Best Western's Travel Blog - You Must Be Trippin' - A Cultural Center in the Great Southwest

A Cultural Center in the Great Southwest

December 28 2009 by Sam Lowe

Now that I've learned how to spell it without adding extra letters, and how to pronounce it without adding extra syllables, Albuquerque has become one of my favorite places. It's not only beautiful and culturally satisfying, but it also features a delightful amount of quirkiness that appeals to us older sightseers.

One good example is their baseball team. Most cities give their teams common nicknames like Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Pirates, Yankees, and different colored Sox, but Albuquerqueans named their minor league club the Isotopes, and it's because of Homer Simpson. When professional baseball returned to Albuquerque in 2003, the team owners held a contest to pick a new name. The Isotopes won by a substantial margin, an indication that the city's baseball fans are not only sports-savvy but also adherents of the television's "The Simpsons."

In one episode of the cartoon show, Homer Simpson went on a hunger strike to prevent his town's baseball team, also known as the Isotopes, from moving from Springfield to Albuquerque. His efforts paid off; the team stayed in Springfield. Given all those circumstances, the tie-in between Homer Simpson, Albuquerque, baseball, hot dogs, seventh-inning stretching and species of atoms of a chemical element becomes more easily understood.

Albuquerque is also home to a number of unusual museums cover a wide variety of cultural divergences. For example:

The American International Rattlesnake Museum (202 San Felipe NW) is dedicated to the understanding and preservation of venomous reptiles, particularly rattlers. Exhibits include more than 60 species of slitherers, a collection of snake-named beverages, and rattler-oriented car license plates and movie posters from all over the country.

The Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum (9201 Balloon Museum Drive) is named after two Albuquerque natives who crossed oceans and continents in hot air contrivances. Exhibits trace the history of ballooning and include some of the more famous aircraft, but not the one Dorothy and Toto were supposed to ride in during their return trip to Kansas.

Explora! (1701 Mountain Road NW) is designed for children but big kids may also enter and relive parts of their childhood. The hands-on learning center makes learning about science and the universe an exciting and fun experience.

The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (601 Eubank Boulevard SE) moved into its new quarters last February. Formerly known as the National Atomic Museum, it is the only congressionally chartered museum in its field and its exhibits include reproductions of the atomic bombs that helped end World War II and other artifacts from the Atomic Age.

The Tinkertown Museum (121 Sandia Crest Road) is folk art at its finest. Founder Ross Ward spent a lifetime creating the wooden figures, concrete walls and funky little alcoves that playfully inject a sense of whimsy into even the most hardened skeptic.

The Turquoise Museum (2107 Central Avenue NW) displays a huge chunk of turquoise that strongly resembles George Washington's profile. The facility also demonstrates why some turquoise is more valuable than others and shows how to work the gemstone into fine jewelry.

The Unser Racing Museum (1776 Montano Road NW) traces the history of the legendary race car family from the time they left Switzerland to the present. The building is shaped like a tire; displays include more than 30 race cars including some driven to victory in the Indianapolis 500.

Of course, the city also boasts an outstanding number of more conventional institutions:

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (1801 Mountain Road NW) has a bit of everything - life-size dinosaurs, early computers (Bill Gates developed his first unit in Albuquerque and it's on display here), a scale model of our solar system, and astronomy center, and mirrors that make you look short and squat or lean and lanky.

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (2401 12th Street NW) holds Indian dances and craft demonstrations every weekend while visitors explore tribal histories, admire colorfully-decorated halls and dine on native foods.

The National Hispanic Cultural Center (1701 Fourth Street W) won't open El Torreon until late 2010, but when completed, it will be magnificent. The building sits next to the center and resembles an upside-down chocolate snow cone. Inside, artist Frederico Vigil is creating a 4,300 square foot mural that will cover every inch of wall and ceiling space, tracing the Hispanic influence of the area. The center is well worth a visit for its exhibits, genealogy library and arts.

Albuquerque Museum of Art and History (2000 Mountain Road NW) features permanent and traveling exhibitions and a magnificent sculpture garden that occupies most of the facility's outdoor acreage.

For more information, log on to www.itsatrip.org or call 800-284-2282. And despite the inferences given here, the correct pronunciation is "al-bu-ker-kee" not "al-bu-qwirk-ee."

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