What We Saw in Albuquerque

My sister and I spent a few days recently in Albuquerque. We don't know much about the city except for the medical parts that we visit, but we did have a little free time to drive around Nob Hill. It is a neighborhood of vintage bungalows, very charming. As we drove down this street, we noticed something different looming just past this little cottage, above. You can barely see it through the trees. 

Here's a little better view of the front and its metal sculptures. This is the Bart Prince House, which I learned about on the internet by simply googling "weird house Nob Hill Albuquerque." If  you click on the link, you will see some much clearer photos of the exterior, plus some tantalizing glimpses of the interior as well. 

I wish those sculptures had come out more clearly

Tile work

Once you drive around the corner, the house looks completely different, perched way up there. 

Not too far down the road, we stopped in at Masks y Mas, an art gallery and retail store which was mentioned in the August 2013 issue of New Mexico Magazine. It was colorful inside and out, and full of Day of the Dead art, masks, and all kinds of accessories. I encourage you to check out their website to get the flavor of the place.

I got this snazzy bracelet for my sister and she is having fun creating outfits to go with it. 

 Adios, Albuquerque. We'll be back..

Sunset from the hotel

First Day: Las Cruces to Albuquerque

Our vacation began with a trip by car up I-25 to San Antonio, New Mexico. Anyone who knows Beez also knows that he never passes San Antonio without stopping in at the Owl Bar and Cafe for the world's best green chile cheeseburger. 

Our ultimate destination for the day was the Courtyard Marriott in Albuquerque. The hotel will let you leave your car in their lot as long as you stay one night at each end of your trip. Since parking would have cost us $8.00/day elsewhere, this was a great deal for us, and it ensured that we had a leisurely beginning and ending to our journey. 

We took advantage of another great Albuquerque deal, and stopped by the Albuquerque Public Library to sign up for library cards. They will issue a card to anyone in the state, so we each brought in an application (printed from their web page before we left home), picture ID, and proof of residency (our car registration worked just fine, as it had our home address and was in both of our names). I don't plan to stop in at the library much, as it is a three and a half hour drive from home. However, I can download free e-books for my Nook digital reader from the library website, and they have some great titles in a much larger and way more up-to-date database than our local library offers.

Then we stopped by the train station to print out the tickets Beez had already purchased online at home. I've said it before--he did a beautiful job of planning this trip. Everything was thought of and everything was done ahead of time. He had even programmed each destination into his smart phone, so a little voice in his pocket told us each turn for everywhere we wanted to go.

Amtrak Train Station

With all our business done, we headed up Route 66 to act like country mice, snapping photos right and left. I loved the tiles on this building...

... and there were murals everywhere I looked.

 What librarian wouldn't be thrilled at the sight of the Library Bar and Grill?

Be sure to click to enlarge so you can read the book titles

Intentional mural or graffiti? You decide...

Independent film studio

After checking in at the Marriott and freshening up, we headed back down Central Ave. for an elegant supper at The Standard Diner. Nothing standard or diner-ish about it at all, unless you count the fact that they serve meatloaf, and even that is prepared and presented with panache. You can see their menu here. The Standard was featured on The Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives," which we had seen on TV about a month or so ago. Watch this video, and you'll be craving some upscale diner food.

Then we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the sunset from our little balcony and to get all rested up for our train journey in the morning. Next stop: Chicago!

When it Rains in New Mexico…

Near Truth or Consequences, the place (and the concept)

From Clovis Weather:
“The annual average precipitation at Clovis is 18.50 Inches. Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year. The wettest month of the year is August with an average rainfall of 3.43 Inches.”

Our last rain was on April 9th, when I woke up to thunder and lightning and the delicious smell of rain sweeping across the plains. Rain is a big event here, in a place where the sun shines an average of 335 days a year .

Here are some photos of rainfall and its effects that I’ve taken around the state. The first two were taken in Clovis during a September downpour, the third in Old Town Albuquerque in August, and the fourth shows what landed in a Las Cruces arroyo after a big storm--I wish we could read that sign.

The last three photos were taken when we were on our way to see some property that overlooked Elephant Butte Lake which was, ironically, very empty that year. We wisely chose not to go through the water over the road, luckily taking our cue from the fellow who was waiting it out on the other side. The last photo shows what was going on under all the water on an upper unpaved section of the same road. We decided against building a house up there.