Tim and I
arrived in Albuquerque on March 16 and pulled into Ruth and Lou’s back yard for
a few nights. What wonderful hosts they were. Lou prepared his famous spaghetti the first
night, we enjoyed just sitting around and learning about the direction our
lives had taken since our last visit. We
were especially excited to find out that Ruth was winding down her career and
would be retiring in the next month.
Exciting times for everyone.
During
our stay, Ruth’s sister Byrd came to Albuquerque for a visit, and it was go
good to spend some time with her. Tim
and I had not seen Byrd since our wedding so we had lots of things to talk
about.
Good Time With Friends |
One of our top priorities in Albuquerque was purchasing New Mexico piñon coffee. This was our favorite coffee when we lived in Colorado, and we had been able to acquire it at our local Costco. We really missed this unique coffee so we made our way to the New Mexico Piñon Coffee Company’s retail store in Albuquerque. The company now makes K-cups for Keurig coffeemakers, so we stocked up.
"Great Coffee Is a Matter of a Piñon" |
Albuquerque
was the perfect city to get our fill of wonderful New Mexican food. Ruth and Lou took us to some of their
favorite restaurants, and each meal seemed to be better than the last. New Mexican food is different than Mexican
food, although there are some similarities.
The use of the New Mexican chile, both green and red, is perhaps the
defining ingredient that distinguishes New Mexican cuisine. Green chile is used as a topping on everything,
from burritos to cheeseburgers to pizza.
Over the years, Tim has made me a green chile convert!
Tim and I
also took a day to visit Petroglyph National Monument. This National Park Service unit preserves one
of the largest petroglyph sites in North America, but its location is somewhat
surprising. Petroglyph is really an
urban park, and development has inched right up to its boundaries. The park was established in 1990 and is an
oasis in the midst of suburban sprawl.
Suburbia Is Just Inches Away from Petroglyph National Monument |
Several
trails lead to major concentrations of this amazing rock art, and Tim and I
hiked the ones in Boca Negra Canyon. We
learned that the petroglyphs were carved onto the rocks not just by the ancestors
of modern Pueblo people, but also by Spanish settlers in the 1600s, and later
explorers in the 1800s.
Petroglyph National Monument |
Our first
hike was not a long one, but the trail was steep and rocky, and surprisingly
crowded. We had forgotten that spring
break brings out lots of families with kids.
It was therefore difficult to spend much time studying the petroglyphs
and contemplating their meanings. Still,
I’m glad we took the time to seek out the images and marvel at the early
cultures that created them.
Images in the Rocks |
Tim and I
had only planned to stay a few days in Albuquerque, but we extended our visit
when the weather forecast for northern New Mexico called for snow. This gave us time to shop for a new computer
for me. My laptop was old, slow and
quirky, and I wanted to upgrade before we headed to Alaska.
Although we had been researching laptops for some time, I couldn’t quite make up my
mind. We stopped at a Best Buy in Albuquerque
and looked at the two top contenders. Although
I liked both laptops, neither had the one feature that I really wanted – extra-long
battery life. The salesman showed me a
new HP with a battery life up to 12 hours – WOW! That was twice as long as the ones I was
considering. However, since I knew nothing
about the HP, we left empty-handed to do a bit of research.
I still
couldn’t seem to decide, but finally made up my mind to get the HP. I drove to Best Buy the afternoon before we
were to leave, but forgot my purse and had to turn around. Arrggh! I went back the next morning while Tim headed to
our next destination. I bought the HP
Spectre x360 and left it with the Geek Squad to begin the set up. I knew I wouldn’t have time to wait for them
to finish, but I came back in three hours, and a very helpful Geek worked with
me to install the programs that I would need right away.
I Love My New Laptop |
I’ve been
using the laptop since mid-March, and I love it. The battery life is as advertised, and the
computer is a pleasure to use. I love
how fast it is, and the back-lit keyboard is a great feature. I had to quickly learn Windows 8.1, but it
wasn’t too difficult. I was even able to
transfer all of my files from my old laptop to the new one by myself. Having a reliable computer will give me a
little more peace of mind as we head to Alaska.
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