Los Alamos, New Mexico - familiar and so strange

Los Alamos, New Mexico, at last...
This has been a weird, wonderful, memorable day; an example of "I had no idea this is what my day would be like when I woke up this morning."  We woke up to a knock on the bedroom door.  Our hosts had made croissants with marmalade and butter and provided us with tea.  We ate our lovely repast at a sunny table out in the front garden area near a bubbling fountain inside some lovely adobe walls.

That turquoise door was our lovely separate quarters.

The fountain, of course, and now I'm planning one for my next home.

As we got in the car for our adventure in Los Alamos, we noticed a crew was digging a trench with a machine in the parking area to the left of the house, a pretty long one.  Then, as we actually drove out onto the road, there was a fire truck with its lights flashing and a utility company truck parked on the shoulder outside the adobe walls.  We figured this city must be very proactive about making sure you don't cut power or gas lines when digging and we drove off.

It turns out that the digger actually hit a gas line (no explosion, thank goodness) and there would be no hot water until that could be fixed on Monday.  So, we ended up with a free night (with no showers) and a credit for our 3rd day so we can find a closer place in Santa Fe.  This was welcome news because we realized about 30 minutes into the drive that Los Alamos is a much longer drive than we thought.  In fact, it was about 2 hours from our rooms north of Albuquerque and 2 + 2 = 4 hours on the road for a couple days in a row.   

Los Alamos was amazing, though.  As we started to ascend the additional 2000 feet to Los Alamos the excitement and, in my case, the feelings started building.  (And, of course, the altitude effects.) We passed the site of the original gate and into a city that I didn't recognize at first.  My family  lived there from approx. 1951 to 1955, almost 5 years I think.  My youngest brother was born there.

With a stop at the Visitors' Center, we got a lot of information and a great map that showed me that my elementary school was still there on the very same spot.  Aspen Elementary almost looked the same.  Well, yes, it's modernized; it has been 60+ years after all.  But, what a feeling to actually find it, especially after the debacle in Los Gatos, CA!  

This is the first NM school I've seen with a shade cover on the playground.

This end of the school is where I had Shop class as a 6 yr old, with real tools!

My teacher told Mom that, in 1st grade, I just stood and watched the other girls play jumprope for weeks.  But, when I finally joined in, I did it perfectly.  Hmmm... think I still do that, except for the perfect part.

Once we found the school, we were able to drive the route I walked home from school and there it was - the house my family lived in before we left Los Alamos for good in 1955(?).  This is the house where my father flooded the yard to make us an ice skating rink in the winter, where the root beer he made blew up in the closet while we were on vacation, where I learned to ride a bike solo going down what looks like a slight incline now but felt like a huge hill, and where my father went up on the house on Christmas Eve shaking reindeer bells and shouting Ho, Ho, Ho.

2181 35th St.  It's much smaller than I remembered and it's a duplex.  I think it had 3 bedrooms, an improvement over the quadruplex we lived in before with 2 bedrooms.  My brothers were both pretty small then, probably 3 and newborn.  It's a different color, but there is no doubt in my mind.  What a feeling of joy to have actually found it!  It's certainly in much better condition than a lot of houses in this town.  So much of the buildings are the same as they were in the 50s.

We had the one on the right. (That's a covered car in the corner.)

Here's the HUGE hill that I rode/fell down on my first bike.

We tried to find our original quadruplex, but alas I think it might have been torn down and replaced.

The Los Alamos History Museum was fascinating.  (They even have on display a boxed model of the NS Savannah, the first merchant ship to be powered by a nuclear reactor, for which my father has a patent.)  It turns out that Los Alamos was a boys' ranch for the sons of the wealthy before it was taken over by the Manhattan Project in the 40s.  The buildings and infrastructure were there and it was secluded, making it perfect for that purpose.  

Outside the museum.

I wondered about the Los Alamos High School team name and mascot.  My high school, Columbia High, was in Richland, Washington near the Hanford reactors and labs that made plutonium for nuclear warheads.  Our team was, and still is, called the Bombers and our mascot was a defused torpedo (a Bomb).  Los Alamos has the Top Hatters and their mascot is a Top Hat!  Apparently this is something to do with the top secret work done in the city.  In Richland, they just laid it out there.  Our team and cheerleaders proudly wore a green and gold mushroom cloud on their uniforms.  Go Bombers!  Somehow, Go Hatters doesn't have the same heft.  Safer, though.  I'm a Bomber, but I wouldn't want to say that in an airport.

