Exploring Albuquerque

Our last stop before leaving New Mexico was Albuquerque.  We knew we wanted to walk around Old Town,

but weren’t sure where else we were going to go.  Bryce wanted to go to the Zoo, but Nicolas preferred the Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  Both were downtown so we started out at Old Town first.

Similar to Santa Fe, Old Town Albuquerque is a square plaza, with a church on one block,

and shops & restaurants around the other three sides.  Most of the shops are galleries and jewelry shops, with a few tourist traps thrown in for good measure.  There is also an area for Indian vendors to sell jewelry on the sidewalk.

We walked through most of the shops, still looking for earrings and not finding any yet, and stopped for some lunch on the patio at one of the restaurants.

We saw lots of interesting art,

but didn’t buy anything, except a Route 66 sticker for Tom’s motorcycle helmet.

From Old Town, we took Central Avenue, otherwise known as Route 66, through downtown and over to the Museum of Nuclear Science and History (we decided that there wasn’t enough time for the Zoo).

We got there about 1-1/2 hours before they closed, so we asked if we had enough time to see everything, and if there were any AAA or homeschool discounts.  The woman at the ticket desk said we did have time to get through everything, but that we had missed the last showing of their movie, The Manhattan Project.  Then, since there were no discounts available, she didn’t charge for Bryce . . . that was really nice of her!

We walked through the lobby, over the Periodic Table,

and started learning how the atomic bomb was developed and tested in New Mexico.

There was only one volunteer on duty that afternoon, but there weren’t many visitors either, so we got lots of attention from the volunteer.  He explained many of the exhibits and the history behind them.

The car that was used to transport the scientists working on the Manhattan Project (nuclear bomb).

A typical fallout shelter form the 1950s

Nuclear Missiles

In the courtyard outside the Museum, there were more missiles on display,

and bombers,

including one just like the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bombs over Japan.

Back inside, we walked through the medical and energy related exhibits, and made our way over to the hands-on area. 

No matter how old they are, these guys can never resist the interactive displays!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were just making our way back to the Lobby when they started announcing that the museum was going to be closing in 10 minutes . . . so we had just enough time to see everything!