Daddio: Grand Caytion- Day 2

Today we woke up early and ate breakfast at the hotel.  Then we got in the van and drove to the Albuquerque Museum of Art.  There was a bunch of great modern art on the top floor and artifacts from the local area on the bottom.  My personal favorite was the 1540s Spanish two-handed sword and the hand-cranked crossbow.  They were really cool. You weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but we got a bunch of pictures of ourselves with all the outside sculptures.

There was a giant outdoor mural that the artist had dedicated "for Nana":

So, in a very emotional moment, I presented it to Nana, who was very impressed:

Within walking distance of the museum was a really nice park where we played and ate lunch:

Max had to use the bathroom, so he and Nana walked back across to the street to the museum.  They reported that the bathrooms were the cleanest and nicest we'd seen yet.  Big thumbs up:

Then we went to the Balloon Museum, which was all about hot air ballooning.  The museum was nice, but it was kind of small.  It only took us a little more than an hour to see all their exhibits:

They had this cool exhibit where you can heat up the air in a miniature replica of a hot air balloon and, when you think it's hot enough, release it and see how fast it rises.  It floated at 160 degrees, but when you heated the interior air to 210- it really shot up:

They also had a really cool "balloon simulator" where you tried to land a virtual balloon on a target by heating the air or venting it.  The kids loved this.

Then when we got back, Mommio went to Walmart with some of the kids while the others took naps.  They bought suits and, when they got back, went swimming for a couple of hours in the hotel pool.  But the winds really kicked up and dust was blowing like crazy, so they had to eventually come in.

Tonight we're ordering pizza and watching Gulliver's Travels.  Tomorrow the Grand Canyon!