jamshid1999: August 2011

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Albuquerque, NM, I Scream Ice Cream

Our whole visit to Albuquerque revolved around food, and was short. We went to the Indian restaurant and stopped at an ice cream store. The ice cream store was filled with a bunch of memorabilia from the 1980s (OK, antiques).

I asked Z if he knew what the records on he wall were, and he said, "yeah, those are old fashioned CDs".

Albuquerque, NM, Annapurna's World Vegetarian Cafe

As the sun set, we heard south to Albuquerque.

Once there it was dinner time, and we chose to eat at an Indian place called Annapurna's.

Now, there are two types of Indian restaurants, those owned by Indians, and those run by hippies. This turned out to be the latter type. In fact, N was almost the only Indian looking person in the room.

Here S decided to pose for me.

Santa Fe, The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Before this trip, I didn't even know who Georgia O'Keeffe was, but N did, and was really excited about going to view her work. As it turns out, this is one of the "must do"s when you visit Santa Fe.

Photos were not allowed in the museum, so I only have photos of us standing in front.

Los Alamos and the Bradbury Science Museum

I used to be a physicist, so a visit to Los Alamos almost seemed like a pilgrimage to me. A lot of modern technology has sprung from physics, but there has never been a time where a single group of physicists have been so involved with setting the course of human history as when Los Alamos was formed.

The story of Los Alamos is really one of the most compelling ever. Unfortunately I was a bit dissapointed at the outdated and muted presentation at the museum. But it was still fun to see the town first hand.

This is an old supercomputer from the 1970s.

Southwest Scenery

Santa Fe, NM, The Tune-Up

Here is the hippy joint where we ate lunch. This was the best South Western place we went to.

Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe hailed our arrival to the west coast. I never really thought about New Mexico as being in the west coast, but coming from the other direction, it really felt like I had entered the "suburbs" of California. (I certainly didn't get this feeling in Texas.) Once years back, N called Chicago the east coast, and I just about coughed milk out my nose. (I only did not because I wasn't drinking milk at the time). So "take that", N and 40 million Californians, New Mexico is the west coast.

There are many reasons that Santa Fe felt like the west coast, including the fact that Albertson's, the grocery store was there, that a bunch of casually dressed millionaires were walking around, or even the espresso shops on every corner. The most striking moment was when a pot bellied hippy with a white haired pony tail jumped out in front of my car at a crosswalk with a belligerent look and a hand in the halt position. Said hippy seemed to have been waiting patiently at the side of the road for a car to arrive before suddenly jumping into the road in order to make a point, and I in turn had to slam on the brakes.... Ahhhh, I was home.

To contradict myself, Santa Fe was also a lot like Jackson Hole (which is distinctly not like the west coast). Both are beautiful cities in beautiful settings, manicured to the point of almost being Disney representations of their former selves. If Epcot ever created a mini Santa Fe, it would probably be indistinguishable from the real thing, tourists, food stands and gift shops included. On the other hand, the food in Santa Fe was much better than anything that you could get in Disney or Jackson Hole. We dined at a small eco friendly ingredient oriented locally soucing free spirited trendy restaurant cafe with lot's of vegetarian options.... Ahhhh, I was home.