Indian market and Sandia Crest

It's been a full weekend here in Albuquerque.  I may not have gotten much else done, but I did have fun exploring.  On Saturday, my new friends (Sandra & Dara) and I drove up to Santa Fe for the 91st Annual Indian market.  It is the largest and most prestigious Native Arts market in the world and the largest cultural event in the southwest - over 1100 exhibitors are present.  We went on the last Saturday of the event.  The plaza in Santa Fe had been closed off to car traffic and the streets and plaza were lined with white tents and vendors galore!  We saw the most amazing and gorgeous pottery, art, textiles, sculptures, paintings, carvings, jewelry, clothing, and more!  Hard to take pictures there, as many artists rightly do not want pictures taken of their work.  The artists represented 100 different tribes and indigenous people from the U.S. and Canada.  I saw works from Lakota, Sioux, Navaho, Apache, Pueblo, Northwest & Canadian natives.  All of the products for sale are authentically Indian made and come with a certificate of authenticity according to the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.  They tend to be more expensive than your average souvenir because they are authentically hand made works of art. So be prepared for higher prices. We only had about three hours there due to a previous commitment, but I highly recommend planning to spend a large amount of time there - if not the entire weekend.  There are also native performances (storytelling, singing, dancing) and lots of food!

On Sunday, I decided to take a drive.  I recently found out that you can drive up to the Sandia Crest without taking the tram (which I'm leaving for another day).  My friend, Sandra, tells me that the views are spectacular and there are lots of hiking trails there.  So I headed out I-40 east to Hwy 14 - the beginning of the Turqoise trail.  The weather had been hot and sunny, but I did see clouds up over the Sandia Mountains that did not bode well.  Out here, you can see the weather coming from miles away.  But the flip side is that if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes and it will probably change.  So despite the heavy clouds, I proceeded.  Sure enough, as I pulled onto Hwy 14, it began to rain, and continued to shower off and on as I reached the Sandia Crest drive just to left after passing through Tijeras.  Turning left off 14, I started up the drive with headlights on and wipers swishing.

The Sandia Crest by-way is about 11 miles long, traveling through the Cibola National Forest and rising to roughly 11,000 feet above sea level!  By the time I was halfway up, the skies had cleared and it was dry and sunny!  But much colder.  While it had been close to 90 in ABQ, by the time I reached the top of the drive, the temperature was down to 60!  Very refreshing for a summer drive!!  On the way up, I had to pull off twice for a group of red corvettes cruising up behind me.  I guessed that they were having a rally at the top, and since my little Soul wanted to go slow and take in the scenery, I pulled over to let the sports cars zoom past me - two groups of them.  Once I reached the top, a permit was required to get to the summit and since I did not have one, and wasn't sure how to get one, I turned around and slowly meandered back down.  The road was dotted along the way with sunflowers.  And the forest was filled with Aspen and fir trees.  I rolled down the windows and cruised my way through the switchbacks and hairpin turns.  For a moment, I felt as if I were back in the Virginia mountains!!  The views were incredible!  Sadly, my little camera doesn't do it justice.

Near the bottom of the drive is an amazing place called Tinkertown.  According to their brochure: It took Ross J. Ward over forty years to carve, collect and lovingly construct what is now Tinkertown Museum....over 50,000 glass bottles form rambling walls that surround a 22 room museum.  Wagon wheels, old-fashioned store fronts and wacky western memorabilia make Tinkertown's exterior as much a museum as the wonders within.  Inside the magic of animation takes over...inhabitants of a racuous little western town animate to hilarious life...under the big top, diminutive circus performers challenge tigers and defy gravity.  Throughout, eccentric collections of Americana (wedding cake couples, antique tools, dolls) fill winding hallways.  Otto the One-Man-Band and Esmerelda, the Fortune Teller need only a quarter to lay a tune or predict your future...and a 35 foot antique wooden sailboat that braved a 10 year voyage around the world.

While Ross passed away in 2002, his wife Carla and family continue to keep the museum open.  Inside I saw numerous newspaper reviews, Good Morning America and even Bette Midler visited Tinkertown (the latter when she was in the area filming Outrageous Fortune).  It's an amazing little place and worth the $3.50 price of admission!

One last note for the weekend... as we are reaching the middle/end of August, it is chile harvest time in New Mexico.  And on Sept 1 & 2nd, the Hatch Valley Chile Festival takes place in Hatch, New Mexico - green chile capital of New Mexico.  Chile ristras are showing up everywhere.  But apparently, you really know it's harvest time when you start seeing bags of roasted chiles in the stores for $10; and, like today, the stores set up a chile roaster in the parking lot!  Just don't stand downwind! LOL!

Until next time...Love and Green Chiles from New Mexico!
Jules

Walking Tour of Nob Hill

On Saturday, Aug 11, I decided to join the Albuquerque Neighborhoods meetup group for a walking tour of the Nob Hill area.  According to the guidebook from WalkAlbuquerque.org:

Central Avenue became part of Route 66 in 1937 as it passed through Albuquerque on its way from Chicago to Los Angeles. Old and new mix in the colorful facades and neon signs that line Central. Kelly’s Brew Pub and the Monte Vista Fire Station are just two of the wonderful examples of adaptive reuse of buildings along the corridor. This walk includes four individual properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places and a designated national historic district, the Monte Vista/College View Addition.

