A Real Vacation Day

Today was our real vacation day, I didn't do any work and Ivy and I got to spend the whole day together. It was a wonderful day. We started off by hopping in our car and driving an hour South to Albuquerque. We made our first stop at the temple. We didn't attend a session, but did walk around the grounds and enjoy seeing a temple that we may not get back to for a long time. After that we drove out to the Petroglyph Nation Monument. We hiked 3 small trails and saw a ton of petroglyphs on the volcanic rock around Albuquerque. From there we headed to Old Town Albuquerque. It is where the original townsite was started. We visited the Catholic Church and then took a tour around the Plaza where we learned all about the early history of the the city. It is beautiful just to walk around and see buildings that have been around for 300+ years. My favorite part of our trip to Old Town Albuquerque was our visit to the Rattlesnake Museum. I was a little worried because I don't like snakes, but I make it through better than Ivy did. We walked around and saw some fairly active snakes, but it wasn't until we spotted the 5 foot long rattlesnake that Ivy started to really feel squeamish. She actually froze for a little bit before she could convince her body that she was in no danger. We also had the opportunity to see some snakes swallowing mice. It was an amazing thing to see how it all works. We visited some of the shops around the plaza and then headed down to the Isotopes Stadium where we had our pictures taken with Homer and Marge Simpson. We then drove across town to walk through a mall. I was in seventh heaven because the mall had 6 sports stores. Ivy just laughed at me because I was like a kid in a candy store. Following our shopping trip we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. We both decided that it would be the perfect place for my family to eat. They had 5 different sporting events blasting on their tv's. If anyone has ever tried to watch a sporting event when my brothers are around they will know how difficult it is for them to stay on one channel. That about does it for our adventures in New Mexico. We are heading home tomorrow but plan on making a few stops along the way, hopefully we will be able to get everywhere we want to.

Santa Fe Day 2

Well, this seems to be turning into a diary of our trip instead of a blog, but if I don't do it now I won't remember what happened. We spent the day in Santa Fe again, but this time slept in and went to brunch at El Tecoloco. It was one of the best places that we have eaten at during our whole trip. I highly recommend it to anyone that ever is in Santa Fe. They are only open until 2 p.m. so it is important to get there early. After brunch we went to the Scottish Rite Masonic Library and Museum. It is huge building based on el Alhambra in Spain. One of the Grand Masters gave us a tour. It is a very beautiful building and we learned quite a bit. I decided that if I ever became a Mason it would be more out of curiosity than a desire to learn anything else. Too bad I don't know any Masons that I could solicit to join. Contrary to popular opinion you have to initiate the contact, the members are not allowed to invite people to join. There are only 2 requirements: 1) Belief in a Supreme Being (not specified) and 2) the recommendation of 2 Masons that you have asked to speak for you. After that I went to the New Mexico State Archives while Ivy went shopping at the outlet malls. I actually got really frustrated as I tried to do work because the archives have had to cut their hours down to nearly nothing. You are allowed into the research area at noon, but they won't pull anything out for you until 1 o'clock. Then they won't pull anything after 4, so you really only have 3 to 3 1/2 hours to get everything done. So in order to continue my research I will have to e-mail them what I want and they will copy it and send it to me. The only problem is that it will end up costing more than I hoped it would. Oh well, I guess I need to make sacrifices in order to get my degree done.

Santa Fe

Well, today is only Tuesday. It feels like we have been here for more than 2 days, but we still have 2 more days to explore the Land of Enchantment. Today we spent all day in Santa Fe. Because I'm a history buff and have turned my wife into one we explored the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe. We wandered through the New Mexico History Museum and the Palace of the Governors also. We strolled around the plaza and visited the Cathedral also. Neither of us had previously been in a cathedral so it was a good experience. We tried to visit the oldest church in the USA, but the door was locked and we didn't get in, maybe tomorrow. Santa Fe is the nation's oldest capital and they take great pride in that fact, but the truth is that if the United States hadn't taken over this area following the war they would not be able to make the same claim as part of Mexico.
We had an eye opening experience when we went to dinner tonight. We wanted to try some local restaurants (most of which are Mexican or Southwestern) and we found one that was close to the Plaza. The bad thing about only using a GPS is that it doesn't tell you how much the food costs or what they serve. We took advantage of being on vacation and spent more than we should have, but it was worth it. We tried quail and duck for the first time. The quail was great, the duck was amazing. The best part of the dinner by far was the fried avocado. I know that to some of you that doesn't sound very appetizing, but it made up for the entire meal and the awkwardness that we experienced being the youngest (by far) people eating there. We were also the only people not drinking wine, but I guess it is a compliment that we look old enough to legally drink.
After dinner we wanted to take it easy so we went to see "Rango". It was kind of a strange movie, but what can you expect with Johnny Depp starring in it. It was a good movie, but probably not one I would watch again. Well, that about does it for our trip so far. We are planning on relaxing tomorrow and letting Ivy recover from her sinus troubles. She is almost done with it. The only problem is that the forecast for weather has turned out to be worse than we hoped. It actually snowed today, well it was only a skiff, but it was there. We were hoping for warm weather, I guess there is always tomorrow that could finally give us the break from winter that we were hoping for.

Albuquerque

Day 2 of our trip was slightly more exciting than our first. We drove down to Albuquerque so that I could visit the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico. I found the information that I needed to collect, made copies, and decided to postpone (procrastinate) my research until a later day. While I was working in the archives Ivy went to the Sandia Pueblo reservation and rode the world's longest tram. The tram takes the passengers up the Sandia Peak and you can see both Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The reason that it is called Sandia Peak is because at sunset the peak glows red and looks like a watermelon (Sandia is Spanish for watermelon). We then went to the zoo in Albuquerque, it wasn't great, but it was still bigger than Logan's. It probably would have been better if the wind wasn't blowing so much. For dinner we stopped at Harry's Roadhouse just outside of Santa Fe. It is a great place to eat, great food and a great atmosphere.

New Mexico

We haven't had much happen recently that seemed worthy enough to blog about. No pregnancy announcements, no moving notice, nothing really. Ivy continues to work to put me through school so we don't always have time to get out and do the things that we would like to do. However, we finally have something to write about. This week we drove down to New Mexico. I guess you could say that this is the first time in the state for both of us. (I went to 4 Corners once, but I don't know if that counts.)
Saturday we drove down and stayed the night in Price at my parents' house and Sunday we began the long drive to Santa Fe, where I will be doing some research for my Master's Thesis. It was only an 8 1/2 hour drive from Price to Santa Fe, but we passed through at least 6 Indian Reservations. We kinda laughed/felt bad about the horrible condition the houses that we saw were in, but were amazed at how giant and spacious the casinos were. They were by far the nicest buildings that we saw during that part of our trip. That was about the most fun that we had because the drive was so long. Tomorrow we are heading down to Albuquerque so that I can bury my nose in the archives while Ivy enjoys the nice warm weather. The only problem is that she has a wicked sinus infection. Hopefully that will clear up quickly and then we can enjoy some of the sights together.