Day 8: Exploration

TUESDAY. Another sunny day in Albuquerque! We did some poking around the city today, discovering lovely little neighborhoods here and there. Albuquerque is a relatively easy city to navigate, and the traffic so far has been completely manageable. First order of business today was arranging to have the car serviced tomorrow morning. Then we all took off for the self-service dog wash. Murphy normally loves a bath, but he wasn't too sure about climbing a ramp into a stainless steel tub. It took three of us to wrestle him into the tub. I wish I had one of those tubs at home - it was so much easier giving him a bath three feet off the ground! He survived the ordeal and is a lot cleaner now. We then fitted him for booties to protect his sensitive paws, but he wanted no part of canine footwear. So we'll just have to be careful on hot pavement.

Murphy has made many friends in the hotel. His favorite new friend is the front desk clerk, who gives him cookies whenever he walks through the lobby. He knows his way through the little door and behind the desk, where the cookies are kept.

We had dinner with our friends at the Flying Star Cafe in Nob Hill, an area that reminded me of our old stomping grounds in Cambridge, MA. Nob Hill, located near the University of New Mexico, has many interesting little shops and eateries. We left Murphy in our room and gave the front desk clerk our cell number in case Murphy was unhappy. But as expected, he slept peacefully while we dined. The hotel staff is just fantastic here!

If we get the car back early enough tomorrow morning, we'll drive up to Santa Fe. There is so much to see and savor in New Mexico!