By the way, the museum bookstore had The Green Glass Sea (great YA book) and many others that I now have to read - The Atomic Weight of Love and The Wives of Los Alamos among them.  

Eventually, the heavens cut loose and Los Alamos enjoyed a rainfall that made us feel much more at home.  Tomorrow, we will be going to Santa Fe and seeing what other trouble we can get into.

Heading to Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque is lovely by night and it certainly is cooler than Phoenix.  When we left Phoenix the temperature was around 105 degrees, but Albuquerque had a balmy high of 96 today.  It's 78 at the moment and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Our AirBnB room is in a beautiful adobe house in Corales.

Los Alamos is predicted to have a high of 75 degrees tomorrow.  Yessss!  We'll be taking off around 10am to start in Los Alamos and see how much of our wishlist we can see.

Here are the high points of the trip today.  All of these were taken in Arizona, except the last one.  The red clay soil reminds me so much of my former home in Lynchburg, VA, the first place I ever saw red clay.  It was a challenge for my Mom because that red mud left some serious stains on my brothers' and my clothing.  But, really, what kid can have fun without rolling in the dirt a little?

We braved the rattlesnakes to walk out there behind the Rest Stop.

These travelers were braver than we were.

You can see that rain coming from very far away.

There were miles and miles of painted buttes like this.  Gorgeous!

It's easy to imagine 19th century Native Americans or frontiersmen taking refuge for the night here.

Finally, we reached New Mexico.  Although it was too dangerous to stop and photograph the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign, we were able to stop a few minutes later to capture this Santa Fe train rolling in front of some iconic New Mexico scenery.

I can't wait to get some outside daylight photos of our AirBnb place and Los Alamos tomorrow!

Goodby to Arizona

Leaving Phoenix area...  We had one last visit and meal with my brother and my Mom and Dad on Tuesday to say goodbye; always hard.

On the way to Mom and Dad's, I took these photos of one of those palm tree cell towers up close.  It is located at the local fire station.  As you can see, this is not an actual palm tree with added equipment, but wholly man-made.  In fact, it probably has an antenna for the local emergency radio, too.

Steve packed the car today.  The trunk had to be packed just right in order to get all our camping equipment in; there is a lot.  All we need to add now are our suitcases, computer equipment, and bathroom gear.  I think we have realized that we may need to bring fewer clothes and use only one suitcase, plus a small backpack for the Europe trip.

Tomorrow, we leave around 9am for Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We'll be staying at a place north of Albuquerque in order to visit Los Alamos, Bandelier Park, Espanola (especially, the road to Espanola), Camel Rock, and Santa Fe.  Once again, we will see if my childhood place looks the same.

A library in the wilderness and St. Mary's Basilica in Phoenix

Steve and I discovered a library next to a city park on the way to my folks' house.  The city of Phoenix appears to be 100s of square miles.  A city park like this looks like it is far out in the rural area, but it is actually inside the city limits.  I have never seen city limits like these.  Here's the sign outside the the library as you come in from the parking lot.

My librarian friends may enjoy the views from inside the library.  They have the most saguaros I've seen since we arrived.  Here is White Tank Branch Library.

The front door from the outside.

The front doors from the inside.

They also have a Nature Center and a Friends Book Store!

The view from the parking lot.

It's has it's own Native American circle.

More views from the parking lot.

After the Library, we had another dinner with the family yesterday.  All of us shared carry out and had a great time chatting.  It's possible we may run out of conversation soon, but not yet.

Today, in 109 degree heat, I left Steve in the cool house and ventured out for root beer and a visit to St. Mary's Basilica.  Needless to say, I was probably the only person wandering around outside in downtown Phoenix today in the late afternoon, but look at these photos.  Even though it was closed, the outside of the building and its grounds are very beautiful.  Construction began on this adobe church in 1880 and it was completed in 1881.  It was the first Catholic church and the second church of any kind to be built in Phoenix.

This is the Basilica's little gated courtyard.

Across the street on one side is a theater, with fascinating sculptured figures outside.

Look closely, there are icons trapped inside this arch next to the theater.

And across the other street from the Basilica is the Phoenix Convention Center, a beautifully designed set of buildings.

And, of course, more of the Basilica as I returned to my car.