Centralparkgirl

Just spent a quick weekend in Albuquerque to visit ds. As always, we ate well and saw some beautiful sights.

We flew from NY LGA through Dallas with a delay in DFW due to bad weather in the East which delayed the arrival of our connecting flight. Fortunately, it was only one hour. Unfortunately, they changed the gate many times, so we were walking all over the terminal. We arrived about 2:30, picked up our car rental and headed to the Hyatt on Tijeras. We stayed here before and had some problems, but we were promised a better experience when we returned. Hyatt had a special: stay three nights, pay for two with full breakfast daily in their restaurant, Forque. It was a good deal. And because of the previous stay, they upgraded the room to a high floor with mountain/city view, wine, fruit, cheese, etc. It was a good stay and the location was very convenient for us.

After checkin, I met up with debitnm and we visited over frozen yogurt, caught up since our last meeting almost two years ago and swapped 'gifts!' NY bread from Orwashers for Deb's wonderful, homemade spice rub. It was short, but a great visit.

Then it was time to meet up with ds and have dinner. There were four of us and we ate at Season's in Old Town starting with drinks and calamari upstairs on the outdoor terrace. We then moved downstairs to the dining room for dinner. We shared some apps followed by ribeye steak, grilled tuna and a pork special. Every one enjoyed their meal. More cocktails, NZ Sauvignon Blanc and all were happy, but too full for dessert. A nice employee discount (ds) made the experience even better.

Centralparkgirl

After breakfast the following morning, Saturday, we went to the Farmers' Market on Central Avenue. This is very different from a NYC green market. It's on grass with a good number of large trees that provide necessary shade for the many families that come and picnic and just hangout with friends, small barefoot children and their dogs. There is also live music and the Squashblossom Boys were playing that day. Many small local farmers sell their beautiful produce as well as merchants with breads, cheeses, etc. and the usual, but nothing special crafts.

After lunch at a Nob Hill eatery, we headed about 20 - 30 minutes north to Tinkertown, 'a folk art environment.' It defies description with its vast, unique collections of art, Americana and kitschy stuff. You could spend a long time here, but an hour was enough for us before visual overload set in. We all enjoyed this place; something to experience once. I did suffer a trauma while there when a bat almost flew into my head. I haven't screamed that loud in years. I was told I sounded like a 6 year old girl!

www.tinkertown.com

Next up, our 7 course dinner crafted especially for us.

yk

Loving this, CPG. Can't wait to read the rest of it!

ElendilPickle

Tinkertown is a lot of fun! We always enjoy visiting there.

Great trip report so far, centralparkgirl.

Lee Ann

Centralparkgirl

Thanks yk.

Lee Ann - I am still thinking about some of the displays at Tinkertown, the boat, the car, etc. It's really an amazing collection.

Saturday night dinner:

We always like to go to Farina's when in Albuquerque. No reservations, very, very casual and some of the best pizza you will find anywhere. (Yes, I am a born and bred NYer, raised on pizza, and I feel that way!) We usually get their olives, maybe some meatballs, a salad and one of their thin crust pizzas. But not on this night. On this night, one of the talented chefs prepared a 7 course feast for us using local produce. We were four and sat out on the patio.

1st course: bruschetta. A platter of 8 pieces of two types, so beautiful that I photographed it. On sliced ciabatta bread (baked inhouse), one had pesto, fresh arugula, sweet cherry tomatoes and a curl of a wonderful salume?

jubilada

thanks, centralparkgirl. Bookmarking for trip to Albequerque in March.

Centralparkgirl

Oops hit send to early. A consequence of working on an ipad. No question mark after the salume.

The other bruschetta had very light goat cheese topped with the most amazing small diced beets marinated in aged balsamic and topped with some minced chives. So delicious.

2nd course: this was one of the most delicious things and amazing because although fried, not a drop of oil was on your plate. We each got one roasted marconi pepper stuffed with a little goat cheese, fresh corn and zucchini and then lightly fried. The vegetables in side were firm (al dente?). I loved this dish!

3rd course: a salad of delicious greens, lightly dressed and accompanied by pickled onions and something else which I can't seem to recall right now. Again, all local produce, lovingly prepared.

More later.

DebitNM

I always like reading trip reports about my new (11 years) hometown! And when it's written by CPG, even better cause she does it well.

You managed to describe Tinkertown very well; kitschy is my word for it - you were kinder. Bat? Wow.

See you next time....

ElendilPickle

We have to try Farina's one of these days; I've only heard good reviews of it.

Lee Ann

Centralparkgirl

Deb - you will for sure!

4th course: handmade round raviolis - very light pasta with chicken filling, well seasoned, with a light butter, caper and herb dressing.

5th course: a pizza of our choice. We ordered that day's special that showcased a variety of grilled local vegetables. As always, thin crust with the right amount of crispness.

We were groaning at this point!

6th course: Affogato served so beautifully with house made vanilla gelato.

7th course: A dark chocolate cake (very light, made with beets!) with a dollop of whipped marscapone, accented with fresh mint and a few raspberries. Amazingly light and so delicious.

