Old Town Albuquerque

Old Town Albuquerque is anchored by the Central Park and the Church of San Felipe de Neri.  Quoting the plaque: "San Felipe de Neri - Oldest church in Albuquerque; has continuously served the community without interruption since 1706.  Originally founded and served by the Franciscan friars, this parish church has been served successively by the secular clergy of Durango, Mexico 1817, the Jesuit fathers and brothers 1868, and since 1966 has been administered by the secular clergy of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe."

Old Town contains interesting adobe architecture,

cactii

and semi-hidden courtyards

The entrance gate is covered with flower and vine mosaics

Just outside of Old Town are several museums, fronted by a wagon-train sculpture of the Spanish variety

Santa Fe Day Trip

We went to Santa Fe for a day trip out of Albuquerque - Rick had only driven past it before, and I fondly remembered my short visit 5 years ago.
We went to the State capitol building.  It is in the shape of the "sun" representation on the state flag

It also has quite a collection of art, inside

and out

Anyone can sit in the gallery and watch the legislation at work (of course, it has to be in session to do so)

We also visited the Basilica

Its Chapel of La Conquistadora contains the oldest Madonna in the United States.  It was brought to Santa Fe in 1625; the chapel was rebuilt in 1714.

The grounds contain a number of statues

(here's a close-up for my piglet-collecting sister)

Our stroll through the park was a little different in November than my last time in June!

Albuquerque Again

Albuquerque welcomed us back with a beautiful sunset

Almost as if apologizing for the earlier troubles...

We scheduled our trip in a way that may seem strange to some (and I'll admit, it's a bit confusing).  I drove our car and a small UHaul trailer to Phoenix, where I unloaded the goods to a storage unit.  Rick flew in to meet me, and then we drove back to Albuquerque to enjoy the area for a couple of weeks.  We'll leave soon to return to Phoenix (via the Grand Canyon), where we will visit for another week.  Then we'll pick up another UHaul, pack up, and drive to San Diego, through LA, and on up to Northern California.  This makes perfect sense once you know five things: 

1. We wanted to get our things from Iowa to Northern California, but also wanted to spend some significant time in the Southwest
2. We don't have too many deadlines, and are enjoying some flexibility
3. UHaul throws in a month of free storage with one-way trips
4. We discovered that Rick does better flying than driving
5. I actually do like to drive alone - although it is also quite nice to drive with Rick :-)

Our stay here has a pretty nice pace - we spent a few days completely plotzed, recovering from packing, the drive, the flight, dealing with the theft, selling our house, and generally resetting life to "retired" mode.  We are in an extended stay hotel, so we have a small kitchen - makes caving easier :-). 

We took a day-trip to Santa Fe, went to Old Town Albuquerque, went to several Open Mics, and a LOT of restaurants (twice to Sadie's). 

We spent an evening at the Symphony, and realized that I hadn't been in over TWO years!  On the way, we were treated to a fantastic view of the full moon rising over the Sandia mountains.  As awestruck as we were, you still get no photo (no camera, no photo) - but trust me, it was amazing!

We finally also got to do the Sandia Tram - and this height-phobe did just fine, thank you very much!

Today is our last full day in Albuquerque, and we're relaxing again - thinking about what to go see :-).