admin – Tales From The Hive

Here is a taste of some of the other Albuquerque (ABQ) sites and events we were able to go to:

Old Town:

Albuquerque has a lovely old town section of the city with original buildings and lots of art.

Petrogylph National Monument:

You can hike to see thousands of petroglyphs, both made by the natives and by the Spaniards. They are everywhere. We took our friend Mark with us and got a New Yorker’s perspective on ancient drawings.

Bosque Trail:

The trail is a mixed use (horses, bikes, hikes) that follows the Rio Grande and irrigation canals on the west side of the city. Our AirB&B was about a mile away and we both spent a lot of time on our bikes on this trail. Chris used it to get to other roads to ride on while I was happy enough with the 16 mile trail to mostly stay on it.

Acoma Pueblo:
This is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America, according to the Acoma people of New Mexico. It is a native pueblo built on the top of a mesa established before Spain entered New Mexico. Although most people of the pueblo live in modern towns off the pueblo, there are 10-20 people who still live on the pueblo, which has no running water or electricity. When you take a tour, you hear about the rich history and culture of the Acoma people, see the old buildings (some with newer renovations), and see a sampling of the arts and crafts of the people. Acoma is very well known for its style of black pottery, but there are many other types of artists that show their work at the top of the mesa. There is a small museum at the pueblo cultural center which had an amazing exhibit of cartoonist Ricardo Cate, who we had never heard of. His work is very funny but also entrenched in the reality of life for native americans in the U.S. Well worth seeing!

The original mesa settled by the Acoma, used until a lightning strike drove them to look for a new home.

A ladder that goes to an ancient kiva (ceremonial site)

The church built for the Spanish by the natives

Climbing down (we could have taken a bus)

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center:

This place represents the 19 pueblos of New Mexico and is filled with history, stories, art, dancing, and native american culture. Their message about mother earth and environmentalism is almost more relevant now than any other time, as our current administration slowly gets rid of the environmental protections we currently have and the native culture still tries to preserve the earth. .

New Mexican cuisine:

There is great Mexican food everywhere and something called New Mexican cuisine. Honestly, I could not tell the difference between old and new, except in those restaurants with new Mexican cuisine, typically you have the choice of red or green sauce, or Christmas (which is both.)

Ballooning:

Ballooning is a big event here with the annual balloon festival every October. There is a big ballooning museum which we did not get to, but we did love often seeing balloons outside our bathroom window when we woke up.

Hiking:

We did less hiking here because of visitors, yoga and century rides. We did hike up El Pino trail on the last weekend, and because 9 miles one day was not enough for Chris, he did 8+ miles on the La Luz trail on the next day! There are three climate zones as you go up the mountains so we saw amazing wild flowers in one of the zones.

Some of the wildflowers we saw on the way up.

The hay truck on our street:

I don’t know why this was parked on our street for almost the whole time we were in ABQ, but needed to share this picture.

From Albuquerque, we have been traveling back east to meet our daughter on the Outer Banks at the end of June. On the way, we stopped in a couple of places.

Bandolier National Monument:

Hot Springs, Arkansas:

The one hot spring that does not funnel into a bathhouse.

An old bathhouse where we visited the baths.

Another old bathhouse, now the national park visitor center.

Memphis:

Site of the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Natchez Trace and Blue Ridge Parkway:

We spent a short time driving and trying to hike in the very wet national forests in Tennessee and North Carolina. Eventually we gave up camping because we did not have the right equipment for the rain. We are outside Raleigh right now waiting for Saturday when we meet Calysta in the Outer Banks for a week. After that we are headed to Rochester for 2-4 weeks, so the blog will be quiet for a while.

We have been pretty content here in Redding so far. We have lovely hosts who live upstairs in their beautiful house that they renovated four years ago when they married. We are in a pretty, downstairs, one bedroom apartment with nice outside patio where I stretched and did yoga in the sun. The house is built into a hill so although we are in what used to be a basement, there are windows, lots of light, and little touches that make this place great. It is spotless, newly renovated, has comfortable couches, easy access to outside, lots of closet and pantry space, and a view of Lassen mountain. Our hosts have been generous and kind. They invited us for drinks and appetizers last week, and shared their upstairs view of both Mount Shasta and Lassen, and the stories of their lives, their children, their work, and their hopes. It was a delightful evening that I really needed because although I love my husband very much, I also require more social time with others.

I spent the week working for Paychex (the beginning of training my replacement),taking yoga and pilates classes at the local and generally very full Shasta Family Y, and biking and/or hiking outside almost every day. The weather continues to be unusually warm and sunny – so much so that everyone here worries about the possible consequences of not having the usual rain and snow.

I hiked on Wednesday morning with a group of strangers. We found the group by talking to a guy that Chris biked with on Sunday. It is an informal group that hikes every Wednesday at 9 am. There were about 12 people and they welcomed me warmly as I was included in an almost 4 mile hike up to Whiskeytown Falls. There is a federal recreation area 7 miles out of town called Whiskeytown that has a huge lake, and tons of walking and mountain biking trails. This particular trail went up to beautiful falls. I got to know about half the group who hiked the same speed as me. There were several teachers, a retired federal park employee, and other active folks. It took about 40 minutes to hike to the top where the falls are. This particular trail was about 12 years old, just recently built although there had been an informal trail prior to that. Along the way there was a creek, stunning forest views and sometimes views of the huge Whiskeytown Lake.

Later in the day, I had a “small world” moment. One of the women I hiked with had two daughters who both worked in museums. She proudly told me that her daughter who lived in San Diego was currently at a conference in Palm Desert. When I texted my old friend from college, Marjorie, that evening, she shared with me that she was at the same conference!

No one knew why this area is called Whiskeytown though. Maybe that is a story for another day.

Author: admin

Albuquerque – part 2

It’s a small small world