Hanging Around Albuquerque

Keeping an eye on things.

Not every outing is a trip to a National Park.  Lately, we've been spending a lot of time finding the shortest way into Albuquerque.

I'll admit this is an interesting process.  Traveling without a home makes


getting out and about inherently easier.  We've been thrown somewhat off-course by simply having arrived in NM.  We've been acclimating to the weather and the community, making connections with people and opportunities. There has been the unexpected traveling here and there.  And with the holidays long over, I've been dividing my attention between my work as an on-line counselor & relationship coach and getting the boys' education underway for the semester.

Juggling a few balls and throwing a few more into the mix without even thinking is my way.  It isn't that I am terribly efficient, just terribly distractible.  And, before long, I find myself with 19 balls in the air when I started with 3 or 5.  I'm not even good at juggling, so mine is a continual process of refocusing, streamlining my efforts, remembering what is important, remembering to coach and guide the family instead react, and remembering to say no to otherwise great ideas.   (For my occasional bursts of running like a well-oiled machine, I thank my family and friends and au pairs who have become both.)

All this to say, we're re-focusing on getting out and about, and Albuquerque has been an easy target.

Painted on a wall, downtown Albuquerque.

With some effort, we've pared this trip down from 1 hr 45 minutes to our most recent record of 1 hr 5 minutes.  This is not from speeding; the limit is already at 75 mph.  We're finding back roads and shortcuts with some preliminary on-line research, an atlas, a GPS, and a reliable navigator.

Shaping & shooting water

Measuring & Balance

As reward for our efforts, we've been discovering some neat spots downtown.  My favorite, so far, is the Explora! Science Center and Children's Museum.  We've been to a fair number of science museums in our time.  I was pleasantly surprised that this one was, hands down, the best so far.

Water current

It is from Explora! that we got the photo of my son's eye above.  It didn't stop there though.  The museum was a veritable maze of cubicles each with a meaningful hands-on discovery or experiment.

Drafting

From water to electricity to light and wind, making movies and bubbles and more, they had it at Explora!

On another day, we set off to explore Route 66.  I hadn't realized before that Route 66 started out, between 1926-1937, as a north-south corridor connecting Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Santa Rosa, and Indian Reservations.  Not surprisingly, much of the 506 miles was mostly unpaved then.  In 1931, federal money was invested in realigning the route into a east-west route.  By 1937, the route from Chicago to Santa Monica was paved and ready for travelers.

Route 66 runs right through Albuqerque and often is overlapped by I-40.  Interestingly enough, the places marked as historic here pre-date 1937.  As a result, we ended up driving by a lot of fun looking places that looked on the older side (60-70 years old)  in search of the historical markers which were slightly older.  We didn't find a Cadillac Ranch, but we found the Kimo Theatre which dates back to 1927 and is still bringing in crowds for a variety of performances.

The Kimo Theatre on Route 66, Central Avenue, in downtown Albuquerque.

What was, perhaps, the most surprising find in one of our forays downtown was the Hispanic Cultural Center.  As soon as I walked in, I understood that this place was steeped in quiet dignity.  The rooms were large, the walls tall.  Works of art were sparingly posted so that each one could be fully absorbed.  I am not, by proclivity or talent, an artist by any stretch.  But I found the art itself to be a captivating collection.  The colors were bold and bright as well as dark and strong.  And the media was mixed.  There was one display, a huge sculptural mural of sorts, made entirely of rail spikes shaped into what amounted to very large comic strip.

What stood out the most to me was their exhibit on Chilian Arpilleras, Stitching Resistance. 

We looked, read, learned, and felt.  The boys learned about a way of life that they'd never been exposed to before.  They learned about the fear and injustice that comes with corrupt government.  And they learned about the powerful, silent protest of the Chilean women -- stitching resistance.  We watched a film of these women, the vast majority of them middle-aged or more, who had lost someone without cause or notice.  A loved one vanished.

They worked in spite of the risk of reprisal and discovery.  We watched them hang posters, spreading glue across posters with their bare hands, quickly, quietly, protesting.  These women who would otherwise be home making dinner, tending to the family, making a home, running discipline, ruling the roost.  These matriarchs had had enough.

Watching these quiet, steady women working in concert, for justice, full of purpose, and against the odds,  I couldn't help but be filled with deep, abiding respect for them -- and remember the enormous role women have played, often quietly, throughout time.