelled.

Our next plan was to go to the Balloon Park in the afternoon, visit vendors and exhibits, eat dinner, and be on the field for the Twilight Twinkle Glow, during which the balloons are inflated but kept on the ground and they light them up with the burners more or less at the same time. We had more success with this plan.

The field was empty when we got there around 3:30 PM, but there are tents set up all along one side. We saw many creative ways to commemorate the fiesta, including balloon-themed pins, ornaments, magnets, wind chimes, flags, t-shirts, tote bags, wall art and more.
The food vendors are different from the ones at the Schaghticoke Fair.

There was even a vegan option!

There was a huge Arts and Crafts tent, where we did some birthday and Christmas shopping. The Balloon Discovery tent had educational displays, a History Channel video of trans-oceanic ballooning, and this simulator:

After exploring the displays, we purchased our food and found a place at a picnic table with two other families to wait for the Twilight Glow. There was a good chance it would be cancelled, as the winds were still fairly strong, but they died down just in time. The idea is that all the balloon captains fire the burners at the same time on a countdown from the announcer. In reality, they are so spread out and it's so difficult to communicate, that only some got the message. In spite of the disorganization, the spectacle of a whole field of balloons alternately lighting up was pretty amazing. As you can see from the photos, the crowd is allowed to be on the field, right by the ground crews. The glow was short, as the wind picked back up and the balloons had to be deflated.

The band was getting ready for sound check while Stephen took this picture through the stage.

Shape balloons are a big thing, and here's one for my brother:

A walk in the Bosque

I am in waiting mode with the job search. I have applied to sub in the public schools and I'm waiting for my application to be processed. I am going to be teaching in a private lesson studio filling in a maternity leave, and I'm waiting for that to start. Waiting is not my best thing. Fortunately, there's lots to see and do while I wait.

This morning I took a walk in the Bosque (pronounced, "bas-kay") which is the green area on either side of the Rio Grande river. Bosque means "forest," but it's not at all like a New England or Adirondack forest. The largest trees are cottonwoods, and there's lots of scrubby, brushy, shrubby stuff and sand. For parts of the path, it's like walking by the ocean where the sand is deep and fine and your feet slide backward with each step and your shoes slowly fill with sand. Other parts of the trail are more solid, but all is sandy.

Since ABQ is a big city, you can pretty much always hear traffic and airplanes. The traffic noise was minimal in the part of the Bosque I visited, and I could hear something I've been missing since I got here -- birds! When we hiked in the mountains and the desert, the sound of birds was conspicuously absent. I could hear songbirds, a woodpecker, and a small flock of Canada geese passing overhead. When I returned to the visitor's center, I checked that last part with the volunteer at the desk, because although they sure sounded like Canada geese to me, I didn't actually see them and I didn't know they frequented this area. She assured me that was what I heard.

The Rio Grande is, I am told, higher in the spring, and is suffering from the drought. Still, I didn't find it very grand. I'm pretty sure I could have waded across without getting my shorts wet.

It's muddy, and it smells kind of muddy and funky. Farther along the trail, the path narrowed and I was brushing up against a lot of sagebrush, so sage was the dominant fragrance, which was lovely. The scenery didn't vary much, but it was a nice walk.

On my way out, I got this nifty photo of a roadrunner sitting on the trail marker by the visitor's center!