Early Spring 2020 - Travels before the Covid Era
Links to Pre-Covid Travels
- Puerto Vallarta
- Los Angeles, Back in the US
- On to Arizona and New Mexico
- Austin, First Stop in Texas
- Austin Neighborhoods
- Austin Downtown
- Austin Notable Buildings
- Houston
- Back to Albuquerque
- Looking Ahead
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Looking back to the beginning of the year 2020, from the perspective of July, 2020, we struggle to comprehend the drastic changes that have occurred in our life view and plans for the future.
As 2019 came to a close, these Nomads had begun to realize that we are elders, hopefully respected ones! Yet, we must acknowledge some changes that cause us to re-imagine our Nomad Lifestyle. First we are finding that having seen and done so much, the number of must-see places on our 'Special Places List' has become fewer. Also, we have observed People Friendly Cities around the planet and now find that it's about time to seek places where we are able to 'perch' for a while. This will enable us to contemplate all that we have learned and to write the next generation of stories.
On to Puerto Vallarta
A whale watching voyage is more than a boat ride to search for whales. When the boat is close to these giant gentle beings, from the mamas and babies to the flirty females and their suitors each trying to out perform the others with leaps and flipper splashes, we realize that they are going about their well ordered lives. We feel a spiritual connection that is life affirming and restorative. It is possible to believe that there is a species that is thriving despite the incursions of humanity.
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Back to the USA, first stop Los Angeles
Day Two, the Metro Gold Line took us to Pasadena for a return visit to the Norton Simon Museum, home of an amazing collection of European Masterworks from the Renaissance to the 20th century and more!
Day Three, we rode the Blue Line, past many miles of low rise bungalows, strip centers, and industrial complexes to Long Beach where we discovered Pine Avenue lined with busy cafe bars and old brick buildings, converted to lofts. We also discovered the actual Long Beach, a vast stretch of white sand, and the neighborhood surrounding St. Anthony Church just east of downtown with well kept multi-story apartment buildings. This might be a good place to perch!
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On to Arizona and New Mexico
Day Two, we spent the day exploring Saguaro National Park, first the Visitor Center, then Signal Hill Drive and out of the park to the north. Being out there surrounded by the magnificent cacti and the geology, seeing a couple of mule deer, hiking the rocky trails, spotting wild birds made us realize that this Park would be an important element in a decision to pick Tucson for a longer perch.
Day Three, we strolled through University of Arizona campus, visited the main public library, and went transit riding - Tucson has a light rail - another substantial element to cause us to perch here! Not in the summer, however!
During late January and early February, we made visits to Scottsdale and Albuquerque, visiting family and friends, seeing doctors, and pondering the next journey. Why not Texas, where the weather is mild, there's a new city to explore - Austin, and good friends to visit - Jack and Brigid in Clear Lake near Houston.
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Next Stop Texas, First Stop Austin
The weather was less than hospitable - chilly and wet - but we caught a bus north, past the University of Texas Campus and on to the neighborhood of Hyde Park. Before long, we had found our Austin Casa, a cozy guesthouse in the yard of the main house. We settled in and began to plan our exploration. First, forage for food! A funky Coop food market, Wheatfields, offered some of the essentials to enable us to make dinner at home in our well equipped kitchen. We met Tracy, our hostess, who provided guidance about the neighborhood.
Austin's Neighborhoods
Hyde Park and Central Park
We then rented a car for a day in order to explore some of the other Austin neighborhoods.
Mueller
Rainey Street
East and Central Austin
Returning the car, we returned to using the bus and our feet to explore further:
Downtown Austin
Crossing one of the bridges on foot, we admired historic Buford Tower and other modern office towers before exploring East 4th and 6th Streets, filled with bars, clubs, and cafes. The Driskill Hotel, a fine old establishment, offered a comfy bar for a cool drink and a taste of Old Austin. There are many more neighborhoods downtown that we really must visit if we return for a longer stay!
Austin's Notable Museums and Historic Buildings.
