Sunday 27 October 2019

Albuquerque Day 3 - Museum of Natural History & Nob Hill (Oct.4, 2019)

I picked up this pumpkin spice greek yogurt last night at Walmart and I couldn't wait to give it a try this morning.
I thought it was just ok, glad I only picked up the one.

We decided to go to 66 Diner this morning - it's a diner on the iconic Route 66.

However, it wasn't open yet when we got there and it wasn't going to either for a couple more hours.

So we just took some pictures of this awesome 'wall' in the parking lot.

All these signs are awesome.

I didn't even notice this guy sitting here until I was looking at these pictures later on in the day.
Talk about unobservant!!!

Since we couldn't eat there, we looked up one of the places on our list and this place wasn't far so we headed there.

Model Pharmacy.
They are known for their cobblers, shakes and chicken salad sandwiches.

It's an old diner in the back of an actual pharmacy.

The decor is pretty out of date.

The cobblers do look pretty good though.

I think I'm going to have the peach!

If a place wins Best Milkshake, then we definitely have to try the milkshakes.

I almost changed my mind on desert and went for the Bread Pudding on special but it had raisins in it (yuck).
We tried a bowl of the Green Chile Chicken Vegetable soup.
I forgot to take a picture of it but it was deliciously tasty.

Even the menu is kinfo outdated looking but it kind of adds to the charm of the place.

It was mostly sandwiches on the menu, some really good choices.

My handsome Honey.

Moi!

We got us a milkshake.

They had old fashioned Egg Creams so we got one of those too - I wasn't crazy about it.

I got the salad sampler plate which came with egg salad, chicken salad and tuna salad.
I was expecting sandwiches so this surprised me when it arrived this way but I really enjoyed it.
They put walnuts in their chicken salad which I'd never heard of but it went really well together.
It was super good - if I lived nearby, I'd be eating here all the time.

My Honey's sandwich also looked mighty tasty - it was!

We went for the blackberry and you know, it was good, but it was my least favorite part of our meal.
Too much fruit, not enough cobbler!
That wouldn't stop me from trying another kind at another time though.

It was raining pretty good outside when we finished our brunch so we figured today would be a good day to check out a museum.

We passed by a couple on the trolley tour yesterday including this one and we remembered just how to get there so that's where we went.

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History.

 They have some really awesome and fun stuff in there like dinosaur teeth.

I think dinosaur bones are fascinating.

Part of a tortoise shell.

Looks like a wooly mammoth.

I especially like it when they put them together then you can get a feeling for how big they were in real life.

Look at the tusks on this guy, they are longer than My Honey is tall.

There was a section for the extinct marine life - can you imagine bumping into this guy while out for a swim?

Some of the old animals were kind of goofy looking - like this guy.

There were a few aquariums full of coral - I could stare at aquariums all day long - they can be fascinating and mesmerizing at the same time.

Marine Fossils.

They had this cute bug head you could look through to see how an ant sees.

Would not want to run into one of these massive bugs EVER!

One of the 'friendly' dinosaurs.

These guys are so big you can't even get them all in the picture.

Check out this leg bone, it's massive.
My Honey doesn't even come up to the knee of it.

Cute little guy.

Look at all those teeth!!!

The little ones are cute.

Don't think they were all that friendly though.

There was a sensory section that was interesting.
We checked it out and tried some of the games - they weren't all working properly though which was kind of a bummer.

We went to a show at the Planetarium.
It was all about constellations and the zodiac symbols.
I thought it was really interesting.

They had this pretty realistic looking guy in the main lobby of the museum.

He 'came to life' and moved around and roared.
We waited around for it to happen so we could see the kids reactions.
Some were scared, some weren't.

When we were all finished and went outdoors, the rain had stopped and the sun was out.

So we got a closer look at these guys.

I wonder how T-rex did anything with those itty bitty arms?

We were ready for some lunch so we headed to another spot on our list to try, 

Golden Crown Bakery.
It's been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

It's just  tiny place inside and it's a bakery crossed with a pizzeria.

They gave us a free sample of their version of Bizcochito which is the official state cookie.
It had anise in it which I quite liked.
So the flavor was good but it's a dry crumbly cookie and I prefer chewy cookies.

We ordered a pizza and got some baked goods to try.

We found a spot in their outdoor seating area to sit.

It was under this flowering, blooming vine which was so pretty.

The pizza crust was made with blue corn flower which was interesting and delicious as well.

We saw this place where you could 'swim with the magots' which sounded interesting so we thought we'd check it out for something to do.

It was at the hotel which has gotten a million dollar renovation recently.

It did have a nice seating area surrounded by little shops and restaurants.

This was the place we were going to but they must have just stepped out because it was closed when we got there.

Car door with magots painted all over it - weird right?

We just walked around and looked at some of the other shops and stores there.

They were raving about this place on our tour yesterday so we figured since we were here we'd try it out.

We got a couple cookies and they were delicious - nice and chewy, just the way I like.

The Metal Store opened back up and we were able to go in and see the pool of magots.
It was just a small area full of large plastic magots that you could get in and take a picture if you wanted.
We didn't.

The Albuquerque aquarium was just across the street so we walked over to check it out.
These metal sculptures were all in the parking lot.

I noticed that after all the rain today, there are puddles everywhere and they don't seem to be draining anywhere, they are just staying.

There was a bunch of water all around the bottom of some trees next to the aquarium building and at first I thought it was just a puddle as well.
However, I guess it was a very shallow pond as it turned out to be full of fish.

The aquarium was closing so we couldn't go in but we just walked around the grounds a bit.
I really liked this sculpture.

Next we headed up to Nob Hill to check it out.

What a great mural.

I just saw this on a home design show where they took a rain gutter and made it into a planter box.
Neat idea.

Love the artwork on the outside of the building.

Stopped into this place to look for some Pokemon cards for my son - they didn't have any.

Bride & Groom Day of the dead skeletons.

So this was a tattoo/piercing shop we walked by and I was shocked that they had this on display in the window.
It's hard to make out because of the way the sun was shining but I think you can get the idea of what it was.

I like the kind of space age looking cover they have on the bus stop.

Cute sign.

More awesome murals.

They were lots of them there in the Nob Hill area.

I'm always amazed that people can do pictures on such a big scale.

The store fronts were all quite interesting.

Love it.

Then we happened upon this place which ended up being my favorite store of the whole trip.
Stranger Factory.

It was a store crossed with a gallery and it had all this cool artwork on display.

You could buy the displayed works too - some were pricey, some were not.

I just loved it though.
The little monster in the monster costume is os awesome!

I love the 'big eye' artwork.

These doll sculptures were amazing too.
I love this artwork that's part cute but part creepy too.

So awesome.

It just amazes me that people come up with these fabulous creations.

This kitty though - love it.

I would have loved to get one of these pieces - maybe one day.

I just love these 'ugly' dolls - so wonderful.

The outfits on these dolls were amazing.

Stunning.

This one was weird and creepy but I like it.

The artwork was so great.

I guess they change up the displays quite often here.
I wish I lived nearby so I could come see it when the change it.
I'm not sure what it is that speaks to me about this kind of art but I do love it.
We bought some 5x7 prints but I really would have loved to take a doll home.
Maybe another time.

We headed back to the room fairly early tonight.
Balloon Fiesta starts tomorrow and we bought tickets on the Park & Ride to head out there and it leaves at 4 am so we will be having an early start.

We just munched on snacks in the room instead of going somewhere for supper.

I'm so looking forward to seeing the Hot Air Balloons tomorrow, can't wait!


That is all for today, until next time, be happy!

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