Great day in Albuquerque and scooped Mike
Trip Start
Jul 13, 2009
1
4
11
Trip End
Jul 27, 2009
Where I stayed
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Friday, July 17, 2009
We got into Albuquerque around 10:45 but went straight to the Sandia Peak tramway since it was a little north of town. We took the tram to the top- this was an awesome ride to the 10,400 peak aand 1.5 mile suspended ride after the 2nd tower to the top. We got some great pics and video here and took advantage of Mick's binoculars. Finally remembered them since we forgot on the hike in Taos day before. Donald called Pops when we were up top so he talked to him for a while about our trip, etc. From here we went to the International Balloon museum which was very cool and we learned a lot about the hot air balloon capital of the world. We didn't see any out when we were in town but hopefully in the morning. The balloon fiesta in early Oct would be awesome to come back for here.
From here we headed into town and checked into the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town. Big place but pretty nice. There are a couple weddings here this weekend and noticed from the gift bags behind the front desk w/ big bags of chips and salsa. Couple block walk to Old Town which we soon took advantage of - Old Town Plaza was not as nice as Santa Fe's but we walked around and checked out some stores then had chips, salsa and Pacificos at a place in the plaza. Could've been the 103 degree temps that made it difficult to walk around here. We headed back to the place and did a driving tour of town- from the Rio Grande river to Downtown, Nob Hill, Uptown neighborhoods, etc on the Old Route 66 or now Central Ave. We were getting hungry after a while and decided to eat- meanwhile we were trying to sort out Mike's flight dilemma as he was delayed out of Charlotte and looked like he was going to miss connection but worked out after that flight was delayed. Pops had been talking bout wanting a steak for couple days and thanks to his thought- we checked out Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives book, another gift from Mike. We found an awesome local steakhouse behind a liquor store on Old Route 66 west of downtown called the Monte Carlo. This place was really cool. Awesome spot as we were pretty much the only tourists around surrounded by locals. Awesome steaks, great times and good laughs here. Had good conversation- never realized reason Mom was sick on their honeymoon but probably was from being exhausted planning the wedding herself, helping w/ Pop-Pop's restaurant, etc while Pops was still working in NJ and Mom was in NC. Talked about Pop-Pop getting sick and dying, Gramps, etc. Also had good convo again in car earlier about investing in real estate after Donald called.
After dinner we had couple hours to kill before Mike got in so we plugged Kenny Weddington's address in the GPS to see where it was and took drive out there- great house but didn't seem anybody was home and didn't have much time by the time we got out there before Mike got in so took off and scooped Mike from airport. Our surprise was we took him to the Frontier restaurant for huevos rancheros- a dive spot on 66 near U. of New Mexico and another recommendation from Mike's books. He'd been complaining he was missing the southwestern food before he got there so we took him to this well-known institution. Should be a fun week ahead w/ Mike joining us- gonna be tough to beat past few days- couldn't have asked for better time.