Nob Hill residential areas offer some of the best examples of the regionalism that influenced suburban housing tastes in Albuquerque from the late 1920s through the late 1940s. The Monte Vista Addition was platted in 1926. The significance of this district lies not in individual structures, but in the fabric of houses of regionally-inspired building styles, set back from each street at a uniform distance, retaining a high degree of their original character-defining elements. Earliest houses were characterized by separate garages set back on the property.

We covered several styles of architecture during the walk, seeing examples of each.  We also had the chance to view several houses on the tour that were for sale ranging from 265k to 600k. One of the styles that we discussed was the Territorial style of architecture popular from 1846 - 1912.  This style of building was characterized  by adobe walls covered in stucco, with layer of brick coping at the top to make the adobe water tight.  Since adobe is made from clay, when it gets wet, it deteriorates quickly.  This is why most adobe walls are covered with stucco.  One example of Territorial style is seen at the Presbyterian church pictured below:

Another style that became popular in the late 19th century is Mission Revival.  Mission revival takes its characteristics from the spanish style missions.  Common aspects of the style include enclosed courtyards using massive adobe walls with limited fenestrations and door piercing (for protection), low pitched roofs with wide eaves and non-flammable red clay roof tiles, and white plaster stucco over adobe walls.

Nob Hill is filled with wonderful old architecture in quaint neighborhoods on either side of Central Avenue (Route 66).  The neighborhood is crossed by lots of small alleys allowing a closer look at the area and shortcuts between the streets.  The alleys were originally used for access to the garages of the houses. The Central Ave section is lined with lots of fun eclectic shops, artistic venues, coffee shops, antiques, pizza joints and much of the neon signs popular on Route 66.  It's a fantastic place to wander around and shop.

One other unique house we noted had a rounded feature at the top on one side.  It was originally a water tank for the University Heights neighborhood built in 1916 and was incorporated into the house once that area was incorporated into the city.

All in all, it was a nice tour - although brutally hot by the time we were done.  I recommend going during cooler weather or starting much earlier than 9-9:30 AM.  To cool off, we stopped in for lunch at Kellys Brew Pub on Central.  Kellys used to be the Jones Motor Company built in 1939 along Route 66.  It has a unique feature of using solar roof panels to heat the vats used in brewing their ale.  I will have to plan on going back this fall to shop the wonderful stores in the area.

Jacksonville, Florida

We are now back to the regularly scheduled programming....
After a short hiatus in blogging and internet accessibility, I took a long weekend to fly to Florida and visit some friends that I haven't seen in a few years.  It was a great visit to catch up.  I got to finally meet my friend, Tonya's, two adorable, beautiful, funny, sweet daughters as well.  And I totally fell in love with them!  Great girls!

So, I flew in to Jacksonsville, Florida where Andy and Tonya live.  First of all, I have to say that flights from Albuquerque are really expensive.  (Food is also expensive here, but that's a whole 'nother subject right there!)  And direct flights seem to be few and far between.  I had a connecting flight through Atlanta which meant I was in ATL for all of 20 minutes while I ran from one gate to the next! LOL!

According to Wikipedia, Jacksonville is centered on the St. John River and is the largest city in Florida in terms of population and land area.  I can certainly speak to the land area - as according to Tonya and I have to agree - places in Jacksonville are 35 minutes from anywhere else in Jacksonville.  It is very spread out.  It was originally settled by the Timucua Indians, then French, British and Spanish colony rule until it became part of America.  The city was named after Andrew Jackson (the 7th U.S. president, if you're counting) and is Florida's third largest seaport.

I have to say that I was in absolute awe of the lush green-ness, the trees and the large expanses of water.  As we were driving away from the airport, I just kept staring out the windows and exclaiming over it.  After 7+ months of desert living, it was almost overwhelming to see all that green and water!!  Besides the Rio Grande river here in Albuquerque and the irrigation ditches, the biggest body of water I've seen in all this time was the mud puddle ringed by caution cones in the park after a rain!

This was a short, weekend trip for me.  So picture taking was limited.  Sorry, no beach pictures folks.  Although I did spend a wonderful time on the beach Friday soaking up the sun, wading in the ocean, running the sand between my fingers and toes.  We also took a very hot and humid walk on the Riverwalk (pictured above) at Jacksonville Landing. Friday night we attended a hilarious show at the comedy club in Jacksonville starring Larry XL and Frankie Paul.

Saturday, we decided to head to St. Augustine, Florida.  St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the U.S.  It was originally explored by Ponce De Leon.  We walked through the old town area - where many of the buildings are originals - and what is now a huge tourist shopping district.  We also ate at the Columbia Restaurant - a wonderful cuban/spanish restaurant where they made the sangria fresh at table side. I had the ropa vieja with rice and plantains. Sadly, since we only had one day there, I was unable to do any of the tours or museums.  But... it did let me know that I would love to come back to this city and spend some time here exploring.  There's an old fort, horse drawn carriage tours, hearse driven and pirate led walking ghost tours, museums, and sailboat excursions - to name a few things I saw and put on my to-do list for next time.  It's a beautiful city.

At this point it began to rain - the edges of Tropical Storm Ernesto making his presence felt.  Now most people would have been seriously bummed that their vacation in Florida was being rained out on the last day or so.  But you must remember - I live in the high desert now.  Rain storms are fascinating, wonderful and fantastical for me.  I loved it!  I even loved the heat and humidity!  All in all it was a fun, quick weekend.  I miss my friends already!  They were gracious hosts!