Now onto New Mexico

One of the offices in my new region is in Albuquerque (which by the way is very hard to spell) so I ventured into New Mexico for the first time last week. Spent a few days in the office and met the staff who were fun and filled with good ideas of what to see and do in New Mexico.  The office and I went to lunch at a very authentic Mexican restaurant which had red chile sauce that made my nose run for most of the afternoon. John came with me to New Mexico as he had lived there in the 1960's when he worked for Railway Express. While I was working, he went out driving around visiting his old neighborhood and the fun shops and galleries at Old Town. For dinner we went to an amazing place called Los Poblanos which was a working farm that raises vegetables, livestock and LAVENDER! Went home with some wonderful lavender products. The dinner was a farm to table type of meal that was extraordinary. Here is a somewhat pathetic picture of the long driveway to enter the farm, if it had been lighter you could have seen how the entire driveway was canopied with trees, but hopefully this photo will give you the idea.

New Mexico is not exactly lush and green, it is quite brown and I think that remains year round. Also, you can see it is not densely populated. However, once you get up to Santa Fe, you realize that it is rich in art and culture. There were museums, galleries galore, and jewelry made by local artists. The food was also amazing (do I say that every post?)

First we visited the Georgia O Keefe gallery and were joined on our tour by Phoebe Rose...the celebrity pug. She was adorable. Georgia O Keefe led an interesting life between her time in New York City and in the desert Southwest.





















Another beautiful structure in Santa Fe is the St Francis cathedral.  It had amazing stained glass and the light was at a beautiful angle during our visit.

After our day of walking the streets of Santa Fe, we had a great dinner with our friends, the Dinsmores, at the St Francis Hotel restaurant.

 

The next day we saw the infamous Loretto Chapel with the "miraculous staircase" and continued hoofing it around the city.

 

It was an exhausting several days, but we enjoyed being with good friends, and viewing much of what New Mexico has to offer. As you can tell, it took its toll on John!!

Back to Wichita

Well, it was fun to see Oklahoma and meet the people in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. I then spent a couple of weeks in Omaha working out of my home office and celebrating the holidays with family and friends

Sadly, Notre Dame got clobbered in the BCS bowl game so Connor and Sean were really bummed....but hey, they finished the regular season without a loss.

After returning to Wichita it was great to see all my new coworkers and try to catch up from bing gone. Discovered a new vegan cafe across the street and had this amazing green smoothie.

Before I knew it Friday morning was upon me and I saw this amazing sunrise as I was checking out of my hotel.

When I get back, here is what always greets me

Just like the song.....OKLAHOMA!!!!!

Well this last week I spent my time in Oklahoma visiting my two offices in that state. One in Oklahoma City and one is in Tulsa. I was again amazed that these are not dusty cowtowns from the days of old. They are sleek and have much to offer as you will see. These are photos of the memorial of the federal building that was destroyed by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City. On the left of the trees above are chairs that symbolize each of the victims of the blast.

The photos above are just random pieces of art and of course a segue scooter Santa on the streets of Oklahoma City.  After work, Kathy and I went to the 54th floor of the Devon Tower to have a cocktail and view the city from its highest viewpoint.  Probably the highest viewpoint in all of Oklahoma! It was gorgeous and showed the expanse of the city

As we were preparing to leave the next day, we ran across a couple of our office mates grabbing a cup of coffee in the same square that we were picking up our to go coffee.

Then, it was off to Tulsa. Kathy, our IT specialist drove us the two hours to Tulsa to visit the third office of our four office region.  Tulsa also has a lot to offer. It makes the claim that it is where Route 66 meets the Art Deco capital of the West!  So true.

We drove the city and I saw many of the Art Deco buildings but failed to get the old phone out to capture them for this blog! Next trip, I promise to show you the infamous buildings. However, the house below caught my attention the last night as it was one of the prettiest holiday decorations I have seen on a house. It almost looked like a Christmas card.

The next morning I caught a six am  flight home to Omaha through Dallas. Thank goodness as Omaha had a blizzard while I was gone and if I had booked through Chicago I would probably still be in Oklahoma!

Great shot of the dawn breaking while I am at 35,000 feet! Pretty amazing. But now, I am home for Christmas and will work in Omaha until the 2nd of January! Sounds great to be home for the holidays.

YMCA.....

When I started working in Wichita, I joined the downtown YMCA which is about a block from the office. I originally went to the 53 year old original facility. BUT...on December 10th the brand new 110,000sf Y opened and it is as luxurious as private facility in Omaha! The indoor track is 6 laps to the mile and every machine and weight you can think of is waiting for you to try it out. They have Yoga, Pilates, Spin Class, and I get a personal trainer for free because I joined the Change Your Life program. They have two swimming pools...one for adult lap swimmers and this one for the families who just want to have fun. They do a lot of wonderful things for the poor and underprivileged children of Wichita as well. Hope this becomes my evening mainstay...as opposed to all of the restaurants and shopping centers I have learned to love. And all the treats in the office like these.......

Wichita's botanical garden in holiday mode

Decided to visit Wichita's noteworthy botanical garden in all it's holiday finery. It was truly amazing. There were light shows, fire dancers, Christmas music and hot chocolate! Plus, we lucked out and the temperature was about 50 degrees!

What a wonderful display and then Joyce and I went and had a marvelous italian dinner at Bela Vita
which is a true gem hidden away in a small strip mall. Maybe the best lasagna ever!!