I am falling behind in my posts, so I decided to finish Albuquerque all in one post. We barely saw anything that ABQ really had to offer but we were really busy! Albuquerque is a big city- even has a Costco and Sam’s Club, several Targets etc. But because it is organized into little areas, it didn’t seem so big of a city. If that makes sense, at all.
The Rio Grande preserve was amazing. If I lived in ABQ I would definitely have a pass, especially since again, it is basically inside the city. Near the wealthier area of the city for sure. It has amazing walking trails that go right up against the river, and it really is a river here unlike in Texas. We saw several raptor species, ducks, geese and even catfish and turtles. All of that even though it was pretty cold still- maybe 60F at the warmest. Again, we are running a couple weeks ahead of where we would like to be to see different animals especially. It was nice to walk among the cottonwoods although they are slowly dying out. The cottonwoods depend on the river flooding, but it has been contained for about 70 years or so. The CCC built most of it as we have seen in several of these parks. Albuquerque is still within the monsoon regions so that “flooding” has helped them but there are not many young trees.
We also went to the Museum of Nuclear Science and History. That was a very interesting place for sure. It was heavily into the building of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but with a little bend to how close we came to not developing this technology and a lot on how secretive it was. Many of the men working in and around the base did not know what they were working on. There was a cool video with those on the plane about the lead up and follow up to what they did. It was only 10 years old so they were fairly old. Most felt that it had to be done still, because of how poorly the Japanese treated anyone they conquered and especially any POWs. They were a killing “machine.” I was surprised to hear that the Japanese emperor and his advisors would not admit defeat even after Hiroshima, where they lost a huge portion of their military machine to the atom bomb and they were told there was another one. Hence, Nagasaki. I am fairly certain the film has a slant favorable to us, but several of the men repeated that people today just cannot conceive of how bad the war in the Pacific was. Then the museum moved into the Cold War which was also informative. It ended with some of the medical uses of nuclear science and a big part about nuclear energy.
Finally we went to the Old Town Plaza. These older cities have very cool plaza areas. Yes, mostly commercial (we saw so many genuine blankets…made in India!😟) but often with little gems. We found another old cathedral, established in 1706 with some of the original structures built into the church. It had an interesting museum all about the Jesuit priests and others who came to convert the native peoples and establish the church for Mexico. It is a small church yet has over 2000 parishioners. They have to hold 7 masses each weekend. It was decorated for lent.
And finally we continued exploring the plaza and found the Roadrunner cafe and bakery, just before it closed. Dave truly enjoyed his blueberry Croffin- croissant and muffin. Our food tends to get pretty redundant when we are the road, so that was a nice change. He did share a bite with me. One, I might add but then again, I might have stolen a second!🤪
