Five Months in Austin

The day after we got to Albuquerque, Peggy and Rich took us to see Santa Fe. Downtown Santa Fe has been carefully managed to maintain the adobe building look, and to stay human-sized. No high rise or modern buildings are allowed in the center.

We saw the cathedral and chapel, many shops and streets. What I liked best about the New Mexican buildings were the courtyards. Away from the streets, the courtyards are quiet, a place to keep a few plants and places to sit.
Voila une photo de la “cathedrale ” de Santa Fe et de la place ou les indiens viennent vendre leurs bijoux faits en turquoise. Emma etait quelque peu decue de voir que les indiens n’etaient pas habilles de leurs costumes traditionnels (tuniques et plumes !)

As our hosts explained, Santa Fe is an upscale place. We saw some beautiful artwork and pottery, but we also got the impression the town is a place for people who no longer work directly for their incomes, but instead manage considerable investments or watch their royalties roll in.

That afternoon, we went into downtown Albuquerque. Nathalie, Emma, Diane, and Colette went shopping for bracelets. Timothee and I went to the Rattlesnake museum, a couple of rooms behind a store with a couple of dozen rattlesnakes, scorpions, and tarantulas. Tim and I managed to stay there an hour. He recommended it to Rich later on.

After the Grand Canyon, we went to visit Peggy, Rich, Logan, and Torrin in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was good to see them. We had not had a chance to visit since they were in Grenoble, about 7 years ago.

They live near the mountains. Peggy and Rich took us all up the mountain on the lift. Unfortunately, the clouds came down to the top of the mountain at the same time we arrived. We could see the ski area over by Santa Fe, and the valley in between, but not much else.

Peggy has arranged her house to feel both roomy and cozy at the same time. She had enough space for the seven of us. The boys did have to hand over their rooms while we were there. Logan seemed not to have slept so well the first night. He was exhausted during soccer practice the next day.

Diane traveled that day with a ribbon identifying her as a birthday girl. She did not get most of her presents until we returned here.

 

We learned this morning that most of Arizona does not use daylight savings time. We came close to showing up too early for breakfast at the hotel. (nous avons traverse trop de decalages horaires durant notre voyage a Grand Canyon, reculant regulierement d’une heure. Si bien que le matin de partir a Grand Canyon, nous avons failli nous enerver contre le serveur de l’hotel qui n’etait pas encore pret : en fait, nous avions de l’avance sur lui, il etait 6h30 !!)

Everyone wanted to get an early start to the Grand Canyon. Even Tim, who is getting pre-adolescently blasé about family outings, was pretty impressed when we pulled up to the first lookout and saw the monstrous hole in the ground.

Nathalie, Michel, and I took plenty of photos. No doubt none of them come close to doing justice to the natural phenomenon. To appreciate the size of the canyon, you must be looking into it, the cliffs and crags cut into the Colorado plateau taking up your entire visual field.

We spent the day on the southern rim, first on foot, then everyone but me taking the bus where we could not ride and park. I ended up starting down Bright Angel trail, billed as the most traveled of the descents down to the Colorado river. Plenty of serious hikers were coming back up. The cool, windy, even slightly rainy weather was good for walking, but I did not want to take too much time.

The suggestion was to plan twice as long to climb back up as you spend walking down. So I strolled down until I could feel it in my shins, about half an hour. Then I started back up. In the end, I was back up in only about half an hour. It felt good to walk quickly, as we have spent two days cooped in the car.

If we ever get back, I would like to try the 6-9 hour hike. In only half an hour, I never made it to the more interesting layers of rock. Other hikers were coming back up with red dust over their shoes and socks. I only have limestone dust to show for my walk.

J’espere que vous aurez compris ce que Mark racontait… En fait, c’etait vraiment impressionnant, comme si on avait une image grandeur reelle devant les yeux, une toile peinte qu’on a du mal a imaginer vraie.Difficile de decrire ce que l’on voit ou ressent face a cela, si ce n’est qu’on est tres petits et tres jeunes ! Il vaut mieux aussi eviter cet endroit aux personnes ayant peur du vide ou accompagnees de petits explorateurs energiques (n’est ce pas Mick et Jeanne ??) car peu de chemin sont balises le long de la falaise , sauf ceux evidemment ou on se presse tous avec nos appareils photos. A part cela , les gardiens ont beaucoup fait pour laisser l’environnement a son etat naturel ou presque , tout en le rendant securise. Et le resultat fait que l’on a l’impression d’etre dans la nature, meme avec beaucoup de touristes et l’infrastructure qui va avec.
Nous avons eu de la chance, le temps etait agreable, suffisamment beau pour profiter du paysage et ne pas etre brules. Et il n’y avait pas beaucoup de touristes…l’ete, ca doit etre l’enfer, par la temperature et la frequentation : nos amis, Peggy et Rich , ont essaye debut mai de reserver une randonnee dans le Grand Canyon (de 6-9 heures de descente et nuit en bas, puis remontee) pour mai 2008, et c’etait deja complet ! ils leur ont conseille de rappeler a 7h le 1er juin, mais pas plus tard, car deux heures apres, en general, c’est complet pour le mois !