LBJ Library
University of Texas Tower
Texas State Capitol
Bullock Texas State History Museum
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Austin offered so much to capture our imaginations and perhaps challenge some of our notions about Texas. We encountered friendly people, walkable urban neighborhoods, natural areas, frequent buses, and a comfortable place to settle for a while. It would be easy to consider a return for a longer stay.
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On to Houston
In the next days, we made several forays to downtown Houston. An early stop was to Houston's Metro office where obtained a pass for free transport as seniors over 70! Sometimes age has its advantages.
From there we traveled by tram to visit The Museum of Fine Arts to view their collection of both classical and more contemporary works . . .
. . . and the Menil Collection to view their quite diverse offerings, including works by Rene Magritte.
A visit to the Health Museum featured an exhibit called 'Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World', that had opened in October, 2019. The events of the next few days would highlight how the relevance of this exhibit had suddenly grown exponentially! As the days passed, the world became increasingly aware that we were facing our own Outbreak - Covid-19!
On another day, we took a road trip, revisiting Galveston, and a stop to marvel at the amazing wildlife at the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge
Back to Albuquerque
Usually, after we have lived in one place for a month or so, we begin to plan our next Nomad Journey. But now, we are wondering just how soon we will be able to embark on our next journey, and what form it will take.
About May 8th, we made a big decision! We decided to take a year off from Nomad Life, live in Albuquerque, find a home with a comfortable walkable urban lifestyle, protect ourselves from Covid, and seek to enjoy life as best we can.
On June 1st, we moved into a studio apartment in the ABQ Uptown Apartments complex and furnished it with a sofa, table and chairs, and bed, plus kitchen equipment, towels and linens, and additional stuff acquired from friends, local stores, Goodwill stores, along with stuff we had left with Hilarie that she kindly sent to us. The casa is comfy and convenient.
Looking Ahead
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At the same time, we realized that we were not quite ready to begin perching quite yet. So, after our stay in Guadalajara, we traveled to Puerto Vallarta by bus for an eight day stay. We managed to meet up with all of our amigos, savor great meals on the beach, and best of all, take another whale watching voyage.
Uplifted by this visit, we were ready to return to the USA. We flew to Los Angeles, stopping at the Metro office to buy Senior Tap Cards, returning to the Metro Plaza Hotel where we have stayed on several previous visits. Next day, we explored downtown (DTLA), returning to the Grand Central Market with its unique neon signs and the historic Biltmore Hotel. Additional stops included the imposing Public Library, where we stopped to read a while, and THE BLOC, a new urban center. After a nice supper we rode the Dash Bus back home.
From LA, the Flix Bus took us to Phoenix where we rented a car and drove to Tucson to stay at the venerable Congress Hotel right in the heart of the city. Next day, we explored the surrounding barrios: Armory Park, Presidio, Barrio Viejo, and the barrios around the University of Arizona campus by car. We discovered that downtown Tucson is in the midst of a construction boom with many urban residential projects. Cafe life is alive and well, too.
Our plan had come together and on February 10th, we flew to Austin for a stay of three weeks.
Upon arrival at the Austin Airport, we collected our wheely bags and stopped to chat with the helpful guy at the Visit Austin kiosk who gave us plenty of ideas and information, maps and brochures. Then we caught a bus downtown to the Cap Metro Transit Center, where we verified our elder status, received ID Cards, and purchased half price monthly passes.
We had multiple goals for our Austin stay: visit some of its greatest museums, and also to savor life here as we explore the city's neighborhoods to evaluate the city's people friendliness.
We began by exploring our own neighborhood, Hyde Park. Developed in 1891, located just north of the University of Texas campus, this was Austin's first suburb. Initially, it was "White Only" and served by an electric streetcar but this changed before long. Today, there are bungalows with cool front porches and also student apartments. Nearby was a mixed-use development that included a wetland park, Central Market grocery plus other retail, apartments, and the Austin State Hospital. Served by several bus routes, this urban development offered aspects of People Friendliness.
