On Tuesday morning at 6 am, I left Newark Airport for Albuquerque, New Mexico.  One of my sisters lives there and I joined my mother and a family friend for a week’s visit.

It will be a welcome change from the HEAT and HUMIDITY that we have had in the Northeast along the Hudson River this past week…. ugh!  Even the cats were not happy – laying stretched out on the cold tiles of the bathroom (Katie) or in front of the Vornado fan in the hallway (Cordelia). 

It was an uneventful flight except that I was looking forward to a long nap on the second leg from Cincinnati to Albuquerque and my seat mate thwarted those plans.  He was one of those chatty men – talked the ENTIRE trip and thank goodness he had been a fighter jet pilot (Naval) and then a carrier commandeer so at least there were interesting stories.  I tried several times to pause or end the conversation by mentioning that I had been up all night and was tired (yawning); but somehow I couldn’t manage to convey my message.  Oh well, I learned a lot about the military perspective of the current war and government.

This is the skyline of Albuquerque.  Albuquerque is home to the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Kirtland Air Force Base as well as Sandia National Laboratories and Petroglyph National Monument. The Sandia Mountains run along the eastern side of Albuquerque and the Rio Grande flows through the city north to south.

Today we are traveling a few miles northeast to Santa Fe and will be staying there thru Friday – seeing DAPHNE tonight and TEA tomorrow night with a backstage tour for today and the dinner buffet at the opera house before the opera and then hanging out in Santa Fe tomorrow during the day. 

I am experiencing a horrific allergy attack – since my arrival yesterday afternoon – have had to triple my dose of lotaradine and take sinus headache medicine as well; this is one of the worst in many years… hopefully it will be better tonight as I am especially looking forward to seeing Erin Wall in DAPHNE.  And to the entire SFO experience.

Reports later.