Steve Klopfer's Blog

Back in Albuquerque for our last day.  We took it easy, visiting the Albuquerque Aquarium, Rio Grande Zoo, and Rio Grande Botanic Garden.  This was a great trip.  Thank you to my good friend, Leslie Markman-Stern for all of her suggestions of hiking and dining in the area.  She even warned me about getting acclimated to the altitude before venturing out.  Next time I'll listen!

After breakfast we walked to the biggest, best farmers market.  The fruit and veggies were bright, huge, and all looked delicious.  Later we drove to the Hyde Memorial State Park for an "easy" hike at 9,000'.  Lesson learned...if you are not acclimated to the altitude there is no such thing as an easy hike!  We made it to our goal, the waterfall.  The hike back was much easier.  Lunch at Cafe Cafe for really good pizza pizza and super friendly owner who sent us hunding for his wife's gallery ...

We were literally driving in circles looking for room 17 (after retrieving your keys pull out of the driveway and take the next four right turns) which put us back at the lockbox.  After three circles we finally figured out our mistake.  But by that time I had decided that we were going to be major crime victims. By night we were in a very dark mix of residential, commercial.  The parking lot appeared as an alley.  We walked into our "casita" (look up that definition)  , a two unit building. ...

Our original plans were to fly into Albuquerque Friday afternoon, explore Old Town, have dinner on Sandia Peak, take the tram back around 9:00, and drive to our room at the Santa Fe Motel and Inn.  When it was clear that we were trapped on the mountain top I phoned the motel to tell
them that we would not be able to make it there.  The innkeeper told me that he would try to resell our room but made no guarantee.  Then I called the Doubletree in Albuquerque to see if they could take us one nig...

My wife and I spent a fantastic long weekend in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The highlight might just be the massive storm that formed on the mountain at Albuquerque's Sandia Peak on Friday night.  We took the world's longest tram to the top of the mountain and as we were exploring we saw clouds bumping up against the mountains and brilliant flashes of lightning.  We sat down to a wonderful meal at the restaurant (appropriately named High Finance) and within thirty minutes the brilliant view of ...