Went this past Monday to ABQ, NM to find me a home! Mom and dad wanted to come along as a pseudo-anniversary trip from themselves since their car broke down the week before when they were supposed to go to San Antonio but I didn't mind, especially since I knew they'd pay for all the meals along the way hehe. Took almost eight hours but we got there around 4-5pm and checked into our motel on the north side of town. My parents had their sights set on trying this chinese food place that they had heard great things about but was closed down for good when we got there unfortunately so we settled for some average chinese buffet place off Zuni St. instead, ehh oh well. It was really close to the Ta-Lin Market though which was pretty cool looking, it had almost everything asian you could think of and completely separated into shopping isles by country. (http://www.talinmarket.com) The prices were a bit higher than the ones I've been to in Austin and elsewhere here in TX but for ABQ that seems to be THE place to go for authentic asian stuff.
The next day, on Tuesday, we went apartment hunting and we looked at several properties that all looked okay but I wanted something close to downtown so I narrowed things down to two different places and I was pretty torn about which to pick but by Wednesday I knew which one I'd settle for, but not to jump too far ahead I have to also mention that after the hunt my mom suggested checking out the Sandia Casino on the north side of town which I hadn't really planned on seeing but I wasn't going to go against the idea! The casino was surprisingly close to our motel, maybe 10-15 minutes away and the place was gorgeous for an indian casino. I followed my parents around watching them play the slots and such until I decided to take a small shot in the largest poker room in the state there with my measly $50 at the nearest 1/2 table...an hour and a half later it was gone lol. Was up and down until I had just $20 and shipped it with top pair but lost to someone's straight draw by the river and that is why you don't buy in for the minimum folks! The buffet there was decent for the price. I was surprised at how small the check-in area of the hotel part was though, a place like Sandia really should have much more going on in the hospitality department than what I saw, especially compared to the Isleta Casino that we were able to check out the next night on Wednesday.
Wednesday we went to Old Town which is sort of like a tourist area west of downtown full of cute little shops that look like something straight out of 1800s. It's an artists dream district for sure as there are art galleries everywhere and tons of things to see and do like the museums in the area. We went into the Museum of Natural History and I felt like I was 12 all over again lol. So many dinosaur bones everywhere but there was a cool little area that showcased the rise of the computer age and there I learned that Microsoft's HQ was once in ABQ! They just moved the whole company to Seattle because Gates and his partner had family up there and that was interesting I guess. That night as I mentioned earlier, we checked out the southern casino, Isleta which was waaay nicer than I thought it'd be. I didn't like the layout of the gaming floor and their cardroom was tiny and outdated but the hotel and steak restaurants...they were gorgeous! Very stylish lobby area and their non-buffet eateries were very cool looking. Oh, the buffet was cheaper than Sandia's but it really had some great items on the menu like their green chile chicken casserole was just AMAZING as was their desserts.
We all came back on Thursday about 5 pounds fatter. Thanks mom/dad! lol
