Weekday And Weekend Outings

When we were in Albuquerque, Thursday night was Mother's Night Out for me.

There  was a big Mall in Town. On Thursday nights, the stores at the Mall opened late - till nine or ten, if I remember right.
So, I would take the stroller for Cynthia, and the two of us would go to the Mall.
S.C. would baby-sit the two little ones.

You see, I did not belong to any ladies groups, nor did I play cards (bridge) those days. I had met a few neighbors, about my age, with little children. We did meet occasionally for morning coffee. But we did not go on outings together.
Anyway, Thursday nights, I got to get out of the house for a bit.

Mostly, I would do window shopping. Sometimes, I would buy an ice-cream cone as a treat for Cynthia. 
I enjoyed these weekly outings, until I found out that my husband would not change the babies' diapers - I cut short my outings. I could not let that happen, could I?

When Cissy was a bit older, we made short weekend trips to surrounding areas. 
Santa Fe was a quaint little place then and one of my favorite places to visit. So was Taos. I was taken by the native arts and crafts. We did not buy any though.
We visited Colorado Springs and North Pole. 
Did you know there is a place near Colorado Springs called North Pole, where the children could meet Santa and visit the Rein deers?
We would pile the kids into our station wagon and head towards the mountains. We were ignorant of the fact that we might be in trouble if we encountered car trouble. We did not know to bring blankets or extra water or extra food with us. Somehow, we never had any problems.
We visited Santa Fe ski basin - it was not quite developed at the time. And it was beautiful.
We went to Alamogordo - way up in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, where the nuclear lab was.
We drove up to Pike's Peak in our car, on the narrow two lane, winding and dangerous. I held on to the seat as if that would have helped. The view was breathtaking, but I stayed in the car with Cissy in my lap. There was snow on the ground.
We visited Seven Falls and took turns climbing up the narrow rickety wooden steps in order to see the Falls. One of us would stay with the children down below while the other one tried to make it up to the top of several flight of stairs. I went up half way and did not make it to the top - I chickened out. The steps were kind of wobbly and I did not like heights.
We also went to White Sands where the atomic bombs were tested. White Sands had a haunting beauty, with sand so pure and fine, for as far as your eye could see. The kids had fun playing in the sand.

We ventured across the border and went to Mexico a couple times, and had a taste of border town old Mexico.

Sometimes, we just went up to Sandia Mountains, which was practically in our backyard. We would go up there to hike and pick pinon nuts.
When the Cable Car was built, we would ride it to the Peak. From there, you could see the whole of Albuquerque. I wished that I had enough knowledge about painting to have painted those magnificent and colorful mountains then.