Albuquerque, New Mexico

Another trip under the belt and another city discovered. As far as being a travel writer I've found that I'm not doing a very good job. I'm not taking pictures, but I started taking the post cards from the hotels I've stayed at.

So we decided to check out Albuquerque and Santa Fe: I found that I love green chilies, Albuquerque is small and easy to get around, and Santa Fe is very pretty tourist trap/fine arts gallery. While in the ABQ I spent most of the time trying to recognize places from Breaking Bad.

Albuquerque has a great river trail that runs down the Rio Grande, Paseo del Bosqe Bike Trail, 16 miles long. The city is split by the I-25 and the I-40 breaking it in to 4 sections. The Down Town is about 6 blocks long and has bars and night clubs. None of which I made it to. On the other side of the I-25 is the college, UNM. Here you'll find more bars and places to eat. And this is the area I spent most of the time. ABQ is a great place to discover the green chili. We happened to be there during the Founders Day Fiesta, and the "Old Town" was filled with people, music, and fun. We stopped at the local bookstore, Treasure House Books. (please support local bookstores) And we stayed at the Monterey Non Smokers Motel. This is a great, very clean, place to stay. Say hi to Gustav.

We then headed up to Santa Fe for our last night in New Mexico. Their down town, the capitol, is full of art galleries and art galleries. But they did have a very good pizza place,
Yes, the sign reads Sunday 11pm to 10pm?!? But the pizza is very good, the veggie pizza with green chilies is highly recommended. While in Santa Fe we stayed at The El Rey Inn.

Over all the trip was great, it's always nice to just visit a new place. The thing I really like about New Mexico is the sky. It's always changing, you can just sit in one place and spend the whole day watching it. I really miss the Green Chilies.

some great food:
The Church St. Cafe - Best of the Trip - the best of the New Mexico cuisine.
Frontiers - Great place for Breakfast and All around diner food. I had the breakfast burrito, If you go here please do not pass up the green chili salsa served hot. I observed the locals and proceeded to poor it all over the burrito. Wonderful.
Kelly's Brew Pub - Great house-brewed beer selection (over 20 different kinds). And if you get there on the right night, Tango.
Einstein Bagels - Home of the Green Chile Bagel. Yes, I took some home.
Flying Star Cafe - Best Vegi Burger - the Alibi was right.

"You can never be to careful."

Portland, Oregon

We made our way up north from Los Angeles to check out Portland, Oregon. I'm starting to realize that I'm not very good at keeping these blogs and I'm also not very good at taking pictures. Mostly because I look like I tool carring my camera:

We spent most of the time looking around this wonderfull city. But this was taken on the day we traveled 30 minutes out side Portand to Multnomah Falls. Here' a better picture,

Places of interest, or things we liked.

Voodoo Doughnuts - I missed out on the Bacon Maple bar, but had the Crunch Berry Doughnut and loved it.

Jake's Famous Crawfish - The fish is amazing here. It looks a little touristy but the food is great.

Apizza Scholls - the pizza really is as good as Anthony Bourdain said. But go durring the week. Fridays and Saturdays are busy.

Skywalker Ranch, Marin County, CA.

We'll this little traveler has made his way to the Ranch. That's right, Skywalker Ranch. Who said you can get anywhere in this world. A month back to work and already they got me goin' up to Skywalker Ranch. Dealing with a big TV show, that I don't know if I can talk about, so I won't say what I was working on at Skywalker Ranch. But, the Ranch has it's own fire department. The weather was great, I don't think it got above 80 at Skywalker Ranch. They grown there own food. It's almost unreal. But it is real and I went there. Here are some pictures;

Wine Country

If this picture was any good, you would see the deer.

Me working hard at my Princess Laya.

One last note we ate dinner at a little restaurant up the road called Rancho Nicasio (http://www.ranchonicasio.com/) I had the home made meatloaf and it was wonderful. If you ever get to go to Skywalker Ranch, I say give it a try.

