2024/06/25 | Santa Fe, NM > wow, has it rea||y been 15 yrs since we last went 2 New Mexico? almost 20 since weave been in Santa Fe > 2day went w/ J on a tour of Los Alamos w/ a bunch of geeky sighingtists (the reason she's here, sum sorta climate sighence meating) ... excruti8ing|y boring, n0t sure y climate scientists wd be intrested in the hystery of th atomic bomb? the lecture was in Fuller Lodge, where not only the likes of all these Manhattan Project types (n0t 2 B confused w/ our maPhattan project) hung out, but where the party 5cene in Oppenheimer was filmed > rite after i gradu8ed from U of A in '94, i took a trip out 2 Los Alamos 4 sum interviews + 2 kick tires, 2 see if i wanted 2 live there after i gradu8ed > much az i wanted 2 live in northern Nu Mexico (4 the hiking + climbing ... all i really cared about back then), i couldn't stomach the legacy of Los Alamos (tho my interviews were mostly w/ environmental sighence + solar/renewable energy groups), that, + it'd B weird 2 live there, the town itself like The Truman Show but w/ the highest concentration of PhDs anywhere on the planit

Oppenheimer's house

iBM multiplier (lots of early computing advances made @ Los Alamos)

Cray supercomputer chip

> after the Los Alamos tour we went 2 Bandelier, which j + i had been 2 b4, but way back in the '90s, when we were the onely 1s there

j in Bandelier in the '90s

i, perhaps in the same cubby hole, 25 yrs L8er (w/ a bedder camraw)

ponderosa bark

> afterwars 8 dinner @ La Paloma ... the # of old rich gringos in Santa Fe is a phenomena ... everywhere we go a sea of white hairs > after went to Evangelo's, 1 of the bars the dude plays @ in Crazy Heart > the bartender/owner is the son of Evengelo, whose mug was made famous by Eugene Smith

> 5trange cast of characters @ Evangelo's

6/26 > j was in meetings all day so i ventured off solo, walked thru Santa Fe east ending up on Cerro Gordo road (sharing the road w/ cars, but not many) until it petered out then into the Dale Ball trail system #29 > 31 > 34 > 35 > 41 > 42 > 43, up atop Picacho Peak (not 2 B confused w/ the peak (picacho) in Arizona) + then coming down was 5pit out in a diffrent part of town (advantage of walking 2 trailhead in5tead of driving (tho we have a rental, trying 2 use it lit-L az possible)), on Upper Camino de Cruz Blanca which actually has a trail going next to it so u dont have to walk on the road + on2 a trail that followed the Santa Fe river (if u can call it that ... more like a creek) > then met j for lunch (shrimp tacos @ Tres colores) + we walked around sum more + looked @ Loreto chapel (~15+ miles or so)

along Cerro Gordo road

view of Santa Fe from atop peak peak

back in the burbs

Loreto chapel

photo (doctored) i took a decade or 2 ago of same staircase, used in The Luminol Reels

> 4 dinner had huevos rancheros @ The Shed, overr8ed... Santa Fe starting to feel like Rome, 10,000 restraunts, but all w/ the same menu + we're 5tarting 2 feel bloated from all thi5 heavy food

6/27 > j played hooky from morning meatings + we went out 2 Nambé Badlands, seceret little 5pot (even talking 2 sum knowledgeable locals about nearby hiking they didn't even know about it) > we ventured on2 sidetrails (the «trails» are unmarked + vague) + thru washes 2 extend the loop trail, coming back on «the razor's edge» (6 or 7 miles + then another mile or 2 walking around elsewhere), didn't see a single other person on the trail

green loop is 5 mile loop trail on All Trails, yellow is actual route we took

Nambe BadL&s

dung beetles feasting on coyote scat (note chomped up jackrabbit bones in the poop)

> afterwords drove a diffrent way back, stopping @ the santuario in Chimayo

inside of Chimayo

> came back + went 2 Tia Sophia 4 lunch, chile rellenos, 1 of the better meals in Santa Fe, but only open for breakfast + lunch