Back in 1999, Austin moved the airport to its current location, vacating the 700 acre Robert Mueller Municipal Airport site. What shall we do with this huge area, Austinites pondered! A redevelopment master plan was designed and before long construction began. We explored the lively Town Center along Aldrich Street, with cafes and retail shops and the Regional Retail District with many larger stores. The Market District includes a major HEB grocery plus several cafes and shops. Residential includes a variety of types for purchase and rent, some affordable. Today it's home to 5,600 people, with a target of 13,000 at build out. To learn more there is a lot more information on their website at www.muelleraustin.com
This is a short street that runs south from Cesar Chavez, near downtown. Here a string of bungalows have been turned into bars and restaurants, many have dance floors and live bands with outdoor decks. Interspersed are clusters of food trucks. At the south end is the Center for Mexican-American Cultural Arts, and in the surrounding area there are several highrise apartment buildings. Just to the south is the river, lined with greenways and shade, while east along Holly Street there are many more bungalows that remain residential.
To the east of I-35 around 6th and Comal and east to Chicon, cafes, bars, and new apartment buildings have sprouted. Repurposed warehouses enabled micro breweries to bloom while bungalows were transformed into cafes and honky tonks. There are also Food Courts where a cluster of food trucks surrounded by tables under umbrellas offer fun gathering spots.
For views of Downtown Austin, we crossed Ladybird Lake to Zilker Park. This lovely shady riverside greenway offered pleasant walking, wildlife encounters (turtles), and great panoramas of the skyline!
We combined our explorations of neighborhoods, with visits to a few of Austin's notable museums and historic buildings.
The Lyndon B. Johnson Library was an early stop. This imposing building sat on a hill within the U of T Campus and offered a look back at the LBJ Era. Both of us had lived through this history and had strongly held opinions about LBJ but this visit expanded our minds and broadened our view of his presidency and his life. The Vietnam War overshadowed his greatest accomplishments - defending civil rights, fighting poverty, and environmental protection.
As we strolled around the campus, it was impossible to miss the imposing U of T Tower. Built in 1937, this was the forrmer main library and still features elegant reading rooms with comfy chairs and worktables. The walls of the room are lined with books and the ceiling offered an exquisite distraction for collecting ones thoughts.
Located on a hilltop overlooking Downtown, the Capitol building was impossible to miss! Built in Italian Renaissance Revival style, it was modeled on the US Capitol - but taller. We walked around the building, viewing it from different angles and admiring the sculptures and monuments scattered around the grounds. Inside, the dome offered stunning views and the rotunda offered portraits of every past president of the Republic of Texas and governors of the State of Texas.
Texas is a large and diverse state with a long, intricate and complicated history. The Bullock Museum, packed with artifacts and stories, films and giant screen views of the landscape, and even the La Belle, a recovered 17th century French ship, offered us a comprehensive view of Texas history. This is a museum that one must visit often in order to comprehend the stories it has to tell.
Finally, we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center with good friends, Jack and Brigid. Just inside, we were asked to stop to look carefully at a clump of grass growing atop a column. There, Athena, a great horned owl had nested for more than a decade! After this exciting beginning, we strolled through the gardens, savoring the bright colors and intriguing forms of the plants and people watching, too.
Leaving Austin, we headed east toward Houston and on to Clear Lake, a planned community just southeast of Houston, and home of our friends Jack and Brigid. Before long, we settled into their spacious, comfy guest suite and shared the next two weeks hanging out with them. We planned to explore Houston, and considered moving to a downtown studio.
That was March 3rd !
By March 15th, when we realized that before long, Houston and surrounding Harris County would issue "Stay-at-Home" rules, we came to the realization that we must leave and return to Homebase Albuquerque while travel was still possible and relatively safe. We flew back, checked into our cozy studio in the Extended Stay America Hotel (ESA), and prepared to "self isolate" there.
Looking ahead to this year of living in Albuquerque, we are imagining a range of projects that will challenge us, enable us to grow, and hopefully make the world a little bit better. We urge our readers to check back to this page as we reimagine our lives in the Covid Era. Meanwhile, we invite you to read more of our Nomad stories - Click here