A Visit to Old Town Albequerque!

I was up by 7, but Ken had been up for over an hour and had done a lot of reading.  We watched the early news to check on the strength and location of Hurricane Matthew.  Cindy and John are at Jekyll Island in Georgia and I am keeping a close eye on that area and hope they head inland if Matthew gets too close!

Around 10 we drove to Old Town Albuquerque about 15 miles from our CG to walk around that area.  It is an interesting town with some much history.  We enjoyed going in and out of the shops which offered lots of jewelry and pottery made locally.  There were "tons" of eateries also! 

Loved the old adobe buildings

Peppers everywhere!

Local craftpersons were making and selling their wares
outside of one of the eateries!

Showing the inside of an adobe wall!

I talked to a local crafter and asked her where she recommended we eat for good authentic Mexican food.  She said we should go to the Church Street Cafe which is one of her favorites, so we headed there.  We were disappointed that we could not eat outside, especially when we discovered they had a beautiful courtyard, but it was full.  Ken and I shared their combo platter and it was delicious.  Glad we decided to share it because it was a lot of food.  We were pleased with our choice of restaurants and entree.

The Church Street Cafe building was built in the 1700's!

After lunch we toured the beautiful and very old San Felipe De Neri Catholic Church.  It was built in 1706, burned, and then built again in 1707.  It is an amazing building.

A small but beautiful Catholic Church!

The inside of the Church was so ornate!

We enjoyed some live music from the gazebo in the center of town before leaving around 3:15.  At the Visitors Center the lady has suggested that we stop at a large, local Mexican Grocery Store and check out their fruits and veggies.  It proved to be a fun and interesting store!  We bought more of those delicious Mexican peppers to grill.

We were back to the CG by 5 and spent time doing some preparation for moving to the Balloon Fiesta grounds tomorrow morning!  We are so excited.  We are hoping that the weather will cooperate because there has been some windy conditions the last several days so far, that 2 balloons ended up hitting electrical lines.  Fortunately no one was injured!

We decided to watch the Vice Presidential debate and I am not sure why!  I find it difficult to watch and even more to listen.  I was ready for it to be over so I could be entertained with The Voice!  This is only my opinion, not Ken's!

Ken and I have learned to love some of the peppers they grow in this area. Here are a few facts about peppers - One fresh medium sized green chile pod has as much Vitamin C as six oranges, one teaspoon of dried red chile powder has the daily requirements of Vitamin A, chile peppers are relatives of tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants, all belonging to the nightshade family, and the color extracted from very red chile pepper pods, oleoresin, is used in everything from lipstick to processed meats.  Maybe we need to eat more peppers!  We have discovered that they are extremely tasty when you grill them!

We are really looking forward to seeing all the colorful balloons take flight, meet the campers in the  30 "rigs" that we will be sharing that experience with, and being so up close and personal to the whole event.  This has been on Ken's bucket list for years and I am so thankful we are able to be here to fulfill his wish.  It going to be exciting!!!!