Art and History Museum

I hadn't been to any of the downtown museums because I kept waiting for a rainy or yucky day when an indoor activity would be a better choice than an outdoor one.  Finally, I decided that we'd never go if we kept waiting for that, so we chose a nice, sunny, lovely day to visit the Albuquerque Museum.

 The current exhibition is "Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492-1898."  The paintings, tapestries, and furniture were gorgeous and the history was fascinating.  I am used to the Northeast, where there's lots of Revolutionary War history and the early settlers were English and French.  The history and artifacts are so different here!  For a while, I tried to read the explanatory signs in Spanish, but Stephen was getting pretty far ahead of me and I was worried he would get impatient, so I read the rest in English.

There was also a gallery full of New Mexico art from the permanent collection.  A variety of styles were represented, some of which we really liked.  On our way out we walked through the sculpture garden.  For me there's no ambivalence about sculpture; I either love it or I find it disturbing.  I loved this representation of an Indian with outstretched hands.  The late afternoon sun prevented a detailed photo.

The museum hosts jazz concerts starting in April, so we hope to enjoy some good music there soon.

The Ides of March

It's the Ides of March, and here's what it looks like in my ABQ yard.  We are supposed to have winds up to 50 mph today.  I went plant shopping early (herbs) and now we're going to walk down the street to check out an estate sale.  If it's not too windy later I'll plant the herbs I bought.  It is supposed to get into the low 70's by Tuesday.

Rosemary

Desert Holly

Rose Bush

Crabapple

Lilac

Kale

Clover

Azalea?

Some perennial I haven't identified.  Anyone know?

A new (to us) restaurant

My brother gave us a gift card to El Patio for Christmas, and we had the opportunity to check it out last night.  It's right across from UNM, so it's very hipster, with tattooed young waiters and a young crowd (except for us!).  It was too cold for the patio, so we sat inside next to a fireplace.  The restaurant is in a tiny old building with lots of character.  The New Mexican food was excellent, and they had no problem accommodating a vegan.  I had fajitas and Stephen had carne adovado.  I almost ordered enchilladas, but the waiter said they were really spicy, so I changed my mind. It was a fun and delicious outing.

 There's a mural on one side of the patio, which you could see if I hadn't stuck my face into Stephen's selfie. 

The Grand Canyon

Our friend Liz came to visit this week and she wanted to go to the Grand Canyon.  I had never seen it, so I was excited.  We did some research and decided it would be best to make it a two-day trip.  So after school on Friday, Liz and I picked up Stephen at work and we drove to Flagstaff, AZ, where we had hotel reservations.  We had dinner at a truck stop in Grants, NM, and got the the hotel around 9:30 PM.  Here is what our drive looked like.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then set off for the Grand Canyon, another hour and a half away.  On the way, I saw a scenic overlook at the Gorge at the Little Colorado River and asked if we could stop and take some pictures.  All along the route there were Navajo jewelery and craft stands that looked like the makeshift vegetable stands in upstate NY.  They were just setting up when we arrived.

We didn't spend a lot of time here, but we stretched our legs, took some pictures, and used the rest rooms.

We had searched the web for the best way to see the Grand Canyon in a day, and we had a plan.  But before we got to the trail we were headed for, we saw a sign, "First View of the Grand Canyon," and just had to stop.  We were really glad we did, because there was this amazing watchtower to climb:

 Stephen called it "the Navajo Guggenheim" because the stairs and walkways wound around as we went up, and there was art on all the walls. And here is our first view of the Grand Canyon.

It was quite cold and windy at the watchtower, and we all donned all the warm clothes we brought with us.  Our plan was to find the Kaibab trailhead and do a 3 mile round-trip hike.  We hadn't counted on there being snow at the Grand Canyon (who knew?) so none of us brought boots.  But we continued on to the trail head anyway, figuring we'd make a decision when we got there.  We found the road to the trail head without any problem, but the road was closed except to shuttle buses!  So we had to drive to the visitor's center, figure out which shuttle bus route went where we wanted to go, and wait for a bus.  Stephen is not a fan of shuttle buses because he is not the one driving.  But we didn't have a better plan, so off we went.
From the web search I did, I had gotten the impression that we would have to walk a mile and a half to get to the rim of the canyon.  But no -- it turned out that the shuttle dropped us off at the rim and the trail went a mile and a half DOWN INTO the canyon!  Awesome, except for the sign that said, "Icy Trail. Crampons Required."  We were wearing sneakers, and not even trail runners, just basic walking shoes.  We looked down at the trail.

We decided to go down a little ways and see how slippery it was.  I said that whoever got uncomfortable first should speak up and we'd turn around.  Notice there are absolutely no railings on this trail!  Every time we got to a corner, I thought I wouldn't go around the next corner, but then it wasn't so bad.

 

Liz went ahead of us and clowned around.

And the whole time, we had this view.

I decided to climb back up just to see how difficult it was going to be.  It wasn't bad, so I turned to go back down, and saw the mules coming up!  Stephen and Liz were on their way up too, having decided to turn around.  We let the mules pass us so we could stop to take pictures.  The poor mules were pretty hot and sweaty.  I felt bad because it wasn't their choice to take that hike, particularly with big heavy people on their backs.

When we got back up to the rim, I showed Stephen and Liz an overlook.  I decided to see if I could get to it through the snow.  There was a little drop-off to slide down, but I made it.  By this time, it was no longer windy and the sun was quite warm.  We decided to eat our lunch on the rock outcropping overlooking the canyon. 

Stephen stayed a little farther back from the edge and took pictures.

After lunch we got back on the shuttle bus.  We got off at the next stop, the highest elevation look-out on the South Rim.  We walked around and took pictures for 15 minutes until the next bus came.

We left the Visitor's Center around 3 PM to go back to Abq.  With one stop for gas and one for dinner, we made it home by 9:30 PM.  Great day!

Snowy Walk

On Saturday morning, our first day of Christmas vacation, we awoke to snow.  We decided to go for a walk in the open space behind our house.   It was about 40 degrees and the snow was melting, but it was quite windy, so we needed our jackets and hats.

When we got to to the top of a hill, we could see that the snow stopped right in the middle of our development!  The East Mountain area must have had quite a bit of snow, but the city and the West side had nothing.  It was so strange to see the line where the snow ended.

Our house.