BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Inspiration Where are you and how is the weather?

Ha, ha! The 1980s were fun.

It's 70F / 31C and sunny today. Looks like it will be a gorgeous day.

Crazy weather day in Chicago.

I was sitting in my car waiting for my girls. The weather was a surprising sunny, 90F. I was saying to myself, "Phew! It's really hot out here." I took my shoes off and hung my feet outside my window to cool off in the slight breeze.

Our forecast had predicted rain so, I asked the heavens to provide. Within minutes, there was an immediate change from hot air to cold wind (60F winds) rushing over the area. About 20 minutes later...down pour.

Not claiming credit, but loving moments like that.

Hey Val-

I have not visited New Mexico. The girls (my daughters) & I are discussing a road trip through there this summer (last summer we did East Coast & Canada-Montreal & Toronto). This year we will be visiting S.C. and the girls would like to go West from there; Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, B.C. and back home across the Northern States or Canada.

I haven't exactly committed. It is quite a long haul and could prove to be very expensive if we chicken out on some of the camping options. Funnier than that, my middle child has decided she does not like hiking (we were looking at hiking and camping along the way) and my youngest has decided she prefers hiking while on my back. LOL.

I have visited Arizona. Please, if you can, tell me your perception of how they differ.

Oooh, good question! Arizona is hotter for sure, especially in the summer. It has the Grand Canyon, and we don't have anything to compete with that here in New Mexico, but we do have some good hiking in the Sangre de Cristos and Rocky Mts. Arizona is more desertlike whereas we have more forest and mountain terrain especially toward the north.

We don't have any city as big as Phoenix. Our biggest city Albuquerque is roughly comparable to Tucson at half a million people. Of course, they filmed the hit t.v. series BREAKING BAD in Albuquerque and not Tucson, so that's a fun reason to visit ABQ if you're a fan of the show.

If you're into art, you'll find much more of a "pedigree" and history in New Mexico than Arizona, especially up in Santa Fe and Taos, which are famous for their art galleries and artists (Georgia O'Keefe, RC Gorman, and others).

If you like Native American culture, the Navajo Nation stretches across both states, but New Mexico also has all the Pueblo cultures and their amazing artwork such as the Hopi and their baskets and kachinas, the Zuni with their stone fetishes, and silverwork, and of course the Navajo with their famous weavings. There are Pueblo ceremonies and dancing that you can view during the summer.

Arizona is going to have more of a Anglo-European Wild West history and a Mexican-from-Mexico cultural feel. New Mexico (and parts of southern Colorado) has a unique Hispanic-Spanish-Catholic feel that has very little to do with Mexico. You can see a lot of amazing Spanish and Catholic art in New Mexico and a lot of picturesque old churches.

Also, last but not least, we have the whole history-of-the-atomic-bomb thing here in New Mexico, and Arizona has nothing like that. The Manhattan Project was helmed by J. Robert Oppenheimer at our Los Alamos National Laboratory during WWII and the first atomic bomb was tested at Trinity Site in White Sands Missile Range here in NM in 1945.

The atomic bomb history is all over the place. You can visit museums in ABQ and also White Sands itself which is a beautiful place. Almost like visiting another planet. You can even visit Trinity Site if you coordinate it (I think they only open the site twice a year and one time is in July.)

Val-

That was a great answer. You've inspired a new topic. Thanks!

Yesterday before my walk it was partly cloudy and windy on/off. It was the same during my walk. After my walk it was partly cloudy, windy off/on and raining off/on.

The night was windy off/on.

When I went to bed it was the same.

When I got up it was sunny and windy on/off.

Nancy-

It just dawned on me; you are walking on a regular basis now. Yay!!!!!

In Chicago, it's raining! Yippee!

Yvonnie,

Yes I am. For me it is barely walking since I am used to walking at least one hour and I haven't done that yet but at least I am out of the house once a day since March 29. Two or three times I had to force myself to go out and walk, these times it was for less than ten minutes but at least I did it. My plan is to do that until I change my email address, then I'll start exercising again and then stop this for a while and walk for real (1 hour or more i mean haha).

Nancy, good for you, all this walking! You've inspired me to get more serious about doing it.

Yvonnie, you're very welcome! It was fun answering the question, and that's a very cool new thread. Something else I forgot to mention is our state fair in September, which is especially good, and our world famous hot air balloon fiesta in early October.

Val,

I always have found walking to be relaxing. It should be more relaxing walking here since I'm around mountains, forests and water bodies but there's pollution everywhere and also almost everyone here has snowmobiles, three wheelers and four wheelers so there's also noise pollution. Plus there's dirt and spiders everywhere even in Winter.

I hope you can walk often and have fund doing it !