The Big Hill

Jamie and I had a "date" day today. We hiked the La Luz trail in the Sandias, at my request. Jamie has done it before, and wants to do the La Luz race one year. It's probably the most popular hike in the Sandias, but at 9 miles one way, and 3000+ ft elevation gain, you better be ready. I was up for the challenge, given that we go up on foot, but take the tram down. Nothing tears up my body more than hiking down steep hills. That proved a good decision.

The hike was awesome, covering the most beautiful scenery I've seen in Albuquerque. You go through high desert, granite fields, pine forests, aspens, and huge towers of bare granite "teeth". We had perfect weather, with cool misty clouds shrouding the peak early on. And as luck would have it, we timed the trail just right to stay in the shade most of the way. The one part that sucked was miles 6-8, which were almost pure granite fields. I don't like scrambling over rocks. It's really slow and really dangerous for ankles. We hiked to the tram house at the top, ate our PB&J's (the best hiking lunch invented), and rode the tram down. And just in time, too. By the end of the ride, the top of the mountain was under clouds, some very very black.

So the one snafu? Why no pictures? This genius remembered the little point and shoot, but not the memory card. I guess we'll just have to do it again.

Swim Lessons

We just wrapped up the first week of a two-week session of swim lessons for both kiddos. Jordan is doing much more this year: putting her face in the water, grabbing the "treasure" on the bottom of the pool, allowing the teachers to dunk her. And Jacob? He's going to the Olympics. Mark my words. He kicks and splashes and rolls around. He's not too fond of dunking, yet. And his lesson is a at a bad time for him, too close to naptime. But they both seem to be having fun, and since it's the end of the summer, the classes are really small. They should be ready to enjoy the pool in San Diego in September.

Bad Boys

It took me two years of living here, but I finally had reason to dial 911 and call the cops on some damn fool today. The heat must be flushing out the crazies, the news here is appalling, what with that Emcore shooting last week and all. We live in a nice part of a rough patch of town. We knew this when we bought the place. This area of town is very integrated. Expensive neighborhoods right next to very poor, high crime areas. There are drive by shootings within a mile or two of our house.


The kids and I walk most mornings of the week. We have two routes: one goes south to a very nice new neighborhood that's cut off from the rest of the city. It's surrounded by desert, arroyo, and Kirtland AFB. It's a dead end. The other route goes around the outside of our neighborhood to the community center and park. Both seem very safe in my book, and I'm very critical of the "safety" of this town. Today we did the south route.

We've just left the neighborhood, and we hear this awful noise approaching. A POS black car comes barreling out of the mobile home park across the street (think: integrated), flying over the speed bumps and throwing sparks. One of his rear wheels is tireless. As in he's driving full tilt on his rim. Or somebody's rim; he probably stole the car. So I think: what an ass. Then he turns into the other mobile home park across the street. We keep walking, and we hear him again, much closer. He couldn't figure out how to get out of the mobile home park and comes back the way he came, flying out onto Juan Tabo. He loses control, spins 270 degrees, and flies past us into Volterra, which is the dead end. He must be going 60 mph. So I call 911 and describe the car, location, and tell them he's gonna kill someone. They HUNG UP ON ME. Sure enough, 5 mins later, he comes flying up Juan Tabo again, almost hitting the construction crew on the side of the road. I never saw another car chasing him. Never saw a cop. Never heard a siren. But, I did see his rim marks in the road on our way home. He'd gone through our neighborhood, too. Later that morning we went grocery shopping, and no kidding, his rim marks where gouged into the asphalt on the roads we took home. We could see other places where he'd spun out as well. Unbelievable.

Touting Taos

We just took a lovely family vacation to Taos, a quick weekend trip. I'm glad Jamie convinced me to do this; he's been itching to go somewhere, and I was hesitant since we already have like 4 major vacations planned in the next 12 months. The drive to Taos is spectacular, nothing like those miserable drives thru Texas where it takes you 8 hours to leave the state and (most) everything looks dull dull dull.

