Albuquerque to home

Debbie and I met Steve at the Range for breakfast at 7:30 am.  We had said our good-byes to Jennifer yesterday.  She was not going to join us for breakfast

Cute decor

I had the eggs Benedict.

We said goodbye to Steve.  There was a Starbucks close so we walked to it for a cup of coffee.  Then we drove back to Old Town.  Debbie wanted to look a a bracelet she had seen on Saturday.  

She couldn't decide between the black and the blue opals so she got them both.

A nice bright bunch of chilis

We dinked around in some other shops until lunchtime.  (You would think that all we have done on the trip is eat!! That is what it feels like to me, too!!)

We met Lynn for lunch at the Flying Star.  Finding parking was a real problem.  But we did finally find a place after circling around a few times.  

Tilework on the walls

California Melt with sweet potato fries.  Yummy.  I saved half the sandwich for the flight home. 

Next door was a bookstore.  We hung around there for a while.

Book store mural.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Lynn.  We headed off to buy gas before turning in the car at the rental place.  We got to the airport in time to have a glass of wine.

The snow has almost all melted.

Sculpture in the airport

Wine at the Watch.  

Nice sunset. 

The flight to Seattle was uneventful.

Debbie and I landed in Seattle on Concourse S.  We had to take the train to the other concourses.  That train was broken.  Finally, they hauled it away and another train came but it went the wrong way because of the previous train.  So once we got to the A Concourse, I just thought that I would walk to C.  But no!! Once you have gotten off the train then you have left security.  It was the right place for Debbie, though, so we said our goodbyes.  She has a 2-hour drive home.  I had to go through security again.  What a pain just to even find the TSA Pre-check line.  Whew.  I got through with no problem.  I got to my gate ok.  But then I had to wait.  My flight to Portland was delayed. As I was boarding I got a text from Debbie.  She had arrived at her home safely. My flight was a short one.  George met me. I got home at about 1 am.  It was a long day. 

Saturday in Albuquerque

 We went to bed early last night.  But unfortunately, I woke up extra early this morning.  

 The Embassy Suites are nice because they have a living room and a bedroom.  So when I got up early I could do my coffee and blog without disturbing Debbie.  Debbie gave me some Kuju pour-over coffee packets.  Very interesting.  It may end out being my new travel coffee system, at least for my India trip next year.

My coffee set up.  No muss no fuss!

We headed down for breakfast aroun 7 am.

Our hotel

After breakfast we headed to a close Starbucks.  It was 32 degrees out, but we decided to walk to Starbucks anyway.  it was only 3 blocks away.  It is the only Starbucks I have been to that had no chairs.  I guess it is in a bad neighborhood and they have had problems. We did not stay long.

We decided to head into Old Town to ramble around.  We poked in some shops and found a few fun things.  I had to download the Passport Parking App so that we could park the car.  

A purple tree in one of the stores.  

We may have to go back and spend more time there.  We had to head out to get to Steve and Jennifer's by 11:30 am for lunch.  

Steve drove us to The Indigo Crow for lunch.  It was about 1/2 hour away.  

Debbie had the Catalina salad.  Very interesting presentation.  It was quite yummy. I got a taste.

I had a delicious grilled chicken BLT and beet salad.  It was also very good.  Jennifer had the beet salad with salmon and Steve had the apple, walnut salad.  

Steve & Jennifer's place

After we got back to Steve & Jennifer's, Debbie and I headed back to hotel.  She had a chance to go down to the exercise room and I relaxed.  

Debbie had arranged to meet up with Lynn for dinner.  Lynn is Steve's ex-wife.  They were together at the time that Debbie came to live with them when our mom died. Debbie has kept up with her.  

Debbie and I went down to the lounge to wait for Lynn to arrive and to wait for the lounge to open up.  

Lynn and Debbie

Once the lounge opened up we each ordered a glass of wine. It was nice catching up. At 6 pm I headed out to meet Steve and Jennifer to go to dinner.  Debbie went to dinner with Lynn. We went to High Noon.  

I had a veggie burrito.  It was very good.

Once we both got back to the room we went down to get a glass of wine and then watched When Harry Met Sally.  That was fun.  I pointed out Katz's Deli to Debbie when we came to that scene.  

Albuquerque

Debbie and I decided that it would be nice to go visit Steve & Jennifer.

