The Cabin at Last!

We have finally checked out of the La Quinta in Albuquerque and made our way up to the cabin in Red River. Not ALL of the snow is gone, but it has melted enough for us to get in and get settled. We took the long route to town, stopping in a tiny little town called Chimayo where there is a famous Catholic Church where believers claim that dirt from a back room of the church can heal physical and spiritual ills.

The Rattlesnake Museum

Erik has been telling me about the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque for years, and I finally got to see it. I am NOT a fan of snakes, but they were all behind glass, so it was fine. The white one was my favorite, and also not a rattlesnake... not even venomous. But I got a good photo of the real thing as well.

Old Town

After the Aquarium/Gardens, we spent some time walking around Old Town in Albuquerque, an historic district founded by the Spanish in 1706. It's a tourist trap for sure, but it has a lot of charm and history, and LOTS of great art and jewelry. At the center of the little village is a small park (a central plaza if you will), and a church dating back to 1793. Surrounding that is a collection of adobe buildings housing restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, art galleries, etc. Along one end of the street, jewelry makers line their goods out on the sidewalk for display. If I had any money right now, I would spend it right there.

If you get off the beaten path and away from the center of town, there's all kinds of hidden gardens and patios and brick paths that lead to old fountains... just a very cool place. We also grabbed a not-so-great lunch from a place that managed to serve me the BEST SANGRIA EVER. It more than made up for the sub-par food.

Play Time

Erik and I particularly enjoyed the "fantasy gardens" - meant for small children, of course, but we couldn't resist exploring it ourselves.

Albuquerque Aquarium & Botanical Gardens

We did manage to venture out this morning to see some local attractions. With the dogs at day care, we spent the morning at the Aquarium and Botanical Gardens, where Erik and I joined in with countless groups of elementary students to check out some flora and fauna.

Dogs in Hotels

Because we have had the dogs with us, we are quite limited in what we are able to do. Thus, we have been spending a LOT of time lounging around the La Quinta. Trixie doesn't seem to mind.

Petroglyph National Monument

With a bad case of cabin fever, we ventured out to Petroglyph National Monument to hit some dog-friendly trails. We did a 3-mile loop around the west mesa, a landscape of desert and volcanic rock. It is considered an archaeological site because of the 25,000 images carved into the rocks by Pueblo Indians and Spanish settlers between 1300- 1680's. I loved searching for the rock carvings - Erik (and the dogs) loved searching for lizards in the brush and cacti.

Another Teaching Fair

Today, we attended the job fair at the University of New Mexico. There were far fewer attendees than there were at Fort Collins, which was good, but we still didn't get very far. We continue to hear the same thing... state budgets have not been released, thus none of the districts can make any moves. Many of the people we spoke to today say it could be mid- or even late-summer before they hire. It's frustrating, but we knew it wouldn't be easy.

Other than job stress, things are all good. We are holed up in the La Quinta quite a bit because of the dogs, but we are thinking of a mini road trip up a stretch of the old Hwy 66, just to get out for a while. Should make for a few interesting photos.

Albuquerque

I LOVE this city. Great weather, great food, great people, great scenery. We are attending another job fair down here at the University of New Mexico on Wednesday so we're keeping our fingers crossed that there are a few social studies openings in and around town. It appears that Santa Fe may have a couple of opportunities as well - we are keeping all options on the table.

Erik's parents used to live out here so we took a little excursion to the old neighborhood to get a photo of the old house and the surrounding area, which was just gorgeous. We also made our way into the downtown area just to cruise around and check out Albuquerque life. Watch out for speed humps!

Rifle - Aluquerque

Because of the crazy winter storm that shut down various routes through the mountains, we were forced to skirt west into Utah and down through Moab on our way out to Albuquerque. I had never seen the terrain of Moab/Canyonlands area, so I was really excited. As you can see, the land formations are just amazing out there.

Fort Collins - Rifle

Our first stop was Fort Collins, Co. We attended a job fair at Colorado State and fell in love with this eclectic little town. Unfortunately, it's even harder to get a job here than it is in Michigan! We got a couple decent leads on some districts outside of Denver, so we'll see what happens.

After Fort Collins, we took Highway 70 west through the mountains, about 3 1/2 hours west of Denver to a place called Rifle, where we had interviews set up with the high school and middle school. We were very lucky to get through Vail pass before they shut the highway down due to that massive winter storm.

On our way to Rifle, we had begun to talk about whether or not we could handle such a small town. Our concerns were heightened as we got closer to Rifle and passed a town called "No Name." This was not comforting in the least. Once we arrived, however, we were greeted by really friendly people, and a beautiful setting to enjoy over the course of our short stay. The two photos above were taken in Rifle.

Resurrecting the Blog

Erik and I have hit the road again, this time in search of a teaching job out west. We thought a resurrection of the blog was in order so we could keep our friends and family close to us as we plot our next move.