We've done the drive towards Santa Fe a few times for hiking, but never north of Santa Fe through the Espanola valley. The road follows the Rio Grande, which cuts thru the mountains. There's all kinds of little wineries and farm stands set up along the way. We stopped for an unimpressive lunch at the Taoseno, which I swear hasn't been touched since it was built in the 70's, and has food bland enough for a retirement home. But the people where friendly, and local. We walked around the Plaza some, and then we found The Store.

It's a toy store, called Twirl, and if you ever go to Taos with kids, you HAVE to stop in. It's easily the coolest store I've ever been in. It tops E. Dehillerin in Paris, and that's saying something. I saw the grotto and koi pond first. They're inside, have little elves and unicorn toys nestled in the rocks, and the cashier has marbles for making wishes. The next room had an arabic tent kind of theme going on. I passed by the cashier on the way out, telling her how cool her shop was, and then Jamie pointed me outside, where a kids-trapped-with-sight-seeing-parents oasis exists. It was a huge playground, with samples of their toys to try out, a huge climbing structure, fountains, a homemade popsicle stand, and a hobbit house with swaying bridge at the entry. SO COOL!!!

I ran around showing Jo everything. But then our meter ran out and we had to get to the car before we got ticketed. Sigh. But I did buy the kids a Christmas gift on my way out.

We weren't staying in Taos, but at the ski village up the road, where summer rates are ridiculously low. Our place was a big 2 bed/2 bath ski-in/ski-out place with a nice kitchen: a must for traveling with a baby. We dumped our stuff, fed Jacob, and headed out to walk around. First of all, Taos is crazy steep, and I doubt I'll ever ski there. The village is simple, mostly shut up for the summer, and nothing like the ski villages in Colorado. But it is gorgeous. You're truly nestled in a valley, with streams from the mountains running through, and groves and groves of Aspen.


I can't imagine what it looks like in the fall. We had a delicious meal and beer a for dinner, watched the 2nd round of the Open, and called it an evening. Or so we thought... We'd exhausted Jordan past the point of sleep apparently, and she stayed up until 1 a.m., just fussing.

The next morning we did our big hike up to Williams Lake, weary from the night before. But the beautiful surrounds perked us up, i.e. me and Jamie. Jordan got 100 yards in and quit walking. It was steep, it was 4 miles roundtrip, and Jamie carried her on his shoulders the whole way. Dammit, we were seeing that lake. And it was worth it. The lake is in a bowl at 11,000 ft, just under Mt. Wheeler, the highest peak in New Mexico. You hike up through the forests, you pass natural springs along the way, big fields of granite boulders, wild flowers... so so pretty. Jacob had a great time in the Bjorn, and got lots of attention from passing hikers. At the top, we walked around the lake some, had a snack (that's Jordan's carrot-on-a-stick for hikes), got a family picture, and then had to head back due to the sun. Sunscreen and all, 11,000 feet at midday is no place to hang out if you don't have shade.


We made sure the kids took good naps that afternoon, and then we drove back out to Taos for dinner. We ate at Doc Marten's, which was much fancier than we expected. It was my birthday dinner, so I took advantage and ordered the tasting menu that was paired with wine. 4 courses of deliciousness. First course was rabbit-rattlesnake sausage, and Jordan liked it. Wait till she reads about that later... Everything was yummy, a little too leisurely though, and we got done after dark: too late to go see the Gorge.

The main ski lift for Taos was right outside our window, and they run that lift on the weekends in the summer. Jordan had been asking to get on it since she first saw it. So the last morning there, we bought our lift tickets and took the trip. Those things are scary with your kids, and when there's no snow. You can kid yourself in winter that if you fall off, you'll probably just land in that soft snow and all will be ok. Not so in summer. There are rocks down there. Big ones. Anyway, no one fell off, and no one was scared except me.


We got to the top, also 11,000 feet, also midday, so we didn't stay real long. I was lucky enough to see a big fat coyote run up the hill, and then out came the deer it scared off. We went looking for the marmot Jamie had seen on his run that morning, but he was hiding. So we rode the lift down (even scarier than riding up) and l said good-bye to Taos Ski Valley.

On our way home we stopped at a few touristy places. First up was the Rio Grande Gorge bridge we'd missed the night before. The river cuts thru the mesa and leaves a 600+ ft canyon. We parked and walked to the mid point of the bridge. It was crowded, there are sidewalks for this, and bridges shake. It was a nice view, especially with the storm clouds approaching.

