Colors and Textures of New Mexico

In October, I attended a museum conference in Albuquerque, NM.  Even though I had technically been to New Mexico  when we visited the four corners, I was ready to explore a new city and a new state.   I anticipated adobe houses, vibrant colors, and hot air balloons, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Albuquerque is a nice, small city, close to mountains, and on our first day there I made a point to get in a 4 mile run, checking out the neighborhoods.  I love running around new places and looking at the houses, and our hotel directed me to a nice route that wound me through some of the more affluent neighborhoods of the city.

The only disappointment is that the mountains were too far to run to–I would have had to drive there in order to hit the trails.

Albuquerque also has a great old town area, about a mile and a half from the city downtown, full of shops, restaurants, galleries, and historic sites.  I ran there on my 3rd day of the conference to check it out and ended up exploring for a couple of hours.  I even purchased a photographic metal print at a photography co-op gallery.

On my last afternoon, I walked back to old town, camera in hand, determined to capture the colors and textures of New Mexico.

There were so many really cute, quaint alleyways in Old Town that led to more shops and restaurants.
The Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe
The shadows on this church building were pretty awesome.
Route 66 runs right through Albuquerque, so there were references everywhere. 
New Mexico is also known for its popularity with hot air ballooners.
A guy I met at the art gallery recommended Duran’s Central Pharmacy as a great place to get authentic New Mexican food.  There is a restaurant inside that is famous for its fare.  For traditional New Mexican food, you always have to answer the question, ‘red or green’?
Since I was in town for a museum conference, we visited the host museums, both of which were close to Old Town:
Explora and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.