Sedona, AZ

Ah, Sedona the land of Red Rocks, Vortexes, and Crystals. It's early May so my wife and I decide it's time for a little trip back to this magical land stuck in Arizona. We decided to start our traveling in Sedona because it is a town we know and a great place for a little hiking and a lot of relaxing. There are a lot of first for this trip, first time with the new leg (I'm an amputee, above the knee), and a first time traveling with the our dog, Samson. And first time trying to write a travel blog. (I don't think writing while on the trip is a good idea. I take a few notes, try to keep a journal, but mostly this is me thinking back on the time I spent out side the daily rat race.)

Being the first trip with the new leg everything is new. We packed up the car, said FU to the high gas prices, still cheaper in Sedona then Los Angeles, and made the 7 hour drive out to this lovely Red Rock Country. We stayed in a little hotel called the Sugar Loaf Lodge (http://www.sedonasugarloaf.com/). We have stayed here before, this is a nice, family owned, little lodge that allowes pets; so it was perfect for us. The rooms are comfortable and a reasonable price in the off season.

Our first day out and we decide to return to Bell Rock. A place that both my wife and I have felt the positive energy of the vortex that sits on this mountain. We arrived around 10:30am. I'm feeling good pretty good in this picture. I'm making what seams like good time walking with the leg and my hiking poles. (the hiking poles became an great asset to me helping with balance while going up and down certain terrain) So, feeling good about my self I suggest that we really go for it and try and take one of the loop trails around. We pulled out our trusty guide book (Sedona Hikes by Richard and Sherry Mangum), Court House Butte Loop, 4.3 miles. Not a problem. 2 hour hike, Not a problem. 2 hours into this hike we are on the other side of Bell Rock looking up at Court House Butte thinking maybe this wasn't the best this to do for a first hike. 4 and a half hours later, we're driving to the closes circle-K to get Powerade before we keel over. I think back now to when we were still on the other side of the Court House Butte, to when my stump was slipping out of my socket and I was very nervous that my wife and dog would come out the other side saying; "we had to leave him, we just couldn't make it." All thing said and done, we made it safe and sound. It was ambitious to take this hike on but in the end I felt that I really accomplished something.

We hiked around these (4.3 miles) ...

So needless to say the rest of our hikes on the trip were not that long. We usually started the day with a one to two mile hike. And ended the day the same way. Nice and Easy became our mantra. I can recommend a couple:

The Sunrise Trail (1.4 miles) - Nice little walk among the neighborhood, but still on a trail that make you feel your out. There is also a little hike at the end of this trail , The Carruth Trail (1.8 miles). It hikes up the hill and has a little bench looking out at Coffee Pot Rock, if I would of remembered the camera we would have a picture.

The Mystic Trail - (2 miles) This was a nice evening walk that we took a couple of times with the dog.

Spending our time Hiking makes us a couple of hungry people, and Sedona is a great place to eat. There are many restaurants and the few that we choose are just some of our favorites. First there is Casa Bonita, we like this place because it's right around the corner from our hotel. As you might of guessed, it's Mexican food. Really F*CKin' good Mexican Food! Please don't pass up the Original Margaritas. Another good place for breakfast and lunch is The Coffee Pot. They are the home of 101 omelets. If you like coffee shops, there are two: Raven Heart and Sedona Coffee Roasters, both have good coffee, but if your going to sit around and drink it, I'd pick one of Raven Hearts two locations. Another good place for lunch was the Blue Moon Cafe, I suggest their Red Rock Burger. OK, here is my pick of the trip: D'Lish - A Very Vegetarian Restaurant. (http://www.dlishsedona.com/) This was our first time to this place and during the 6 days we were there we ate there 3 times. D'Lish comes Highly recommended by me.

One last note; on our trip we stopped at a few reststops, more then usual, because we had the dog and wanted to make sure he was ok with the long trip. While at these reststops I noticed something that got me a little upset. Now maybe because I'm new to this whole being handicaped thing, but making us drink from special fountains, I thought we've come further then that:

Well that's it, that's my review.