Moving to Albuquerque (mobile home, transfer, schools)

[rybert]

Oh yeah... real rock-crawling... none of that "muddin'" crap they do down here in Texas.

[Undesiredusername]

In the greater ABQ area:

Mountain hiking trails (5K to 11K altitude)
Rock climbing
Shooting range park
Sandia Crest ski area/tram ride from 6500 to 10500 to crest
Snow play areas on East Side of Sandias
Paseo del Bosque bike and hiking trail
Chair lift and mountain biking on E side of Sandia mountain
Snowshoe/crosscountry ski trails
Triple-A ballpark (Isotopes)
UNM football stadium
UNM basketball arena (The Pit)
BMX racing park
Parasailing off Sandia mountain
Outpost ice arena
A couple large skate parks
Various indoor and outdoor pools
Various golf courses
Various growers markets

BioPark (Rio Grande Zoo, Botanic Gardens/Heritage Farm, Aquarium, Tingley Beach [fishing ponds, RV boats])
Two narrow gauge train lines at BioPark
Planned water park at new hotel
Fishing ponds at Sandia and Isleta pueblos

Albuquerque Museum (art and history)
NM Museum of Natural History/planetarium/iMax theater
Explora (Hands-on science museum)
National Atomic Museum
International Balloon Museum
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology
National Hispanic Cultural Center and Art Museum
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
Smaller museums (turquoise, rattlesnake, Harvey house, telephony, University art, Unser racing, holocaust, planned Wheels railroad, Intel museum of the computer chip, meteorite, soaring, Casa San Ysidro (1800s adobe house), Tamarind institute)
Petroglyph national monument (rock art)/extinct volcanoes on West side
Coronado state monument (ancient pueblo site, restoration)
Rio Grande Nature Center
Wildlife west nature park (Edgewood)

Various performance spaces (Kiva auditorium, KiMo theater, UNM Popejoy hall, Journal pavilion (arena), Journal Theater at NHCC, various smaller venues)

UNM (1 sq mi main campus, 25K students and all the cultural things that goes with that, Nob Hill shopping)
Old town plaza
Rio Grande river and bosque
Sandia mountains (10.6K ft)
Manzano mountains (10K ft)
Borders Sandia Pueblo and Isleta Pueblo, with Santa Ana pueblo nearby (we prefer our heritage living and vital :-))

Balloon fiesta
Gathering of Nations powwow at the Pit
Mariachi festival
Flamenco festival
Founder's day parade
River of lights Christmas display at Botanic Garden
Luminaria tour on Christmas eve
Globalquerque music festival
Revolutions theatre festival
Zarzuela series at NHCC
Guadalupe feast day parade
Burning of Kookookee in South Valley
Fiestas de San Lorenzo at Bernalillo
New Mexico Wine Festival at Bernalillo
Feast days at Sandia and Isleta

Performance series at Popejoy (music, dance, road companies of Broadway shows, etc)
NM Symphony Orchestra season (11 classical, 6 pops)
Chamber Music season (nine concerts)

If you are willing to drive an hour North to Santa Fe, you can basically double this list with other unique places and activities...and very soon you will be able to take the Rail Runner to Santa Fe. (Santa Fe Opera, Chamber Music festival, Fiestas de Santa Fe, Folk Art Festival, Palace of the Governors, Indian Market, Spanish market, Wheelwright museum, International Folk Art museum, coming NM History museum, Fine Arts museum, Spanish Colonial Art museum, O'Keeffe museum, Santa Fe plaza, new Railyard, Rancho de las Golondrinas living history museum (18th/19th C ranch), Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, San Felipe/Santo Domingo/ Cochiti pueblos, Madrid coal mining museum, Cerrillos Hills Historic park (mining park) etc.). There is an entire book on activities for kids in Santa Fe, "Santa Fe with Kids from A to Z" by Mathews and Daly(2005). If you are driving an hour, you could go East instead to Acoma pueblo perched on a 900 foot mesa, or explore the lava flows at El Malpais, or stop off on the trip North and go climb the tent rocks around Cochiti, take a dunk at the hot springs at Jemez, etc....

And as a followup on joanie55, ABQ and NM does fairly well if you are measuring high intellect...NM has the highest per capita rate of PhDs in the country (according to governor's web site), ABQ is roughly half of NM's population and Sandia National Labs and UNM are both in ABQ proper. If you want to integrate into the Latino culture, knowing Spanish will be a plus. The only language institute sponsored by the Spanish government, Instituto Cervantes, has one of their three schools in ABQ...the others are in NYC, Chicago and Seattle.

[Undesiredusername]

ABQ has one of the four Instituto Cervantes schools in the US, obviously. The Seattle school is pretty new, if I remember right.

[JstmeinVA]

another question, Does New Mexico play Ultimate Frisbee? My sons are into playing ultimate frisbee and they both play on their local high school team (yes my 11 year old plays on the same team as my oldest son for his HS) they are into it big time, does anyone know if that sport is played in New Mexico? Or better yet in Albuquerque? They would be so upset if no one plays there. My sons are begging me to ask this question. Thanks so far it looks like we may be moving there.

Forgot to ask , What is Bosque?



Darlene

[rybert]

The Bosque is the wooded area near the river. It serves as a nature refuge and public park (many jogging/biking trails).

Google Image Result for http://abqstyle.com/albuquerque_photo/bosque_albuquerque.jpg

[rybert]

There are plenty of people in ABQ that are in to Ultimate... I'm more of a frisbee golfer myself.

[rybert]

Welcome to ABQUltimate

[rybert]

For more Bosque info. check out the most recent post on the ABQ photos thread.

[JstmeinVA]

I want to thank everyone for being so nice and answering my questions. I have to admit when I first started looking up Albuquerque, this forum scared the heck out of me, all I was reading was how awful this place was. As for the word war zone, well that scared the heck out of us more because we did not know what was meant by "war zone". We thought this place was what we had seen on TV, people committing crime 24/7, I was afraid if my kids walked outside they would be stabbed or shot. Reading this forum changed my views about NM and had me not wanting to move there. My husband and I read nothing but bickering back and forth and read how asking a simple question about the area could quickly turn into a verbal argument. Please if you make a general statement and you are claiming that it's a fact, I would love to see it backed up with statistics, my husband I would like to know if this is only an opinion you have of the area or are you just disappointed about the area, This is a big decision for our family (children included) we have lived all of our life in Virginia, and are wanting to move because of our own dislikes for our own area...noticed I said area not state, We love Virginia but not this area, it has grown over populated, crime has gone up, I can go on (but will not) there are no jobs here, the job market stinks, houses and taxes have gotten too expensive (as everywhere). We would love to find a place in Virginia (mountains) but no jobs, my husband got this job in Albuquerque offered to him out of the blue, ( he never applied for it) in NM the pay would be worth it, here he is making a lot less and the taxes are killing us. I was hoping to find anyone who enjoyed living in NM, and trying to find a brighter side instead of reading so much of the negative. I understand not everyone is going to agree, but there are other states going through the same things,everyone has problems,I just do not want my husband to miss this chance of enhancing our lives and his with this new promotion based on someone's disappointment in the area. I have read so much that I literally was so upset and stressed out by the fact that my husband was even considering a move there. We want to make the best choice for our family, and do not wish to have any regrets later. Thank you again.

[rybert]

So... what did you decide?