Our guide book said this bridge is where the wedding scene in Natural Born Killers was filmed. Funny, because I had just watched that part of the movie for the first time in like 10 years. Jamie's impression of the Rio Grande Gorge? "It's no Grand Canyon". Well, duh.

Next stop was the San Francisco de Asis church on the south side of Taos. No one got out of the car but me. It's been made famous by Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe, so of course I had to take pictures of it. Until I ran out of memory. Sigh again. It's a cool building, you can see the straw in the adobe. I wish I'd been there later in the day, though, when the light is prettier. But it was a fun stop, for me.


So, we came back to a 104 degree afternoon in the ABQ. And on I-40, to greet us back and say "Hope you liked your weekend getaway, but you're home now", was a police scene sadly typical of this town: eight cop cars pulled over some dude in a white SUV, and the cop at the front car had a huge rifle trained on the idiot standing next to the SUV, arms waving in the air. I didn't even bother watching the news that night to see what it was all about. Welcome home, Kropka family, welcome home.

60

We must have made too much of Nana's 60th Birthday this past December. 60 is Jordan's favorite number, and apparently the biggest one she can come up with. When she thinks something is expensive, she says it costs "60 pounds of dollars". She defaults to this number anytime she's trying to out do you on something. Today I told her I had done something twice, and then she told me she did it sixty times. Maybe next year at Mother's Day when the pre-school asks Jordan how much she loves me, I'll be upgraded from "five" to a whopping 60!

The Incident

Jordan really wore me out today. Jamie, too, probably. She got in more trouble today than ever to date, and it drains me to think she's doing things like this now. Today while I was on the phone with my mom, and I hadn't even been on the phone that long, Jordan entertained herself with the can of aerosol sunscreen in the living room. The TV was spared, but not the tile, carpet, couch, dining room table, coffee table, a book and magazine, the box of legos and bristle blocks, Jacob's basket of toys, his jumperoo, and his floor gym. I was so upset, I actually walked away and stood outside for a few minutes. But when I came back in and really saw the extent of the damage, I told Jamie he had to do the disciplining because I was too mad. And because it seems like I'm always the disciplinarian because I'm the one at home. Strangely, it hurt my feelings that she did something so ornery that she had to be spanked and sent to her room. I could tell she didn't really think she was in all that much trouble because she was kind of smiling and play acting the hang-dog naughty kid role. But I think the discipline worked because she stayed in her room. Anyway, the sunscreens are put up now, the carpet will live to be abused another day, and I know I'll look back on this infraction wistfully one day when she really does something out of line.

Austin comes to Town

Ah, summer nights in Albuquerque. It really is a fabulous time of year. We've been enjoying our cool evenings, so cool that I wore JEANS last night to the outdoor concert at the Botanic Gardens. The night before we had gone to our park, it was windy, and I got goosebumps for crying out loud... I digress, I'm not trying to piss off the Texans that read this.

So last night we packed a picnic dinner and went to the Biopark to hear Eliza Gilkinson, hence the title of this post. I don't actually know if she is from Austin, probably not, but it was Austin in the ABQ nonetheless. Jamie and I know a few (ok, one) of her songs from KGSR, aka K-geezer, a radio station in Austin. So it felt homey. What REALLY felt homey was the crowd. It was 1) packed, 2) full of hippies, and 3) all of the moms with little kids were my age (gasp!) or OLDER. Babies babies everywhere. Thin, fit women clad in REI clothing head to toe. I saw dread locks (on white people). I saw lots of tattoos and body piercings. People were eating wholesome, homemade food for dinner. I saw three women breastfeeding within arm's reach of our blanket, and everyone of them was carting their infant around in a homemade baby sling. I almost felt guilty with my Baby Bjorn and bottle full of formula. Not really, I'm kidding. It was just awesome, and I felt so nostalgic for home.

This morning on our walk/jog through the neighborhood near us, I was firmly reminded that this is indeed the ABQ, and Austin is in a land far, far away. At the entrance to the nice new neighborhood were signs (i.e. more than one) declaring the neighborhood picnic for tomorrow had been cancelled, "INDEFINENTLY".