B&B 2014: Albuquerque

After we changed our dead battery in Colorado Springs, said our goodbyes again to Amber and Joesy, stopped at Wal-mart, and gassed up, we headed south towards New Mexico.  I was excited to go to New Mexico because it was a state I'd never been through.  Little did I know about the crazy June New Mexico hail storms.

Not too far into New Mexico the hail started.  It piled up on the road.  Cars were pulling off.  We thought if we stopped we wouldn't be able to keep going.  Plus, who knew how long it would last.  We just kept driving.  It was crazy and sooooo loud.  

By the time we got to Santa Fe, it was nearly dark.  The kids were hungry.  We'd been in the car a long time.  It was late.  Jack had been kicking James' seat for quite a while and we were all about to lose it.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see Santa Fe.  I'm sure it is a pretty town, but the actual town is pretty far from the freeway.  After surveying our food options . . .  Pizza Hut, Applebees, or McDonalds . . . we opted for McDonalds.  My sister would not approve that we ate at McDonalds 3 (actually 4) times on this trip (and James didn't really approve either), but sometimes it just works out that way.  It's ok.  It wasn't all bad.

After our long day, we had an equally long night.  Alicia, our host for the next couple of days, was just flying in that night and we were her ride home from the airport (and she was our lodging).  We got to the airport and watched planes for a while until hers finally came in.  Once we picked her up, we went to Kirtland Air Force Base and waited while James and Grandpa got passes for our cars (and us) to be on base for the next couple of days.  By the time we actually got to Alicia's, it was pretty late.  The kids were wired.  Thanks to Alicia's iPad and some "Caillou," Molly and Jack finally settled down around midnight.  Phew.  Long day.

Friday morning was a new day (with no hail storms, though the torrential rain did come later).  The plan for the day was to go to Old Town Albuquerque and then the Natural History Museum.  On our way, we drove along historic Route 66.  We saw Paul Buyon (without arms) watching over a vietnamese restaurant.

The campus of the University of New Mexico is also right along Route 66.  This was just a picture of a store across the street.  I was too slow to take a picture of the campus entrance.  

In Old Town Albuquerque we visited a gift shop and then this old mission church.  It is called San Felipe de Neri and was started in the early 1700's.  It's an adobe building and very southwestern-looking on the outside, but very traditionally Catholic-looking on the inside with many stained glass windows and and ornate alter.  

In the square across from San Felipe were two large military cannons.  Apparently there was a strong Confederate Army group in Albuquerque during the Civil War.  I had no idea!  The Albuquerquians joined the Confederacy (which makes sense since they are right next to Texas) and were prepared to fight off the Union.  There was one little fight in 1862 called the "Skirmish of Albuquerque" where the Union soldiers sent cannons into a Confederate fortification right in what is now Old Town.  Interesting.

After Old Town, we went to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.  We watched a 3D movie about the ice age and then toured around the museums.  Thanks to Alicia, we didn't lose Molly and Jack (despite their efforts).

There were two large dinosaurs out in front of the museum.

Here are our fancy 3D glasses.

Dinosaur bones.

The best part of the museum actually ended up being this little room we checked out towards the end.  It had a lot of hands-on things and some crazy living exhibits with frogs, salamanders, bugs, etc.  Jack is making animal footprints in the sand in this picture. 

After the museum. Alicia took us out for some authentic southwestern cuisine.  We went to a place called Mary & Titos's Cafe.  It was delicious!  I had their specialty with was a sopapilla.  It was basically a large empanda-type crust stuffed with typical Mexican style ingredients and covered with green or red chile.  I had beef, rice, cheese, etc. in mine and covered it with green chiles. 

After eating, we went back to Alicia's for a while and the kids took a nap while we all just visited.  Stacey had returned from a trip to Idaho and brought Fiona the giant Great Dane with her.  Once they woke up, the kids, James, Alicia, and I took Fiona for a walk, the kids petted her and probably drove her crazy.  Jack kept getting whipped in the face with her tail because he was at the perfect height.

Since we had eaten lunch late, we weren't really hungry for the barbecue Alicia had prepared to fix for us, but we decided a milkshake sounded good.  We loaded up to go get one, but first got a tour of the air force base and went to see some classic planes and helicopters. 

We ended the night back on Route 66 at a vintage-style diner and had some pretty delicious milk-shakes!