Los Alamos, NM

After a long drive, we finally ended up in Los Alamos New Mexico. We got to see our friends Steven and Lindsey. 

We got there and it was hot hot hot. We met Steven in Santa Fe. We got some sweets at a mexican chocolate place called Kakawa. It was all very dark chocolate with very interesting flavors. We had chili pepper chocolate, goats milk and bacon, pomegranite, milk chocolate and a sage chocolate.

 After the sweets we explored the town. All of the buildings are pueblo style because the city mandates a uniform look. It was interesting to see all of the art museums around and get a feel for the kind of life people live there. They seem to be laid back and easy going. We had lunch at a great little place downtown that was tucked away in a garden area. Jon and I shared a salad, and by the end of it I just couldn't get enough. 

Me hugging a replica of the fat man bomb made at Los Alamos

Jon sitting on 'little boy' in the Los Alamos science museum. 

It was good to finally get to know the friend that Jon had been talking to for so many hours and praising him. It was good to meet Steven's wife as well. We mostly talked the first night, and got pizza at Papa Murphy's. The second day was fun as well. We toured the science museum and explored the town a bit. 






The museum was interesting. I learned a little bit about the colonization of Los Alamos, and why they chose that spot. It was so remote that you couldn't send mail, only if you used a secret p.o. box that was filtered through one lady. The lab still exists today, and that is where our friend did his internship. Nuclear physics. Not something I would want to tackle.

When we were at the museum we saw a man who was dressed up in a tweed suit and a straw hat with a briefcase and a notepad he was taking notes on. We called him the spy. He looked like a spy from the era where the lab was new. It confirmed our suspicions when we saw the spy when we went to lunch. From there on out, anyone who was following us we tagged as the spy.  

A t-shirt that we found in a local shop. 

Our friends Steven and Lindsey.

On Saturday we decided that we wanted to see the charms of Albequerque. The drive out there wasn't too bad, and neither Jon or I had been other than maybe in the airport.

Mortimer 

We mostly went to go to Tucanos. The food was awesome, and I thought the atmosphere was perfect. We got to sit outside. The only downfall of that was the flies. They loved us that night. We looked like we all had involentary muscle spasms every once in a while because of how often we had to swat away flies.

At Tucanos in Albequerque

It seemed like wherever we went on this trip though, they were out of whatever Jon wanted. Earlier we went to a sandwich place for lunch and they were supposed to have really good passionfruit shakes, but when we got there they were out. Well, when we went to Tucano's, Jon ordered Guarana, which is the Brazillian drink. They were out when we got th

 I think that we all had a protein overload that night, but it was well worth it. I think Lindsey beat us all in eating the most of everything. She had her plate clean before the rest of us could catch up to her. Bravo Lindsey. :)

Sunday we wanted to go somewhere nearby because it was overcast and we were tired of driving and exhausted at the thought of driving right before driving the next day. So we went to the Bandalier pueblo ruins not too far from Los alamos. The park stores were closed, so we went ahead and just explored on our own. 

The park was pretty amazing. It was situated right between a canyon pretty high up in elevation so the view was spectacular. 

We grabbed a tour book and learned about the structures and the rooms. The people would build tiny rooms at ground level to keep storage in or raise turkeys. With the Turkey feathers they would make socks. We all wanted to make souvenir turkey feather socks to take home, but we didn't know how comfortable those would be. 

The rooms were blackened, and we found out that is because they brough tin tourches and smoked the walls so that the walls would not crumble because they were made out of sandstone and volcanic rock. The pictograms were also very interesting to look at. These people seemed to like to draw smiley faces. :)

Sunday night we mostly relaxed and played games again. We talked about good times and basically said our goodbyes because it was time for us to leave in the morning, and everyone else had work.

We had a great time, and we hope to go visit the Gardner's again. Next time it will be in California though!