Believe it or not i put more miles on my feet than my car today, i decided to spend the whole day in Albuquerque, partly because i got a bad first impression of it last night but mostly because me and Myra (my car) needed a rest! I took advantage of the free hot breakfast at the hotel and took a walk around, there really isn’t much to see downtown so i ventured off to the Rio Grande Botanical Gardens. I love botanical gardens, if i ever visit a city that has botanical gardens i have to visit because fresh flowers immediately raise my morale.
The gardens are beautiful and sprawling, there is a butterfly conservatory, Japanese gardens, and an apple orchard.
A frog sitting on a lily pad!!! #thatactuallyhappens
Old school farming
Japanese Gardens
fish being coy
After the Botanical Gardens i walked over to quaint Old Town Albuquerque and loved it so.
This area is exactly how i expected and wanted Albuquerque to look, the beige southwestern old look is so simple and takes you to another time, simpler times, sigh.
Kokopelli!!!
After gathering souvenirs i dined at the Rt. 66 Diner, corny and cliche called and i just had to answer.
Don’t get the chicken cordon bleu but the sundaes looked amazing!
I walked a good 2 miles or so up to Nob Hill, a cool area with lots of funky stores, restaurants aaaaand street art! Albuquerque you really want me to like you don’t you!
woe-is-me too girl i feel you
True and simple
Spray Fresh
Hey looky there!
I realized a few things about Albuquerque today, first there are grasshoppers everywhere, second that a girl simply cannot walk 2 feet without getting creeped on (GROSS!), and also the radio stations are the best!! Honestly ABQ, i know its random but i cliterally could not find a bad song on any station and for that reason Albuquerque i guess you’re not so bad after all. #heartonthehighway
roamifshewantstodotcom 
I live in Nob Hill, glad you enjoyed it! The Duke City (as we call it) is definitely an acquired taste. It took me a good year before I fell in love with it (I’m from Oakland/San Francisco). Now I don’t want to ever live anywhere else.
Sorry to hear you got creeped on so much! The area between 66 Diner and Nob Hill is called the Student Ghetto and unfortunately attracts lots of creepy types due to the very cheap rent but most of the city isn’t like that (per my wife and her friends). Downtown is the same boat.
The grasshoppers aren’t a normal thing. The entire city is freaking out about them as we’ve never seen anything like it. There are so many they showed up on the National Weather Service radar a few days ago. It’s nuts!
(found your blog Googling “Albuquerque Grasshoppers” with a filter for only images from the past 24 hours)