Late-Night Frontier

Earlier this summer, Malory came out to Albuquerque for a visit. Our friend Jessica, who Malory met at Dallas Theological Seminary, is also staying with Bob & Diane this summer. We enjoyed having Malory with us for a while, and to capitalize on the fortunate opportunity, we decided to go out one evening. We ended up doing late-night dining at Frontier, a self-described "Albuquerque tradition" (they're right about that).

Here are some pics we took that evening - we were definitely enjoying ourselves.



Steph and me, apparently debating something about tortillas.



The slightly suspicious, but oh-so-cute look...





A small bit of the completely random decore inside Frontier (especially the John Wayne collection), as well as us and our food (and my Nalgene water bottle - I'll take a moment to encourage everyone to switch to reusable water bottles - it can be a serious encouragement to drink more water and also avoid terrible landfill trash).



One of the many moments of hilarity that evening...



...continued.



Yes, we had fun. That was definitely a memorable evening for this summer for us.

Nathan

Albuquerque Isotopes Game

A couple of weeks ago, our law firm went to see an Albuquerque Isotopes baseball game! They bought tickets for the attorneys and law clerks and their families. Bob and Stephany and I went and saw the 'Topes play the Omaha Royals. Both are minor league teams.









It was a fantastic evening, and we had a good view of the clouds in the sunset. Albuquerque has a really nice stadium, and the turnout was pretty good.





The 'Topes won that night 9-1. We didn't stay much past the sixth inning, because Stephany had to be at work early the next morning. We had a really great time.





Here's a pic of the mascots, red and green chiles, a pack of tortillas, and a jar of salsa. They have definitely captured the essence of the town. Although, maybe they should also have a little mountain named "Sandia" running around out there. That would really complete it.


Nathan

Corrales, NM

We recently took a drive through Corrales, a small village just north of Albuquerque. It's a pretty neat place - lots of older houses, newer houses, dirt roads, large yards, and horses. Stephany used to spend some time there with a weekly church group. It's a nice place to take a drive and see more of the country-living side of the Albuquerque area.

These were by far our favorite scenes. No explanation needed. Absolutely fantastic.





Here was the post office, which is not too far into Corrales from Albuquerque. We actually went there to mail something that day. It's much less crowded than the one near our neighborhood.



LOTS of horses around. Made me feel kinda like home in East Texas in a way. We had horses when I was growing up. I've always thought they're sort of majestic creatures. A lot of the homes we saw had corrals.



And here are just some random pics we took from the car.









Notice the giant yard art (in front of a local business) of animal crackers parading out of a huge animal cracker box. Pretty fun.



We enjoy getting out and seeing places around town. There's a whole lot of different scenes within a short drive from where we are. It's a good way to spend part of a day together (with a camera).

Nathan

Hail in Albuquerque

Well, just to show that we weren't kidding on our last posting about all the precipitation in Albuquerque recently, we thought we'd add some pics we took during a recent hail storm. The storms here come in strong and pass through quickly. Last weekend, it started raining, and shortly thereafter it hailed pretty strongly for about five minutes or so - and all the while, it was completely sunny outside. We were blessed with another amazing rainbow, our wondrous reminder of God's promise to us of His grace.

Here, you can seen the hail coming down with the rain.



Another rainbow, almost identical to the previous one we posted.





And a close-up of the hail. It's a bit startling when it comes on so fast. Two thoughts when it happens: 1) man, what is this going to do to the car, since there's no way I can move it anywhere; 2) I'm really glad to have a sturdy roof over my head (thanks, Bob & Diane).



Nathan

Rain in Albuquerque

It's been really wet in Albuquerque lately. I mean, not a whole lot, but enough to say that it's been wet lately (for Albuquerque). It's been rainy or thunderstorming in the afternoons. It's really strange to wake up to overcast weather here - this town usually gets something like 300+ days of sunshine a year. This could be the beginning of the "monsoon season." I read in the local newspaper that El Nino is shaping up to make it a wet season through the rest of the year. It's nice when the desert gets rain - there are such vibrant colors in the plants and trees around here, and they just seem to become even more so when it rains.

Stephany took this picture from her parents' back patio on the day that we got back from Colorado. Pretty awesome.

Nathan

Colorado Trip, Part III - Fort Collins

During our trip to Denver, we decided to take part of a day and head up the road to Fort Collins, which we knew as being the town of one of my favorite brewers, the New Belgium Brewing Co. New Belgium is known most widely for its Fat Tire amber ale (named after the founder's bike, on which he toured Belgium for ideas for beer), although they make a number of other really great beers.

Here's us in front of the brewery - it's a really nice facility.



Due in part to their heritage, but also to their company culture, they promote bicycling as a primary way of getting around (Fort Collins is fairly small, so it's not too hard for some of the employees to bike to work), and they sponsor bicycling events around the country. They also promote sustainability: in 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind energy (presumably in the U.S.) and the first brewery to be 100% wind-powered. It is also 100% employee-owned, which is pretty neat.



We were greeted with samples of their Sunshine Wheat beer, poured from a can. Their beers are traditionally bottled, but they've actually begun canning a couple (Fat Tire and Sunshine Wheat) - and you know, they're really not bad out of a can!



We were there on a Saturday, and it was busy. We had gotten there earlier in the morning to get tickets for one of their free half-hourly guided tours.





And here were some interesting things we saw on the tour. The dress below was actually made from clippings from aluminum cans - our tour guide, the one who made the "dress," said it was not the most comfortable thing to wear, but that it was fun making it. We believed her.



New Belgium sign, signed by a bunch of people (probably employees).



Fat Tire shadow-box wall art.



Bikes hanging from the ceiling.







And here we came to the area with the large tanks for mashing, boiling, and fermenting the stuff that becomes beer.



There were some really neat tiling designs around the tanks, with each tank having its own unique tiling. This one shows the three maidens from the label of their Trippel Belgium ale.



Stephany checking out one of the tanks.



While on the tour, we got to sample a beer that the brewery doesn't actually sell. It was their "La Folie" ("the folly"), a "sour beer" which is brewed in old oak barrels previously used to ferment wine. The beer takes on a strong, sharp wine taste - it was a bit bizarre, but after a few tastes, we found that we liked it.





Our tour guide told us that it's important to the employees that they have fun while they work - because, hey, they make beer. In that spirit, they have a fairly large indoor slide, which we got to slide down. Here's me at the bottom.



After the tour, we visited their "Liquid Center," where they would bring you samples of whatever four beers you selected. We enjoyed trying a couple that we were less familiar with, including another one that they don't sell in wide distribution.



Us towards the end of our visit, enjoying some beer right from the source.



And a shot of the brewery as we departed.



This was a really nice day trip for us and a nice addition to our vacation. It's fun to know that now, whenever we enjoy one of our favorite New Belgium beers, we'll know exactly where it comes from and the culture of those who made it. Pretty cool.

Thus concludes our Colorado trip. Tomorrow, we start our second week of work and life in Albuquerque for the summer. Things continue to go well, as do we. We are glad to be staying in touch with some of you who we left in Texas, and we are glad to be spending time with those we love in New Mexico.

With love,
Nathan & Stephany