To cap off this amazing meal, we were sent on our way with a freshly baked loaf of ciabatta and some pasta dough (which ds took).

All I can say is that we ate so well and were made to feel so special.....an experience I will not forget.

Next up: Sunday, a day of gorgeous landscape and southwestern history.

Centralparkgirl

Each time we visit Albuquerque, we try to do and see different things or take advantage of a special museum exhibit. After breakfast on Sunday, we headed west for about an hour to the Acoma Peublo at the Sky City Cultural Center. The pueblo is atop a 367 foot mesa. I believe it's at about 7000 feet above sea level. This is a privately run site accessible only by tour and it was time very well spent. We arrived at 12:15 and I assumed the next tour was at 12:30. The next scheduled tour was at 1:30 and this worked out to be a good thing.

The Cultural Center houses a museum, gift shop and cafe. We spent the hour before the tour watching a 10 minute film that explained how and why to be respectful of the pueblo we were about to visit. The Haak'u museum had a very interesting exhibit called 'Seeds of Change: 500 Years of Encounter and Exchange' that explained the long and far reaching effects of Europeans arriving here in the 16th century.

At 1:30, we boarded a bus with our guide, an Acoma young man of the Eagle clan, and drove up to the mesa. We then experienced a 90 minute tour that explained very clearly the customs of the Acoma and what occurred when the Spanish attacked the Pueblo in the 16th century. There are many small homes up there, the original Spanish church and a small cemetery. I found it extremely interesting and our guide answered all questions very well. There are still about nine families that currently live there - with no water or electricity! The road that took us up there was built around 1910.

We were very lucky that for at least half the tour, a large fluffy cloud blocked the sun. The views from the edges of the mesa were gorgeous. At the end, we were given an option to take the bus back or climb down. ds and I climbed down steep steps with handholds carved in the stone. This path is not really very visible from below. There were great views while on this climb down.

I would recommend this site and tour. The visitor's center is architecturally interesting, especially indoors. The use of woods, stone and soft plaster is very well done. This building appears to have been expensive to build. The only negative is that during the tour there is a lot of marketing of the Acoma's pottery. We met at least 8 artists atop the mesa who were selling their wares. On the other hand, I do understand that this is how they earn their living. Some of the pottery was quite beautiful. (btw, there is a casino nearby)

www.acomaskycity.org

Centralparkgirl

It was no surprise that we skipped lunch that day after the huge meal the night before. But we did have a nice dinner at Zinc back in Albuquerque on our last night. This restaurant is owned by the same people as Seasons. We all enjoyed our meals - very good, but not quite on the same level as Seasons. On the way to the restaurant, the skies opened up and we witnessed our first rain ever in Albuquerque - very hard and with thunder, but lasting about 25 minutes - long for an ABQ downpour, I'm told.

The following morning, we had an early breakfast with ds and then did the usual: checkout, gas up, drop off the car and check in for our first leg. It was an uneventful trip home, changing in Dallas, and landing in LGA. We always use Dial7 and waited 5 minutes for our driver.

It was short, but a very enjoyable weekend!

con_brio

What a great report! I am finally getting to the Balloon Fiesta this year, so searched the Forum for Albuquerque. You make it sound like we should extend the stay. (we were going to leave for Santa Fe or Taos on Monday. Clearly I need to do some more research.)
Thanks

Centralparkgirl

con_brio, you are in for an amazing treat at the Balloon Festival. We went last year and the mass ascension in the morning was truly awesome! I recently had an Apple employee ask me if the screensaver of the balloons on my ipad was a professional shot. We also went one evening, which was beautiful too, but no balloons go up. Some other things to consider: the Hot Air Balloon museum is different and interesting and there are some other good museums. On the way to Santa Fe is a place called Tent Rocks. I am not a big hiker, but this was truly amazing. We hiked slot canyon (Cave Loop?) and it was exquisite, quite wide in some places and wide enough for only one person in other spots.

http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/rec...ent_rocks.html

Bandelier is another interesting site.

Other restaurants: Jennifer James 101 for dinner, the Grove for breakfast or lunch.
Have a great trip!

malbec

You made me hungry! DH and I are going to Albuquerque this weekend and I want to eat at Seasons.

con_brio

I just saw this post. Thanks for the suggestions. I am SO excited. I have wanted to go to the Fiesta for years and am thrilled that DH got a business trip to Alb for 10/7. We are going to stay in Alb from Fri night til Tuesday (changed it--just in case the weather doesn't cooperate. And DebitNM makes a good case for lots to do in Alb). That gives us 4 mornings to see the balloons. Surely the weather will be good at least ONE of those mornings. (hopefully, all 4).

DebitNM

con_brio - sorry I will not be in town during your stay. We are off to France for a bit.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to post or email me [on my profile]. I will have access to both.

moldyhotelsaregross

Getting excited about Fiesta and always looking for new ideas. I really enjoyed hiking Tent Rocks that was mentiined above.

Con-brio - Look at my post I bumped a few minutes ago about what to do in the downtime at Fiesta.