On the road, continued

What did we do our first evening in Albuquerque?

• Saw "Salmon fishing in the Yemen" at the Century 14; only about three other people in the theater. It's very good! Hard to believe that it only scores 70 - 75 at Rotten Tomatoes.
• Supped après que le film at Standard Diner (my fish and chips were good; the wonderful wife reports that her beet salad and soup was great). An unplanned bonus: Bottles of wine are half-price ($12) on Mondays; we each drank a glass with our meal and took the rest back to the hotel (another La Quinta).

Next day,we woke to a snow storm, but temperatures were such that there was no accumulation. Santa Fe was not so lucky, getting "about 4 inches of very heavy wet snow" that closed schools and screwed up traffic much of the day. Good thing we got out when we did. Though we didn't see any accumulation, the day was still cold enough and wet enough that a lot of the businesses in Old Town didn't bother to open. Nevertheless, we

• Strolled through the area for an hour or so,
• Toured Albuquerque Museum of Art and History,
• Lunched at Church St. Cafe,
• Visited Loretto chapel, with its miraculous spiral staircase,
• Went to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, with a lovely statue of its patron out front,
• Drove to and walked around the Nob Hill neighborhood, and
• And then relocated to the Sheraton Uptown.

The Sheraton was under the mistaken impression that we were special -- they threw in wifi for free and invited us to their 8th floor lounge, with a lovely view of the mountains, at supper time for free appetizers and soft drinks. The wonderful wife made a meal of the appetizers, but I wasn't tempted by anything; after we left, I went out to a supermarket and bought a sandwich.

Early to bed. Next morning we were to turn in the rental car and fly home.

Maybe the Sheraton realized that they had made a mistake by treating us so well at check-in. They more than made up for it by giving us a wake up call at 4:30 next morning, and then mangling our bill so that it took 20 minutes to check out.

But check out we did and head for the airport.