So, while the East Coast was being decimated by Hurricane Sandy, I was in sunny, albeit chilly New Mexico. I traveled the day before the storm hit (Saturday) to attend the annual National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth Conference (NAEHCY) with team members from Homes for the Homeless and HFH's sister agency, the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness. Each conference session and the various keynotes highlighted best practices for working with homeless children and youth, and brought attention to the ever changing difficulties they face.
One of the most emotional parts of the conference was legislative updates that included watching the testimony of homeless and formerly homeless youth to Congress earlier this year. Highlighted was a young women serving in the U.S. Army and based at Fort Hood (Texas), who is homeless and forced to couch surf while on leave. In her testimony before the Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity Subcommittee (of the House Financial Services Committee) she stated, "Like me, you have chosen to serve our country. You here in Washington, and me in the field. Just as you can have faith that I will be out there protecting you, it is my hope that you will use your power here to protect youth like me." Whether you are a Democrat, Independent, or Republican, I think everyone can agree that all children and youth deserve stable housing. To read the testimony of each of the six homeless youth who spoke to the panel of Representatives, click on each of their names under Witness List, Panel I here.
As Hurricane Sandy grew and New York City prepared for the terrible weather coming their way, the conference continued. I received updates via NBC News and the NYTImes to my phone, Twitter, Facebook, and Jared, who is always on top of things throughout Sunday and Monday. Reports were of strong wind and flooding, as well as the massive power outages and inability to travel within New York City. HFH staff in New Mexico was dealing with an administration office with no power and flooding at some of our facilities. With the subway crippled and schools closed, my immediate tasks were to adjust some of our shelter programs, continuing to serve our children and families as best we could with limited staff, and cancel all the Halloween festivities we had planned, :-( . Late Sunday our return flights into LaGuardia, slated for Tuesday morning, were officially cancelled.
Tuesday rolled around, the conference ended, and I was now stuck in New Mexico until Thursday morning. While I should have been thrilled to have a few extra days to explore, I was pretty anxious to get home. I had been away at a conference two nights the week before, and hadn't planned on being in New Mexico an additional two nights. But when life hands you lemons, the best thing you can do is make lemonade! So after purchasing some sneakers, underwear and sunglasses, I was ready to make lemonade! On Tuesday, I had a quick, solo lunch at Forque (the really good restaurant located at the Hyatt Regency where we were staying) and travelled to the Botanic Gardens at the ABQ BioPark. It was relaxing to walk through the different gardens. A bunch of pictures are below.
That evening my colleagues and I met up for dinner at Forque again. (I know, i know, a restaurant more than once? Yes. The Hyatt Regency is a great hotel, and super convenient to the Albuquerque Convention Center, but downtown Albuquerque is the business area, and deserted at night, making it kind of sketchy. Going to Forque was safe, easy, and offered good food.) Over dinner we planned to take the train up to Santa Fe the following day, to explore the capital of New Mexico.
The train ride, via the Rail Runner Express, from Albuquerque took about an hour and a half, was super cheap (just $10 round trip), and was picturesque. The easiest part of this journey is the free bus that shuttles you from the train station to Santa Fe's Historic Plaza. We strolled through the plaza for a bit, made a few purchase from some local Native American's who sell various handmade items. I purchased a small wall hanging made of sand used for protection and strength. It doesn't really go with any of our current decor, but will one day add nicely to the wall of art we're slowly collecting of the places we've visited. While my colleagues continued their shopping I went off to the find the Santa Fe Public Library which was really beautiful, with a gorgeous reading room.
We then ventured to the San Miguel Mission just a few blocks away. The mission was beautiful, and one of the oldest churches in New Mexico. Although not part of a parish today, they still offer a Latin Mass once a week. We walked across De Vargas Street and visited briefly The Oldest House, dating back to the 1640's. Though the Adobe house is just a few rooms now, it has a number of interesting South Western "everyday life" artifacts or antiques, as well as a timeline of the house with pictures, and photos as far back as the 1800's. The women who runs the little museum funds its operation solely on donations and the sale of pastries and soft refreshments which people can enjoy off the back patio. If you ever visit, definitely get the buttermilk-cranberry-orange scone; it was great. We chatted for a few minutes and departed, heading to Guadalupe Cafe for lunch. It was a laid back, no frills place, but the service was good and the portions huge. I got a salad that could have easily been split between two people.
After our lunch we walked to the famed Canyon Road, with cafes and wine bars in between tons of high end art galleries. We walked in and out of a few commenting that to purchase some of the beautiful art work would be awesome, and viewed other work, paintings, photographs, and sculptures displayed on porches and in the yards of galleries. We after about 45 minutes of longing, we headed back, stopping briefly at St. Francis Cathedral, another beautiful building. After a really quick walk through, we headed back to plaza, caught the shuttle to the train station, and headed back to Albuquerque, enjoying another beautiful train ride. It was a nice afternoon in Santa Fe, a beautiful little city, definitely worth another visit to. It would be great to enjoy some more of the restaurants, spas, galleries, and outdoor activities. Pictures of our afternoon in Santa Fe are below.