 Debbie drove down to an airport hotel near Seatac Thursday afternoon so that she cold get the early flight to Portland.  Even still she had to get up at 3 am to get to her flight.  Friday morning at 6:30 am George drove me to the airport.  I wanted to get there in time to meet Debbie's flight.  I had a little issue.  I got there early enough that I decided to go to the Made in Oregon shop.  I thought it was on the D concourse.  I thought that I could take the connector hall over to D.  I was on B.  But no, I found out that the Made in Oregon was on C.  But I found that out after I had left B.  So I had to go through security again.  This time they did not like my coffee maker.  The food court was also over on C so I texted Debbie to tell her to meet me there.  That worked out well.  We had a nice breakfast at Henry's Tavern.  We each had the classic breakfast, eggs, bacon, biscuit/toast.  It was tasty.  It was too early in the morning so I wasn't thinking about pictures.

Portland Airport

See the fighter jet in the background.  We saw about 4 of them take off as we were boarding plane.    THEY WERE LOUD!!!

Debbie got photo bombed.

Me and Debbie

The flight was uneventful.

Albuquerque

Snow on the Sandia Mountains

Steve met our flight.  

We went to his place, Jennifer was there.  It was nice to catch up a little.

Steve had a picture of mom's family.

Grandma, David, Mom, Grandpa, and Florence.  

Grandma (Barbara) was step-mom to David and mom. After Florence there were two more siblings, Paul & Eleanor.

We then headed to the Embassy Suites to check in.  

Debbie with our rental car, Mazda.  Debbie did the driving.

Embassy Suites

At 5 pm we headed off to have dinner at Perry's, our niece.     It was nicely decorated.

Willa (3 years old)

Debbie, Steve, Jennifer, Perry

Wyatt (5 years old)

Delicious lasagna and salad dinner.

Jennifer brought a Chantilly cake which was gorgeous and delicious.  I thought I had taken a picture of it, but I guess it didn't turn out. 

Perry's husband Dan, wasn't there because he had to work.  He is a doctor.  When they first moved to Albuquerque, his job was in Santa Fe.  But now his job is at a hospital about 12 minutes drive away.  That is much nicer.

We did not hang around long because it was bath and bedtime for the kids.  We stopped at the Embassy Suites bar to each get a glass of wine to take up to our room.   

Monday

 We walked to Porto's again for breakfast.  I had the apple strudel this time. We went back to the hotel, finished packing and checked out.  Nathan came up with a plan of 8 possible stops up the coast following Hwy 1 towards Malibu.

First stop was Los Leones Canyon. Once we parked and started walking we decided that we did not want to hike up a big hill to see a view.  

Interesting location for a sign.

Next stop was the Malibu pier.  

Then we missed a turn for the next stop and the one after that the drive was closed. So far we were not having much success.  

The Malibu bluffs stop had a nice view plus a restroom

The next stop was great.  Point Dume Natural Preserve

Maybe there had been a wedding here.  Nice bouquets of flowers.

195 steps down to the beach

 It was a rocky beach.  It would be very nice to come here when the tide was out.  

Very clear water

Sea lions on the rock.

Now all he needs is the tuxedo.

We had trouble getting a parking spot.  I guess other people did also because when we got back to our car we found that someone had hit our car.  Ugh.  

Dinged car

Sunset Cafe in Malibu

 We had a nice lunch with a great view of the beach.

Nathan's Sunsetcolada

Caramelized onion flatbread

George and Nathan got the fish sandwiches

Brussels Sprouts

Then off to our next stop was Leo Carrillo State Beach

It was a great beach.  We need to come back here again when the tide is out.

Our goal was to either get to Jamie and Pam's by 3 pm or if after that then to Sharon and Michael's.  We got to Sharon and Michael's at about 4:30 pm.  Just in time to order dinner.  

La Cabanita

Unfortunately, the pictures I thought I had taken didn't turn out.   Pam and I went to pick up our order. We had ordered Mexican food.  We sure have been eating well.

After dinner, we relaxed for a little while.  We ended out leaving for the airport earlier than we had previously planned because we thought we might have an issue with the ding in the back of the vehicle. There was no problem with the return process, but we may get a bill later.  

The Burbank airport is small so it did not take us long to go through security.  We had plenty of time to play a round of 10, 9, 8.  The flight was uneventful.  We got to Portland a little after 11 pm.  It was raining.  Rebecca met our plane.  She was a little late because Cider had escaped when she went to the car and she had to retrieve him.  He usually hides under the car when he escapes and it is hard to get him.  We did not have to wait long.  We dropped off Nathan on our way home.  We got home at about 12:15 am. I just went straight to bed.  It was good to be home but we did have a great visit with family.