Visting the New Mexico Natural History Museum (Albuquerque) and the Grand Canyon (Arizona) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
From Taos we drove to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Once at the hotel, my husband Laurent and I walked to Old Town Albuquerque, which has adobes all around it with arcades.
The outside of the San Felip de Neri Church had luminarias
(paper bags with sand a candle in them put out on Christmas Eve) around
it. The docents inside the church said
the luminarias were called farrolitos in Spanish. I bought postcards and the ladies of the
church walked Laurent and me around the church pointing out saints and
artwork. The white marble alter looked
beautiful with poinsettias on it.
We walked around the around the arcades and looked through
Western shops. Laurent looked at cowboy
hats in a nearby store. I bought a book
called Tradiciones Nuevomexicanos:
Hispano Arts and Culture of New Mexico by Mary Montaño. The book talks about luminarias, retablos (devotional
paintings), sacred statues and so on. It
even talks about ristras, hanging bunches of dried red pepper. We had seen many ristras during our drive
into town.
We went to dinner at the La Placita Restaurant on the
Plaza. During the day, the restaurant
lets craftsman sell their wares along the front of the restaurant under the
adobe arcade. The restaurant dates from
1706. The room we sat in had a beautiful
Christmas tree that was decorated all over with dried, red chiles.
The next day we went to the New Mexico Museum of Natural
History. It was a great tourism
choice. We saw real dinosaur bones –
talk about fossils!
We walked through reproductions of volcanoes, a cave, and a
seascape of what New Mexico looked like millions of years ago. I was fascinated to learn how sandstone is
made – compaction by pressure and wind over time. We went to the planetarium show after
visiting the museum. We were laughing
with vertigo when the planetarium turned a giant Mobius Strip into a roller
coaster ride.
The next day we drove from Albuquerque to Flagstaff,
Arizona. We went to bed early so we
could get up early and see the Grand Canyon.
When we woke up, it was threatening to snow. We viewed the Grand Canyon at Mother
Overlook. Florence had fun throwing
snowballs at us when it started to snow.
Because she was so nice, we bought her a dream catcher at the gift shop.
After the gift shop, we went to see the Grand Canyon film at
the Imax Theatre in Tusayin. The aerial
shots were great, but what I really liked were shots of rafts going through
white water rapids. It looked fun, but
would probably frighten me if I were to go on a rafting trip.
On the way home, we passed cross country skiers, kids
sledding, and snowmen. I wished every
kid in the world could do a trip to the Grand Canyon and Albuquerque, New
Mexico.
By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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