Diane and Stephen's Excellent Albuquerque Adventure: Bosque del Apache and more!

We had several excellent adventures during the Marinos' recent visit to Albuquerque, including road trips, a local theater production, and many delicious culinary experiences including New Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian.

The brand new place for me was the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, a 57,000 acre park South of Socorro, NM. Bosque (bas-kay) means "forest." It's the green area along the Rio Grande.

After seeing the exhibits at the Visitor Center and talking with the rangers we explored the desert botanical garden.

Then we drove a 15 mile loop, stopping to hike at various trails and boardwalks along the way.

The closest restaurant open on Labor Day that we thought might have vegan options was Frank and Lupe's El Sombrero. It was interesting!

We also spent a day in Los Alamos. It was beautiful weather on the way there. But as we traveled North and climbed to a higher elevation, it cooled off. We had a nice walk around the pond until a thunderstorm moved in!

Our only disappointment in Los Alamos was that the Historical Museum was under construction. Stephen and I were looking forward to having another chance to look at some of the letters and first-person accounts of life in Los Alamos. But the Bradbury Science museum was open, and that is interesting as well.
On the way back we stopped to look for elk in the caldera. No elk. It had cooled considerably by that time.

On another note (pun intended) here's a shot of the band tuning and preparing for the Sunday service:

During two of our work days (well, Stephen was at jury duty, but that's another story) the Marinos went to Santa Fe where they visited galleries, sculpture gardens, a foundry, and a glass blower's studio. Stephen and I are eager to replicate their trip one of these days, the pictures look fabulous!
Note the artist -- this Georgia O'Keefe is for sale. Only eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A bargain!